[Team] Team Lotus to confirm name and Renault bits but Grp Lotus start Norfolk Civil War?

[duke_toaster]

http://en.espnf1.com/lotus/motorspor...ml?CMP=OTC-RSS

What we already knew. Tony Fernandes and the team in Hingham have purchased the Team Lotus trademark (plus a Renault powertrain). Things surely look like they're on the up for them, with access to a reliable gearbox and KERS ...

http://formula-one.speedtv.com/artic...er-lotus-name/

but Group Lotus appear to be unhappy and want to try a lawsuit to stop the team calling themselves anything to do with Lotus. Tony Fernandes had been granted a GP2 franchise for 2011 under the Team AirAsia name, but Group Lotus have struck a deal with ART. According to SPEED, Group Lotus have ex-Ferrari people including Danny Bahar, Gianni Rosato (SPEED claim he's a former Montreal hotel man spotted acting as heavy protecting Schumacher) and Miodrag Kotur, supposedly Jean Todt's former right hand man. Joe Saward claims that Group Lotus have little chance of succeeding, as they tried to wrangle the Team Lotus trademark from David Hunt over twelve years ago. ART obviously want to get in to F1, and there are rumours of a Group Lotus/ART/Toyota base in Cologne tieup. Surely Tony Fernandes has the money to get his hands on Group Lotus and get rid of the problem? Group Lotus are owned by Proton, who are owned by the Malaysian government - bear in mind that Tony Fernandes bought a floundering airline from the Malaysian government for a token sum of one ringgit and turned it in to what we now know as AirAsia ...

[TrapezeArtist]

It's sad to see such an unseemly wrangle over a great name. Perhaps the best solution would be for Clive Chapman or Hazel to determine who should use the Team Lotus name.

[strider]

I believe Clive and Hazel Chapman are happy for the name to go to Tony Fernandes, who has done a great job with the race team this year.

[duke_toaster]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/86896

Fernandes claims Team Lotus trademarks will stop Group Lotus doing anything. GL and TL didn't know about each other's GP2 applications, Fernandes feels that co-operation would make sense and that in business terms a GP2 team might not be the best idea as a priority for Group Lotus.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/86899

David Hunt gives huge vote of confidence to Tony Fernandes and Mike Gascoyne, will help the team find more sponsorship. This is on top of the Chapmans being strongly supportive of Tony Fernandes recently, including Hazel Chapman opening their new motorhome/brand centre/energy station/thing.

[I Rosputnik]

And what of Proton? I thought Proton owned them both?

[duke_toaster]

Proton own Group Lotus and have done since 1994. The new press release states that the Team Lotus trademarks are owned by Tony Fernandes and Tune Group, who appear to be major owners of Team Lotus/Lotus Racing. Wikipedia says that Proton own a stake as well as Naza Motors, the Malaysian ASN and Tune Group, who I imagine probably have the big bit of the pie.

[strider]

I don't think Group Lotus and/or Proton stand a chance.

Tony Fernandes is a very shrewd operator and has obviously lined up the Team Lotus connection at exactly the right time.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Whichever way this goes, will it impact on KV Technologies Racing?

[ensign14]

This is getting a bit like 1981 when we nearly had two March identities...

[jab]

I think what is happening, from what I've been able to discern from reading around, is this:

- Team Lotus and Lotus Cars (now part of the Lotus-owned Group Lotus) are separate and have been for 50-odd years - the courts ruled back in the mid 90s, when Lotus Cars tried to win back the rights to the name from David Hunt just after they were bought by Proton from Artioli, that this still stands and that Lotus Cars have no right to it

- David Hunt first agrees to let Litespeed use the Team Lotus name on their application last year, but this failed

- BMW Sauber then don't bother to apply for the 2010 championship when BMW announced they were pulling out. Tony Fernandes likes the idea of resurrecting the Lotus name in F1, phones up Group Lotus and gets them to give him permission for using the Lotus name as Lotus Racing - apparently it was a multi-year deal. He then hires Gascoyne from the failed Litespeed/Team Lotus bid, which had nothing to do with Lotus Racing's bid apart from the designer, and then makes the successful application to enter F1 in place of Sauber

- Lotus Racing then appears with its own individual logo and the Proton name on the side (in small writing, though - have a look). Fernandes and Hunt keep talking, while the Chapman family give the team their blessing and Colin's hat. They also rename the Mofaz World Series by Renault team Lotus Junior and also let Litespeed use the Lotus Racing colours as well, as part of plans to develop a junior programme

- Meanwhile, Dany Bahar, ex-marketing guru of Ferrari and Red Bull, has taken over as head of Group Lotus and brings with him a few guys from Ferrari including Gino Rosato (the fat guy with the beard who used to be Head of Security) and Claudio Berro, who becomes head of Lotus Motorsport

- Bahar sees the impact Lotus Racing has had and obviously has a love of racing himself, so he decides that Group Lotus needs to get back into racing in a proper way, leading to the sponsorship of KV Racing's #4 car driven by Takuma Sato. While initially supporting the Lotus Racing effort, relations go a bit stale with little communication

- Around about the British GP, Group Lotus serve Lotus Racing with a notice of intention to sever the deal to use the Lotus name at the end of the season, meaning Fernandes would have to rename the team. So he gets back in contact with David Hunt and organises the deal to buy the Team Lotus name outright so that he wouldn't have to radically change the name of the team (far from the triumphant "this is the legitimisation of our team as the true successor to Chapman's team" that they pedalled at the time of the announcement - effectively they're being forced into this)

- Lotus Racing also press on with their junior programme by entering GP2. However, Group Lotus have the same idea. Thus when the GP2 entry list for next year was announced, you see the name Team Air Asia - because they've lost the rights to Lotus Racing and because, as announced later, Group Lotus is to sponsor ART Grand Prix. It's quite ironic, then, that Team Air Asia will now use the Team Lotus pit garages during F1 weekends but Lotus ART will use Ferrari's, who Lotus Cars will now be competing with in the sportscar market...

- But there's more - it's believed that Group Lotus are pushing to enter F1 in the future themselves, probably again with ART and allegedly with Toyota Motorsport-built cars (which makes sense as Lotus cars are powered by Toyota engines), but of course there is already a Lotus F1 team. So they're going to try and block Fernandes' team from using the Lotus name so that when they enter they are the Lotus F1 team. However, we all know that back in the 90s, the courts ruled that Team Lotus is separate from Lotus Cars and they have equal rights to use the name and branding

- How is this going to end? Well Fernandes is very powerful in Malaysia and Group Lotus is now headed up by a European who may not know who he's messing with. So I can eventually see Group Lotus throwing support behind Team Lotus in some way, shape or form - they might as well as they are the established outfit who are making progress in the right direction, and they aren't going to win in the courts. It doesn't make sense if they're warring - that'll just damage both sides

[Ralf's Girl]

That's a great summary of the situation, thanks jab.

(And I'm surprised that nobody has made the obvious joke about a civil war in Norfolk being a family feud. )

[Ralf's Girl]

Proton are now wading in: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/87038

If there has indeed been a prior court judgement that says Group Lotus and Team Lotus are completely separate entities, surely they don't have a case? And wouldn't it make more sense for Proton to support the current Lotus team rather than trying to squash it?

[bella]

i agree, i can't see they have any legal right at least in this country to challenge the name change. and like you, i don't really see the point either. perhaps they think it'll make them look good later on when they have to step back and go "well... alright. in the interests of the malaysian motoring industry and goodwill...".

[strider]

It's hard enough to understand politics in one's own country, so trying to understand Malaysian politics, and that's basically what this is all about, is even harder.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Does anyone know if any of this will affect KV Technologies Racing? They are the Indy Car team running the Lotus liveried car with Takumo Sato driving it.

[bella]

they're associated with lotus cars, not lotus racing aren't they?

[bjohnsonsmith]

It's Lotus Cars, which is part of Group Lotus PLC, which also includes Lotus Engineering.

[bella]

...well using logical deduction then, no. this has little if nothing to do with that. it seems to be an entirely seperate venture, like the gp2 association with art.

but i'd think that'd be fairly obvious reading the information d_t has put together and also the various blogs and news items on the matter.

[Wims]

Team Lotus, Group Lotus, Lotus Racing ..... brain hurts!

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by bella

...well using logical deduction then, no. this has little if nothing to do with that. it seems to be an entirely seperate venture, like the gp2 association with art.

but i'd think that'd be fairly obvious reading the information d_t has put together and also the various blogs and news items on the matter.

I don't know about that. It's Group Lotus PLC, who want to prevent Fernandes using the Lotus brand and that could affect KVRT directly as it will cause a branding headache and possible lack of sponsorship while Group Lotus PLC Fernandes thrash it out.

It's already caused Wims's brain to hurt.

[bella]

another article on autosport for subscribers only which is again, excellent and helps to tell the team lotus story since the 90s f1 team folded: http://www.autosport.com/features/article.php/id/3074

meanwhile, it'd be nice to hear aside from todays press release how and why proton think they have the rights.

[bella]

....aaaand the lotus racing press release, confirming they're taking action in the uk high court.

http://tentenths.com/news/showentry.php?e=1273

[mountainstar]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Does anyone know if any of this will affect KV Technologies Racing? They are the Indy Car team running the Lotus liveried car with Takumo Sato driving it.

There was no money that changed hands in that deal, only technical support with 3 Lotus engineers and some B2B dealing to try to get Lotus to buy Cosworth stuff.

[medius]

Proton seem to have woken up to the potential of using the Lotus name in motorsport with a Le Mans program: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/87050

[Fox89]

Originally Posted by medius

Proton seem to have woken up to the potential of using the Lotus name in motorsport with a Le Mans program: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/87050

This is going to get awfully confusing! With Team Lotus running in F1, Lotus Racing running in GP2 and other series but not with any affiliation to Team Lotus, which will probably be running a very similar livery.