Team Lotus? Lotus Racing? err, who knows..

delands · Post by **delands** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 1:52 pm

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/87038

Post by **campbell** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 1:58 pm

Aye, it could end up entering the 2011 grid in any-colour-other-than-Lotus-green and with the snappily titled "1 Malaysia Racing" down the side - oh dear!

OTOH, tycoons such as Mr Fernandes rarely do anything by halves and there may well be a big game of commercial and legal chess behind this which ends up leaving all parties happy with the result...following appropriate greasing of palms, of course.

Campbell

PS - I think a valid alternative name could be "Malaysia Fire Brigade"...did you see how well Heikki put out those flames at Singapore? What a pro!

tut · Post by **tut** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 2:03 pm

How long did it take a Marshaller to turn up with a fire extinguisher? Thank goodness he was not stuck in the car, he had put it out before a guy ambled along.

Did he take the extinguisher out of the car?

tut

mac · Post by **mac** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 2:33 pm

There was a unit handed to him, think it was from someone on the prat perch rather than a marshals unit.

Mac

GregR · Post by **GregR** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 2:36 pm

I got to get me involved in some F1 legal work. Love it

Matelotman · Post by **Matelotman** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 7:42 pm

"Tony Fernandes has no rights to use the Lotus brand in the 2011 Formula 1 season, and we will strongly resist any attempts by him to use our brand without our permission and will withdraw our sponsorship of the Lotus Racing team."

- the whole idea and ethos of the team coming into F1 was that it was the resurgence of Lotus........... now it's just going to melt into the pot of other back of the grid nobodies that no one remembers the name of.

RobW · Post by **RobW** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 9:18 pm

Methinks this will be decided by the (not so) simple expedient of who has the most powerful friends in Malaysia - Lotus Group (Petronas) vs T Fernandes (Air Asia + pretty decent set of contacts).

Pretty unexciting in my book.

robin · Post by **robin** » Tue Sep 28, 2010 7:56 am

I think the new management at Lotus (Cars) are ideally equipped to fcuk this one up .... they've fcuk everything else up

Cheers,
Robin

Mikie711 · Post by **Mikie711** » Tue Sep 28, 2010 9:03 am

Don't hold back Robin. Say what you mean

robin · Post by **robin** » Tue Sep 28, 2010 12:29 pm

I was already being kind ...

Post by **campbell** » Wed Sep 29, 2010 3:02 pm

Quite like Joe Saward's F1 blog, most of the time at least. Interesting monologue on the Lotus Affair just now...

http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2010/09/ ... us-affair/

robin · Post by **robin** » Thu Sep 30, 2010 9:13 am

If that is an unbiased analysis of the situation, then I think I hit the nail on the head with my earlier posts ... why a sports car manufacturer would not want to be represented in F1 for little or no investment I do not know - perhaps they don't like the fact that the cars are at the back of the grid, but this can change over time; clearly it doesn't do Ferrari any harm to be in F1, win or lose, and that's the very people they want to compete with in 2014??

Cheers,
Robin

delands · Post by **delands** » Thu Sep 30, 2010 9:48 pm

What they may resort to if it all goes Pete Tong...

Sanjøy · Post by **Sanjøy** » Thu Sep 30, 2010 9:55 pm

delands wrote:What they may resort to if it all goes Pete Tong...

Tsk

BiggestNizzy · Post by **BiggestNizzy** » Fri Oct 01, 2010 10:33 am

LOTUS RACING wrote:
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - 30th September 2010

In a bid to alleviate the public confusion surrounding the ongoing matter between Lotus Racing and Proton / Group Lotus, Lotus Racing shareholder and Deputy Team Principal Dato’ Kamarudin Meranun recently had the opportunity to meet Proton Adviser Tun Dr Mahathir. The meeting was to discuss the matter in person and agree a future course of action for Lotus Racing.
Lotus Racing believes it is acting within its own rights, and as a result of this meeting, the team will now refrain from making any further comments on the matter. This action is upon advice from Tun Dr Mahathir, and it is out of our respect for him that we will act upon his wishes as he has supported us since our inception, and his backing has been invaluable in our growth.
We are very grateful for having had the opportunity to put forth our case and have complete trust that a fair review will be made, and a decision on the matter will be announced in due course.
Ends

Hmm

Scottish Elises