Lotus will be back in F1 next year

For clarification sake, here is how Lotus fared in the Constructor's Championship by decade:

'58: 6
'59: 4
60's: 2-2-2-1-3-1-5-2-1-3
70's: 1-5-1-1-4-7-4-2-1-4
80's: 5-7-5-8-3-4-3-3-4-6
90's: 8-9-5-6-12

Remember also that Lotus was notorious for building cars where the safety was borderline compromised in the name of stripping out weight. Chapman indeed revolutionized the sport on many occasions and introduced the world to a who's who of drivers. Sadly, Lotus chassis have also seen their share of tragedy. But again I prefer to remember their successes. And it's going to be very difficult for me to suspend reality and pretend the current iteration of Lotus will have any kind of connection to the Team Lotus rooted in F1's history. To me, it's like slapping a body kit on a Fiero and calling it a Ferrari.

 

My point exactly.

 

Another county heard from

 

According to someone on another forum (normally a reliable source...) his mate fairuz Fauzy will be driving for Lotus.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fairuz_Fauzy

Lets all welcome Team Fail.

I rate USF1 already higher.

 

Bas, how can you rate a team higher that's still "Coming Soon" !?!?!

Carol

 

Well it doesn't help team credibility when the boss, Tony Fernandes, announces that he plans to quit at the start of the season.

 

Some-one's Daddy has too much money.

 

I seriously think this is gonna be a major embarrassment for my country. I still can't figure...why..why jump into something so deep w/out any expertise or experience? Alex Yoong was a laughing stock in F1, now the whole so called Lotus team will join his club. What a failure!

 

I'm sorry Brian. We won't hold it against you. Malaysia is a beautiful country so you're still in my good books. + the women over there are to die for!

 

What about the Malaysian GP? I know it's on shaky ground--has there been any word about its future?

 

Ah..thats secured, thankfully... IIRC, there's a contract right till 2015, with the option of night racing .

 

LoL..are u sure mate? Which do u prefer? The Indians, The Chinese or the Malay babes?

 

Malay of course...Indian isn't my thing (don't like their cuisine either), Chinese are to bleak and the Malay babes are hot... Indonesian is the cherry though.

 

It would be great to see Lotus (an icon) in F1 again. As long as they use the traditional colours.

 

Hahaha...damn! You surely know a lot..

Gimme a holla if u plan to come here for the race someday

 

They're just named 'Lotus'. It's not the 'real, original' Lotus team. And colours? Being a Malaysian team, it should be crap

 

Is that not Copyright Infringement? Even if it was the real Lotus technically they would b ecalled Proton...... oh joy lol.

 

I think when they bust up a company often different sections or "properties" are split up in order to get the most overall funds.
So apparently Lotus the manufacturer is a separate and legal entity from Lotus the F1 team.

When I branded my company's name my attorney had to show separation of "Artisan" (a service) from "Artisan" an (existing) manufacturer.
It went through.

 

I'm not sure how it works, but Proton bought over Lotus, the technical side, etc, except the racing division. Frankly, i even have no idea how the generated the whole thing into this 'former Lotus F1 team'.

And given the fact that Mike Gascoyne is running the team, even add points for the team to be called Team Failure.

 

Its like Geoge Washington's hatchet.
The axe head has been replaced a couple of times along with the handle; but its still the actual hatchet.

 

Way back when Chapman took Lotus Cars on the UK stock market, he split off the racing division (Team Lotus). Ultimately, Team Lotus went broke and was forced sell off its assets. One of those assets was the name "Team Lotus", which was purchased by James Hunt's brother. Apparently, he sold the name to the Malaysian folks.
So, yeah, it's in name only.