Tony Fernandes fighting to keep the Lotus name
“What’s in a name?”, asked Shakespeare’s Juliet, “a rose by any other name would still smell as sweet.”
Be that as it may, Tony Fernandes, the principal of Formula One’s Lotus team, wants to use the name for next year. Unfortunately, the car company is trying to prevent him from doing so.
With his organization clinching 10th place in the constructors’ championship at the final Grand Prix of the 2010 season in Abu Dhabi on Sunday November 12, Fernandes’ next challenge is to sift through all the confusion surrounding his team’s name
for next year.
Because the licensed deal to use the name Lotus Racing has ended, the team principal is trying to obtain the rights to the
Team Lotus moniker for 2011. However, the car company is challenging this move in an escalating legal battle.
While insiders reveal that a clause in his Renault engine contract expressly forbids the use of the Lotus name, Fernandes is adamant about not giving up the marque label without a fight.
"We are attached to the Lotus name and we want to stay as Lotus," Fernandes said. "We think we have done justice to it, we own the name and we want to stay with it.”
Although this year marks the debut of his F1 team, Fernandes is no stranger to competition. Indeed, the Malaysian entrepreneur rescued his government’s AirAsia Company from veritable bankruptcy, transforming it into the widely successful no-frills budget
airline. Flushed with capital, Fernandes reinvested the profits, creating the ‘Tune Group’ which is a series of companies that includes a chain of hotels operating along the same no-frills ethos of his airlines.
"I come from an airline business where we started with two planes, it has fought seven national airlines, and we've won. Fighting is not something we are scared of doing and fight we will do. But, we also are aware of not s******g up the brand," he said.
While Fernandes is adamant about fighting the car manufacturer and keeping the Lotus name, he recognized that there’s more to racing than fancy brands and monikers, citing that it’s the people behind the product that make it successful.
"I think what we have proved here is that very much the people are bigger than the name," he said. "You don't win respect out of a name, you win respect out of performance and it is people behind that performance. If there are two Lotuses it will be very
exciting next year. We would obviously be on a back foot but we love a challenge."
Ultimately, whatever name the team chooses for the 2011 F1 season, with Fernandes behind the wheel, Lotus, “by any other name, would still smell as sweet.”
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