Group Lotus 100 per cent owner of Renault: Eric Boullier
Eric Boullier, French motor racing engineer and current team Principal of Renault, clarified all the rumours regarding the ownership structure of the Enstone-based Formula 1 team.
Renault has been recently bought by the Luxembourg-based Genii Capital Investment Company, Group Lotus. Previously, most shares of the team were owned by the French carmaker, Renault. With this new deal, the team’s name has also been changed, and it will
be seen on the 2011 grid as ‘Lotus Renault GP’ instead of its prior title, RenaultF1.
The recent few weeks made several headlines regarding the ownership of the team. There has been some confusion if the new title sponsor, Group Lotus has already bought shares of the team or it only intends to buy some in the future. In order to clear out
all these ambiguities, Boullier talked to the media on Wednesday and confirmed that Genii have already bought all the shares and it stands as a 100 per cent owner of the team.
Explaining the current situation to the reporters, the Frenchman said, “Renault decided to re-focus its resources in F1 and sold its remaining 25 per cent to Genii Capital.”
Furthermore, he explained that Lotus has only been signed for sponsorship for the time being. However, he said that the long-term agreement signed with Lotus could “lead to Lotus Cars becoming a shareholder” in the times to come, but it was too early to
predict anything like that.
Boullier also announced that the team will unveil its car for 2011 season, R31 at Valencia in February 2011. He also said that the team has not finalised at what point the Kinetic Energy Recovery System will be used in the season.
Moreover, as per the initial deal, 25 engineers from the Malaysian carmaker Group Lotus will be sent to work at Renault for a period of two years. Boullier believes that the exchange of employees is a very healthy sign and will bring new ideas and development
methods to Renault. “It's a good way to get fresh ideas and a new way of thinking,” Boullier told the reporters.
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