Group Lotus to Tony Fernades: Cease and Desist

[prisonermonkeys]

No, there's no word on it. They'll want to sort out their chassis names first.

And they won't necessarily "have to" drop the Renault name. After all, McLaren is formally known as Vodafone McLaren Mercedes ...

 

[RTSolvalou]

Aye, I'd prefer if they stayed as LRGP.

 

[Pupik]

Am I the only one thinking..."wake me up in 2012 when you've figured it out, boys"?

 

[prisonermonkeys]

I suspect they'd want to change to Team Lotus, but they'd have to buy the rights to the name from Tony Fernandes.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

For all the dark predictions that Ferrari will block Group Lotus' attempt at changing a name as a means of getting back at Dany Bahar, they're surprisingly comfortable with it. They just want a structure in place to prevent constant name changes within teams.

 

[Pupik]

For all the dark predictions that Ferrari ... just want a structure in place to prevent constant name changes within teams.

Right, like when they temporarily renamed themselves North American Racing Team and painted the cars blue and white in 1964?

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Indeed - it's not a crime if Ferrari are the ones committing it.

 

[Danny]

Solved.

 

[Hun200kmh]

At last.

Welcome to the Caterham name (who would ever guess ... ), wishing the best to Lotus-Renault, and about the Marussias well ... all I can say is that they were Virgins once

Right, like when they temporarily renamed themselves North American Racing Team and painted the cars blue and white in 1964?

Indeed - it's not a crime if Ferrari are the ones committing it.

That was NineteeenSixtyFour ...

btw, found this interesting:

Curiously, a Ferrari 158 officially entered by NART sealed the win of the 1964 F1 World championship with John Surtees, as the factory team competed the last two races in cars painted white and blue. This was done as a protest concerning arguments between Ferrari and the Italian Racing Authorities regarding the homologation of a new mid-engined Ferrari race car.

Good old commendattore and his prima-donna attitudes

Mentre le stupidi autorità italiane non omologare la nostra nuova vettura, la squadra diventerà americana. Fanculo a tutti voi!

 

[Hun200kmh]

On second thought, unnecessary DP, sorry. Please delete, I'll transfer the text to the post before.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Solved.

And thank the stars for that!

Now, we just need to wait until the WMSC meeting in December to have it all made official.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

The latest twist in the tale: Lotus F1 has terminated its sponnsorship with Lotus Cars.

 

[Liquid]

Lotus has terminated its title sponsorship deal with sportscar manufacturer Group Lotus

Wut.

I've just been re-reading this thread and it's given me an almighty headache.

So, the Enstone-based team has had its sponsorship with Lotus cancelled. Where does this leave it with its entry name?

If Caterham are still Caterham, but Lotus are Lotus but not Lotus as in Lotus who make sports cars Lotus, does that mean Lotus should revert to Toleman and do us all a favour?

 

[prisonermonkeys]

They're keeping the name. They can apparently keep it until 2017.

Gerard Lopez and Genii Capital have been mentioned pretty frequently as a potential buyer of Lotus Cars. If they have plans to do this, severing all ties with the company first - so no-one can cry "conflict of interests" - would be a logical step forward.

 

[Prince.M5]

Owkey, so I re-read that article and from my understanding, Group Lotus has terminated any contracts and collaboration with Lotus F1 Team but is keen to keep the Lotus name there and the team remains as Lotus F1 Team? Seriously, this is a real headache!

EDIT: Just read your explanation PM, thanks!

 

[Liquid]

So the owners of the Renault-powered Lotus F1 team have disassocaited themselves from the Lotus sport car company so they can (assumedly) complete a takeover of the car company in good faith, at which point the two companies will probably overlap once again.

Correct?

 

[prisonermonkeys]

I'm guessing that's what they're doing. It's confusing, but it only works if it's transparent.

 

[tribolik]

So team Lotus has signed a sponsorship with Microsoft... its going to be funny when F1 2012 comes out for the PS3 with a car with Microsoft on it

 

[Prince.M5]

So team Lotus has signed a sponsorship with Microsoft... its going to be funny when F1 2012 comes out for the PS3 with a car with Microsoft on it

I saw 'Microsoft Dynamics' decal on the car somehwere next to the driver's head since Australia. Have they changed it and have them bigger on the car?

 

[Ardius]

So team Lotus has signed a sponsorship with Microsoft... its going to be funny when F1 2012 comes out for the PS3 with a car with Microsoft on it

No more funny than Acer being present on the Ferraris. I still don't understand why people think this is something that annoys Sony (or whomever). There are probably loads of companies that they are in competition with that are present in several racing games on PS3, such as Acer, Panasonic, etc.

Microsoft is already present in GT5 anyway, along with Sega Sammy...

 

[tribolik]

No more funny than Acer being present on the Ferraris. I still don't understand why people think this is something that annoys Sony (or whomever). There are probably loads of companies that they are in competition with that are present in several racing games on PS3, such as Acer, Panasonic, etc.

Microsoft is already present in GT5 anyway, along with Sega Sammy...

I think its funny and Im entitled to it... as I think its funny that the Ring in GT5 has a Forza grafiti on it and no GT grafiti when the actual track has both. I bet you didnt know that

 

[Lizard]

Where is the forza grafiti?

 

[prisonermonkeys]

Can we maybe take this discussion somewhere else? How and when Microsoft logos will appear in a game on the Sony Playstation is not the issue here. Lotus F1 severing its ties to Lotus Cars is the issue.

 

[tribolik]

Where is the forza grafiti?

Around minute 9:20

 

[Northstar]

So will they still be black/gold in China?

Around minute 9:20

Forza is an Italian word, that is like saying FM has GT references because it has the Maserati GranTurismo in it.

 

[Hun200kmh]

Wouldn't surprise me, GT4's Fuji had KONAMI boards all over the S/F line (Konami was Enthusia's publisher/developer and therefore PD/GT4 rival in those days).

Back on topic, apparently Lotus (the car maker company) is in a mess, its owner Proton was sold, Proton no longer has an option to buy 50% of the Genii Team and the Genii Team can call themselves "Team Lotus" if they wish.

I wonder how the state of affairs concerning Lotus (the car maker company) will impact all the sponsorship deals, but especially how will it impact the engine supply deals for Indy.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

I wonder how the state of affairs concerning Lotus (the car maker company) will impact all the sponsorship deals, but especially how will it impact the engine supply deals for Indy.

Like I said earlier, I think this is a move by Genii to buy Lotus without being accused of having conflicting interests. It's only really a problem if someone else buy Lotus and decides they don't want to be involved in motorsport.

 

[Hun200kmh]

So you think the recent buyer of Proton (DRB-Hicom) is only a "courier" that will subsequently sell Lotus (or Proton) to Genii? I don't see any of it anywhere, particularly not here:
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/98628

 

[prisonermonkeys]

That's because Genii would need to wait a little while before buying the manufacturer.

 

[Prince.M5]

MOOOAAAARRR... This will never end.