Lotus Renault GP co-owner Gerard Lopez insists team not facing financial crisis – Formula 1 news
Lotus Renault GP co-owner Gerard Lopez has recently stated that the team is not facing a financial crisis.
He said the team is not concerned about making any loss in the near future either.
“The fact is that we're involved in a lot of businesses. This one, as a matter of fact, is one that we hope is going to be break-even at some point in time. It's not but it's not one that needs to make money for us. We make money somewhere else,” he said.
According to some recent reports, it has been revealed that the investment company Genii Capital, decided to buy Renault’s 75 percent shares back in December 2009 and since then, they have been facing some major issues. They had to take a loan of $27 million.
Lopez paid off that loan by taking another loan from Lithuania-based AB Snoras and it has been revealed now that Lopez’s Genii Capital now has to pay back its debt or hand the team over to the bank.
Nevertheless, reports suggest that Group Lotus might decide to take over the team and control it completely. It has also been revealed that keeping Bruno Senna in the team as a race driver is a positive move financially.
Lopez on the other hand claims that Genii Capital is still spending a lot of money on the team’s new wind tunnel and simulator.
“I used to answer this giving examples and so on. To be honest, I don't care anymore because if it was reality we wouldn't be there for a long time. I think the team that we took over had about 480 people. We saved those jobs and added about forty jobs to
those. Facts speak for themselves,” he added.
Renault are currently on the verge of their downfall as the team has not been able to score some good results since the past couple of races.
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