QUOTE (Captain Tightpants @ Mar 21 2011, 22:38) *
What, after all, would happen if Fernandes competed under the Team Lotus name and got embroiled in some kind of controversy, like sending a coded message to one of their drivers to move over and let the other through (while team orders are permitted, they must be transparent)? Team Lotus would attract criticism and negative attention, which could easily tarnish Lotus Renault GP.
Ha ha ha ha, possibly the funniest thing I've read in this thread so far. I don't think the Renault F1 team need any help in tarnishing their image or the image of F1, or have you forgotten the disgrace they inflicted on the sport a few years back?
Regarding this whole sordid dispute, at least it is possible to trace the roots of Team Lotus ownership directly back from the present outfit to the Team Lotus that competed in the 1960s and 70s. I know this is so, because I have done this research myself. This is more than can be said for the motor racing organisation of many names from Enstone, which started out, lest we forget, as Toleman and which has absolutely zero connection (historical or otherwise) to Lotus.
People snipe about whether Tony Fernandes' team is the 'real' Team Lotus or 'fake' Team Lotus. Well, what about the 'real' Renault F1 team (which folded years ago, in terms of the Renault in-house factory effort) or the 'fake' Renault F1 team (Enstone)? The reality is that team has been called whatever its paymasters want it to be called. That is all it is - a racing team with an ever-changing name. It (like the Team Lotus and Red Bull entries) uses a Renault engine but it is not - and never has been - a Renault car, let alone a Lotus Renault car. I'm sure in the future it will assume many other names too, to suit whoever pays the bills.
The sad reality is that all of this could have been prevented if the rights to use the Team Lotus name had been retained by the Chapman family. But instead it was sold to a consortium of investors (much like the one headed by Fernandes) who saw its value. No-one said at the time that the team which raced as Team Lotus between 1991 and 1994 was 'fake' Team Lotus, nor did anyone suggest that the Team Lotus Grand Prix which competed in the 1994 Japanese and Australian Grand Prix while owned by David Hunt was 'fake' Team Lotus...
Having met Tony I think he is passionate about the Lotus brand but he is nobody's fool and a shrewd businessman. He is not about to let the considerable investment he has made in building up the Lotus Racing brand in Formula 1 go to waste and he is doing what he feels is necessary to protect that investment, which I think most people would say was understandable. I am sure he must feel let down by Group Lotus, for they seemed to be strongly behind the effort when it was announced. I went along to the press day at the factory in late 2009 and it was swarming with very pleased-looking Group Lotus management who seemed to be delighted that the Lotus name was going to be used in F1. Clearly something must have radically changed after that.
I can't comment on Danny Bahar, I have never met the man but my only observation would be that he is very ambitious and doesn't seem to understand the essence of the Lotus brand - not a good combination in my book. I wish him well with his plans for the extraordinary number of racing disciplines he wishes to take Lotus into and the astonishing number of new models his company plans to launch.
This dispute is about money and ego, simple as that. The only winners from the case will be the legal profession and the expert witnesses (not me, I hasten to add).
