British motorsport entrepreneur Dave Richards is set to take a controlling stake in the Renault Formula One team, according to a report in Friday's edition of The Times.

Richards, owner of the Prodrive motorsport team and chairman of British luxury car-maker Aston Martin, previously ran the Benetton and BAR Formula One teams.

According to The Times, a complex partnership deal has been negotiated between Renault, Richards and Bernie Ecclestone, the Formula One commercial rights-holder.

Renault's executive board met in Paris on Thursday and neither the company nor Richards has so far commented on the proposed deal.

However, a statement from Renault on the matter is expected next week.

Ecclestone told The Times: "We've got to get the whole Renault thing sorted out.

"We are in the middle of doing it now. I feel confident that we'll see Renault next year in Formula One under the name Renault and the year after and the year after that."

There has been speculation regarding French car manufacturer Renault's future in F1 ever since the FIA, motorsport's governing body, issued a lifetime ban in September to their former team principal, Flavio Briatore, for ordering Nelson Piquet junior to deliberately crash at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.

Pat Symonds, Renault's former chief engineer, was banned for five years.

Both men are currently appealing against their respective punishments.

Even without the fall-out from that scandal, worldwide economic problems have also called into question Renault's continued involvement in the sport during a 12-month period where other volume car manufacturers such as Honda, BMW and Toyota have all pulled out of Formula One.

The Renault Formula One team are based not in France but in Enstone near Oxford, north-west of London.

The Times said the 500-strong Renault team would likely be reduced in size in the event of Richards taking charge but that Polish former BMW Sauber driver Robert Kubica, who has signed for Renault for 2010, would remain with the team.