F-1 Notes: Team Lotus Back Next Year

September 28th, 2010

SINGAPORE — Team Lotus will be back in Formula One now that Tony Fernandes has bought the rights to run his team under the famous banner used by founder Colin Chapman. The team operated under a license from Group Lotus as Lotus Racing in 2010. Originally, Group Lotus (the road car division) and Team Lotus (the race team) were combined, but in 1995 David Hunt, brother of James Hunt, bought the rights to the name Team Lotus after the Formula One squad closed its doors.

The two entities are totally separate. Fernandes is now sole owner of Team Lotus. To confuse matters, Group Lotus, whose sports cars remain its core business, also goes racing in the IRL, and it has joined forces with Nicholas Todt’s ART team and will campaign as Lotus ART in GP2 and GP3. Fernandes also plans to run a GP2 team called Air Asia.

Fernandes has remained in contact with Hunt, and when Group Lotus asked for the return of the Lotus Racing name, Fernandes was able to buy Team Lotus for about $1.5 to $2 million from Hunt.
Hunt claims he was holding on to find the best new owner for the team, and not someone who would drag it down and perhaps force it to close its doors forever.

- While Tony Fernandes said “we will make an announcement in due course,” regarding what engines will replace the Cosworths in his cars next year, National Speed Sport News can confirm it will be Renaults. Lotus will start next season with a 2010 Renault gearbox and will later upgrade to the 2011 unit that has to be paired with a pullrod rear suspension system. Next year’s Lotus was already designed with pushrod rear suspension, so the rear of the car has to be completely redone before the new gearbox can be fitted.

- In 2009 Adrian Newey decided to use pullrod rear suspension on the Red Bull while the rest of the teams continued to use the more conventional pushrod. The former system makes a single deck rear diffuser more efficient. With the twin deck diffusers being banned in 2011, one technical director predicts all teams will switch to the pullrods. The good news for Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel is that the Red Bull crew has a two year jump on the competition with the system.

- The new curbs and re-profiled chicane drew criticism from the drivers. “I think they made the track worse,” Lewis Hamilton fumed. “The chicane is probably the worst corner I’ve ever driven in F-1. I mean, it’s just ridiculous. Last year was already small, but now it’s just more dangerous.”

- Nick Heidfeld has had three jobs in the space of a month: Mercedes reserve driver, Pirelli tester and driver for Sauber. What about 2011?

“It should be a help, having driven for Pirelli,” he said of his job prospects. “Some people would argue that it would have been better to stay testing and have even more of an advantage for next year. But when I had the chance to sign for Sauber for this year I definitely wanted to come back. I want to race; I believe I can do a good job. I’ve signed only for this season; the situation for next year is completely open with Sauber, but also with other teams with which I have already been in talks over the last couple of weeks.”

- Lotus drivers Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen will be back with the team next year. A formal announcement is expected at the Japanese Grand Prix.

- “It looks as if Sakon Yamamoto has food poisoning and he doesn’t feel well,” HRT team principal Colin Kolles said prior to the first practice session in Singapore. “Because of this, Christian Klien will be driving the car this Friday and the rest of the Singapore Grand Prix. I hope Sakon gets well soon and is able to drive at his home Grand Prix in Japan.”

Food poisoning? That’s not what NSSN hears. Yamamoto was paying for his drive, but allegedly the $1 million he ponied up got mysteriously lost via some middleman. Thus Yamamoto says he paid while the team claims it did not receive anything.