November 30, 2010
The FIA has just issued the entry list for next year’s world championship and Tony Fernandes’ team, which was known as Lotus Racing this year is registered as Team Lotus, the historic name that Fernandes purchased, or is in the process of purchasing, from David Hunt.
Team Lotus won 79 Grands Prix and seven constructors’ championships in its original guise, between 1958 and 1994.
At the same time the team is retaining the two drivers from this season Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen, meaning no place for Bruno Senna, who had hoped to move from Hispania.
There has been quite a bit of action behind the scenes on this in the last few months, as Group Lotus, run by Danny Bahar, was trying to stop Fernandes using the Lotus brand in F1 and withdrew the licence from Group Lotus which Fernandes negotiated for this season.
The dispute is still ongoing and there is an appearance at the High Court in London next year at some point to resolve the matter, but what appears to have happened in the last few weeks is that the proposed deal between Group Lotus and Renault F1 team, whereby Lotus would become title sponsor and potentially shareholder, has been put on hold.
I’m told that Bahar and Fernandes have been told by the Malaysian government to try to work together rather than continue to create a confusion over Lotus branding. If this is the case, it will be an uncomfortable arrangement at best and there is bound to be plenty more horse trading before the season starts. But today’s announcement, is a significant stepping stone in this story.
Renault F1 Team is still registered under that name.
Other items of interest are that Williams is still down as AT&T Williams, the title sponsorship still in place and there is no sign yet of Pastor Maldonado as team mate to Rubens Barrichello.
Force India appears to have both seats to be confirmed, which is interesting as Tonio Liuzzi has a contract for next year, in theory. The team is known to be negotiating with this Nico Hulkenberg, who was released by Williams despite his pole position in Brazil.
Also interesting is that Toro Rosso names neither of the drivers it confirmed earlier in the year – Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi. There is no word on the second driver at Renault, while HRT and Virgin both have two seats available.
- logo_Team-lotus.jpg (9.26 KiB) 3751 keer bekeken
- fia-f1-entrylist2011.jpg (101.43 KiB) 3760 keer bekeken
