Renault does not claim Lotus’s history
After a lot of conflicts and controversy, it seems that Group Lotus and Team Lotus are still in despair until the decision from the court regarding the copyrights of the name “Lotus”. Both of the companies have literally been fighting
against each other for the past couple of days and it seems that this war of words is not going to end anytime soon.
Gerard Lopez recently made it clear that Lotus Renault team does not intend to claim the history of the legendary name Lotus in the sport and he hopes that Tony Fernandes does the same as well.
Team Lotus was disappointing in its debut season after returning to the sport this season as they were unable to score a single point. With two of the most experienced drivers in the sport, Team Lotus was just able to prove that
they are best out of the three new teams that entered the sport this season but that is nowhere near a satisfactory result.
On the other hand, Hispania Racing Team (HRT) and Virgin Racing teams were completely unaware of what is happening inside Formula One while Lotus has 7 championships to its credit.
Group Lotus joined forces with Renault recently and as a result the official name Renault was changed to Lotus Renault GP for the 2011 Formula One season. However, Tony Fernandes claims that he bought the rights to the prestigious
name. Either way, Lopez believes that neither of the teams has the right to claim the legacy Lotus has created in the past.
“As far as we're concerned we have had a very pragmatic approach to this, we have been having discussing with Proton and Lotus on a number of projects that are outside of F1, and we have been doing so for a year and a half,” Lopez
told the Media.
He hopes that Tony understands what Lotus is about and that it would be unjust to take a well reputed name and put its reputation at risk.
“I think the claim that has been made by Group Lotus is quite a simple one, which is that this is a Lotus-branded racing team that is attached to Group Lotus who manufacture road cars. And that is it,” he said.
However, if both of the teams are allowed to keep Lotus in their respective official names, it would be interesting to see two Lotus teams running on the grid and competing against each other.
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