The Lotus situation in a nutshell

The latest word in Brazil is as follows.

Lotus ran this year as Lotus under a license from Lotus, but in Singapore Lotus announced that next year it would be changing its name from Lotus to Lotus. This news was immediately met with a statement from Lotus which said that it had the rights to use the Lotus name and that Lotus did not, so Lotus could not change its name from Lotus to Lotus.

Next season Lotus will not allow Lotus to call itself Lotus because Lotus wants to do a deal to take over Renault and call it Lotus so Lotus will have to call itself something else other than Lotus.

Lotus will also take a stake at ART in GP2 to create ART Lotus so the team set up by the guys running Lotus who won’t be able to call their teams Lotus next year will have to call their GP2 team Air Asia.

Takuma Sato ran a Lotus in Indycar this year which was actually a Honda powered Dallara but that was under a license from Lotus and had nothing to do with Lotus.

And that’s before we even get into the fact that Lotus has just signed to use Renault engines next season so if Renault is called Lotus but Lotus can’t be called Lotus but will be using Renault engines and Renault will be called Lotus and I’ve gone cross-eyed.

Basically.

Austin F1 site receives unanimous approval.

The site of the Austin F1 track c/o www.sutton-images.com

Some great news from Austin, Texas, just arrived in my inbox. The press release is pretty self explanatory, so I’ll let it speak for itself!

Austin Environmental Board Unanimously Approves The Formula 1 United States Grand Prix™ Site

Austin, TX – November 5, 2010 — Developers for the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix™ today announced that the Austin Environmental Board unanimously approved the site plans for the future Formula 1 United States Grand Prix venue, in a 6-0 vote, that is scheduled to host its first event in 2012. This week’s City Hall vote with the Austin Environmental Board (considered the most difficult of the permits) is one of the last few hearings the Formula 1 U.S. Grand Prix developers will need from city/county boards and commissions to begin construction of the world-class facility.

“This project is on track,” said Richard Suttle, an attorney for the F1 promoters. “In fact, the development plan is right on schedule. And, with the help from the city and county, we’ve been able to not only stay on track, but may even be ahead of schedule,” he continued.

“Meeting with city officials to ensure the future facility meets all environmental and zoning requirements is not only standard procedure to move this project forward, but also an opportunity for us to show that we are committed to partnering with city officials in the construction of this international venue,” said Suttle.

“We are pleased with the unanimous approval from the Austin Environmental Board and know that the site will continue to remain on schedule for the 2012 opening,” Formula 1 United States Grand Prix Chairman Tavo Hellmund said.