Lotus Excel

It would be great to see Lotus back in F1.

From what I have read, it is nothing to do with the Lotus Factory however. It seems to be a group backed by Malysian Businessmen who have bought the rights to the name "Team Lotus".

It will be interesting to see if they can use the hallowed lotus logo, or even better if the Lotus Factory come out and back them/sponser them in some way.

Team Lotus' link to Group Lotus was always a bit tenuous - deliberately. Chapman was quite protective of his team. The name was sold, ultimately, to David Hunt and last used by the Pacific Team in their last season. It's now been licensed to the Litespeed team (based in Norfolk, hurrah!) and is backed by Malaysians.

Some food for thought :

Name First race Last race races wins championships
Ferrari May 21, 1950 Sep 13, 2009 789 211 16
Williams Jan 12, 1975 Sep 13, 2009 530 113 9
McLaren May 22, 1966 Sep 13, 2009 661 163 8
Lotus May 18, 1958 Nov 13, 1994 491 79 7
Brabham Aug 05, 1962 Aug 16, 1992 394 35 2
Cooper May 21, 1950 May 18, 1969 129 16 2
Renault Jul 16, 1977 Sep 13, 2009 258 35 2
Benetton Mar 23, 1986 Oct 14, 2001 260 27 1
BRM Jul 14, 1951 Mar 05, 1977 197 17 1
Matra May 07, 1967 Oct 08, 1972 60 9 1
Tyrrell Sep 20, 1970 Nov 01, 1998 430 23 1
Vanwall Jul 17, 1954 Jul 03, 1960 28 10 1

Malaysian backed F1 team; Malaysian owned Group Lotus; CEO of Lotus ex Red Bull and Ferrari.
A matter of time perhaps?

is it not Lotus F1, not Team Lotus?

as your rightly stated they sold off the Team Lotus rights...

Oz.

Fantastic to see lotus back in f1.I hope its in the spirit of always respecting the founder of lotus Colin Chapman.Still not sure if the road car section of lotus are backing the lotus f1 team.Whether they do or not surely this will be a boost to road car sales, and revive an interest in the broader public of classic lotuses like the excel ,elite ,and eclat ect.iv always loved f1 racing and this is the cherry on the cake for me!

http://www.lotusf1team.com/
this is were to find them

Regarding Lotus F1 and Lotus Cars the following quote is illuminating:

Other investors in the company that own Lotus F1 team are Datuk Tony Fernandes and S.M. Nasaruddin S.M. Nasimuddin. Proton Holdings Bhd, via its subsidiary Lotus, will also be involved as constructor.

The new F1 team will need the badge.

It sounds promising.

i just applied for the IT Manager role they have advertised for Lotus F1

In that case I'll apply for driver. I'm good at crashing so I should be well qualified for F1

This is apparently the new Lotus F1 car.

Lastest developments

http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newss ... ?id=447284\

Don't think I've been shortlisted

Next year's Ferrari : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqRUwHyJKV8

Looks a bit wooly to me

Claudio Berro joins the factory as motorsports director

http://www.pistonheads.com/lotus/defaul ... ryId=20882

"Berro has a high profile motorsport management profile, having cut his teeth in the business as sporting director at Peugeot Italy - following a stint co-driving a Talbot Sunbeam Lotus for Peugeot Talbot Italia and twice becoming Italian Group 2 Rally Champion in 1981 and 1982.

He subsequently served as team manager of Ferrari F1, and more recently as General Manager of Maserati Corse and Racing Director for Fiat-Abarth."