The Russian, who raced for Renault and Caterham in F1 in 2010-12, is understood to be close to a deal to join the line-up in the British team's pair of ORECA-Gibson 07 LMP2s for the full season.

Manor sporting director Graeme Lowdon refused to confirm or deny the likely inclusion of 32-year-old Petrov in the team, which will this year run under the CEFC Manor TRS Racing banner.

"We hope to announce our driver line-up with the next couple of days," he told Motorsport.com.

Petrov, who made a full-time switch to sportscars last season in the WEC with SMP Racing, would join a line-up that already includes Jean-Eric Vergne, Simon Trummer, Jonathan Hirschi, Roberto Gonzalez and Tor Graves.

It is unclear who Petrov's teammates would be, but series rules dictate that teams must nominate the driver combinations in each car for the Silverstone season opener on April 16 this week. Manor is only taking one car to the official pre-season WEC test at Monza this weekend.

Petrov's signing would take him back to the Le Mans 24 Hours for a third time.

He contested the French enduro at the wheel of a Courage-AER LC75 LMP2 car run by Noel del Bello Racing during his first full season of GP2 in 2007 and returned last year in one of SMP's BRE-Nissan BR01s.