Lotus was re-inducted into Formula One this year along with 2 more new teams, Hispania Racing Team (HRT) and Virgin Racing Team but it seems that both of these teams were unable to outperform Lotus in any way and as a result, Lotus
enjoyed the glory of being the best out of the 3 new teams this year by Bernie Ecclestone and Jean Todt.
However, the team is currently going through a major problem as they are asked to change their name “Team Lotus” for 2011. Technical boss Mike Gascoyne of Lotus seems quite frustrated as Group Lotus recently revealed that they
are not willing to collaborate with Lotus anymore keeping in mind Lotus’s team boss Tony Fernandes sent an application to Bernie Ecclestone that stated that the team will be known as Team Lotus in 2011 and the application was accepted.
“We are here, and whatever we may be called there will be a Formula One team based in Norfolk again, making racing and engineering racing cars, which I think is great for Norfolk and is a sense of pride for me as a Norfolk lad,”
Gascoyne told the Media.
He was quite confused and furious at the same time as he could not think of a reason why Group Lotus would not want to call the team Lotus in 2011. According to some rumours, Group Lotus is willing to sponsor the Renault F1 team.
“I think when Colin Chapman brought sponsorship into F1, he thought he'd be on the receiving end - he wouldn't be paying it out. For me, Colin Chapman was about engineering, about making and engineering racing cars. That's what
Team Lotus did; that's what we do here,” he added.
The team was obviously disappointed and according to the Genii Capital Chairman, Lotus had been in contact with Renault for some time now and they are planning for something big that would not just involve Formula 1.
“The funny thing about it is that we've been talking about Lotus Group for over a year about a Formula One unrelated business and the result of us talking to them and the result of them deciding to stop their collaboration with
Malaysia Racing led to two things,” said Mike.
Group Lotus is being quite unprofessional as they are trying to get rid of Team Lotus even though they have already committed to them for 2011. This might even jeopardise Lotus’s chances of racing in the 2011 Formula 1 season.
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