Lotus naming

In case you missed it:

Next season, Lotus Renault is simply Lotus, and Team Lotus becomes Caterham. This is assuming that the other teams allow it, but it shouldn't be a problem.

 

Good for Tony.

 

Furthermore, FWIW, Virgin should become Marussia as well.

The F1 commission is currently (today) meeting in Geneva to discuss these name changes as well as a few other proposals/ideas - Tweaking the tire allocation for Q3 is also on the agenda.

I don't think the name changes should hang them up, but getting 18 of the 26 members to agree *anything* is difficult......

For the changes to go ahead, they will need the support of 18 members of the 26-strong F1 Commission - which includes team principals, Bernie, JT, plus representatives of sponsors, engine manufacturers, circuit promoters and the tyre supplier.

Expecting a report to appear at Autosport sometime later today our time.

Cheers,
Ian

 

I actually think the name Lotus is worth a lot more eyeball and attention than Caterham. Calling the team Caterham is going go cost Tony a lot of his own money. I am not sure if this is sustainable.

 

As expected. From Autosport;

No word on anything else that was discussed - Ross has raised concerns about the level of "technical collaboration" between some teams for example and nothing has been reported about those discussions;

I suspect more will leak out over the next few days.

Cheers,
Ian

 

Good to hear it is finally sorted, but I admit to being disappointed that Tony F isn't the one continuing with the Lotus name. I suppose once it became apparent that his long term plan (to acquire the Lotus car company from Proton) was not going to be possible he had to come up with a Plan B (Caterham) and make the best of it.

Meanwhile, we can anticipate news in the next month or two that Genii Capital is buying Lotus from Proton, and that "marketing genius" Dany Bahar will immediately be dismissed.

 

I'm glad too that it's sorted. I think Lotus - Renault is the right one to keep the name alive. If Genji is going to buy Lotus from Proton, even better. It was a disservice to have two different lotus teams in F-1... I'm with the Chapman Family backing Renault /Genji.