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.
Great.
Yes.
The sad thing is I think I understand it a bit better now.
Thanks Will,
Now I understand what’s going on
:):):)
Its typical. You wait 15 years for a Lotus team to enter formula one, then two come along at once
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by SkiddMark, Kayleigh, Will Buxton, F1Zone, Duncan Rice and others. Duncan Rice said: Thank god @willbuxton clears up the Lotus situation http://bit.ly/cx2BDw
[...]
Well, whichever Lotus exactly accomplish what Lotus is apparently trying to accomplish, bully for Lotus.
Funniest thing I’ve read in a long time! Brilliant!
Excellent summary! Cross-threaded teams are really confusing…
A Lotus by any other name would still smell sweet… Me thinks something is rotten in Denmark…
This is Lotus’ doing. Maybe they should not have agreed to franchise their name for the sake of money.
LOVE IT! Best thing I’ve read all day.
It’s sad even though this is so funny I can actually understand it completely and it’s a great summary. The sad part is it being true.
well. That’s sorted then.
Brilliant! It is clear as mud! Now go and record this for a Speed TV report.
Excellent reprint of the Sniff Petrol article, Mr Buxton.
http://sniffpetrol.com/2010/09/29/lotus-and-lotus-fight-over-lotus/
From September.
Wow! haha.
Being completely honest, I hadn’t read that until you posted the link.
I wrote this after a to-and-fro tweet chat with Eurosport’s Martin Haven in which we were discussing whether the team could just take Prince as an influence and call itself “The team formerly known as Lotus” which would then make next year’s Lotus, “The Lotus team formerly known as Renault, formerly known as Benetton, formerly knowns as Toleman.” But that got even more confusing. Especially when you tried to do Mercedes.
I’m a big sniff fan, and wouldn’t steal their work and pass it off as my own. Instead, I’m actually kind of chuffed we’re on the same wavelength!
Hilarious
you lost me but i think i get it
More confusing than BMW Sauber Ferrari!
And Will, don’t suffer too much at Yas Marina ;- P
… who are Lotus?
Yes.
[...] für das Übersichtsdiagramm ist. Derweil empfehle ich dringend die Lektüre des Blogeintrag von Will Buxton, der das auch alles nicht versteht. [...]
Hilarious, yet sad at the same time.