Group Lotus hopes to get done with the naming issue as soon as possible
After the 2010 Formula 1 season, Group Lotus announced that they do not want to deal with Team Lotus anymore and since they had the rights to the name “Lotus”, they issued a statement that Team Lotus should not be allowed to use this name and in a sense,
claim the legacy behind the name Lotus.
Both of these companies were unable to resolve this matter between them and as a result, this matter is now going to be settled in London’s High Court. However, it is expected that Team Lotus will be allowed to use the name in 2011 only but the rights to
the name are still with Group Lotus.
Team Lotus’s team boss Tony Fernandes claimed that he bought the rights to name but Group Lotus rejected these claims and recently, they stated that they just want to get over with this matter as soon as possible.
It is expected that there will be two Lotus teams on the grid in 2011; Lotus Renault GP and Team Lotus headed by Tony Fernandes. Since neither side was giving up this case, this matter got pretty much out of hand in the past couple of months.
Lotus Renault has recently revealed their new livery which is in black and gold just like the classic Lotus car back in the 80s. It seems that Group Lotus’s CEO Dany Bahar is pretty confident that his company will win the case and he is not worried much
about it.
“I don't think it will be a matter solved by English courts. I think it will be solved before that. But if we have to go the legal way, we will - and our shareholders will support that,” Dany told the media, referring to the Malaysian carmaker Proton.
Bahar is quite ambitious about Group Lotus and he has a lot of tricks up his sleeves for the future of the company. He intends to use motorsports as a promotional device for his company mainly and revealed his marketing strategy and what he plans to achieve
from motor racing.
The case is expected to give a verdict before the 2011 Formula 1 season begins and it would be interesting to see the two Lotus teams fighting against each other on the track. Dany is confident that his team is much better than Team Lotus and they will definitely
have the advantage over them in 2011.
“We build cars and we are shareholders of Renault F1, so we have the right to put our name on the team. Fernandes does not, because we have revoked his license,” Dany told the media.
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