F1: Lots of Trouble, Usually Serious

Group Lotus, not the Lotus F1 team, is to buy the 25% of Renault F1 team that Renault own. The rest is owned by a venture capital firm, Genii Capital.That company stood behind the team last year without any public whining as to costs. That is certainly not the history of venture capital firms in F1: few last more than one season as they see that, unless there are huge spin-off benefits such as Williams, McLaren and Ferrari, F1, like all forms of motorsport is an excellent way to end up in the poor house.

Old driver's joke: how do you make a small fortune in motor racing? Answer: start with a large one.

The cars will be known as Lotus Renault.

And here's the mad thing: Team Lotus, the outfit that started with a blank sheet of paper a little over a year ago and made it through their first season as Lotus Racing, will be on the grid with a genuine Lotus car (that they have designed and built) - with a Renault engine and drive train.

As Mike Gascoyne said this morning "Lotus - just like buses. You wait for ages and then 2 come along at once."

It is frankly amazing that Group Lotus, which showed no interest in Formula One for 15 years, suddenly wants to join the grid now. And it's bizarre: they were getting massive free publicity from the Tony Fernandes let outfit. There's little hope Group Lotus will spend less than GBP25 million in F1 next season and in preparation for it. And that's before taking into account its expanded intertest in CART racing in the USA into which much development spending is going. But Proton officials told reporters today that the Board has insisted that the venture "cannot adversely impact [upon] Proton Group's balance sheet and profits." Local media reported "Group Lotus's spending on F1 would be a portion of its marketing budget which in turn is a portion of 15-20 million British pounds per annum, which is still below that of competitors." If that is the case, it sounds suspiciously like a sponsorship deal not ownership of a quarter of a Formula One team. For sure, by buying into Renault, they have the advantage of the FIA money that comes from last year's points scores while Team Lotus don't get that. But there is in some quarters a view that, if the name of the team is changed, the FIA money will be forfeit.

Group Lotus and Proton seem to inhabit a twilight world: in a Bernama media report (Malaysian state news agency: Proton is a government linked company) said "Proton officials said that [1 Malaysia Racing Team] was seeking to obtain the right to use the name Team Lotus with the intention of using the name in the 2011 F1 season in contravention of the "Lotus Racing" licence agreement. They also said that the tie-up with 1MRT did not bear the desired results while the overall exposure was negligible."

The return of the Lotus name to the F1 grid created more grass-roots interest in the sport in the UK and Malaysia than any other event. In the case of Malaysia, this was largely due to the sometimes insufferable but always indefatigable Tony Fernandes who appears to spend every waking moment in some form of promotion for his AirAsia brand, Lotus F1, West Ham United or other business within his expanding empire. In the UK and amongst the senior motor racing fraternity, the return of the Lotus name was a cause for much wiping of eyes and sniffling.

"We are Lotus, and we are back,” Dany Bahar, Group Lotus CEO said today.

Well, kinda.

Group Lotus never entered Formula One: that was Team Lotus.

And Tony Fernandes' team appear to be settled as the holder of the rights to that name.

Lotus Formula One cars were built in Norfolk. Team Lotus continues that; Lotus Renault will be built on the other side of England.

Lotus-Renault (as the team says it will be called although the FIA has yet to confirm the name - last week, the entry was confirmed as Renault) says that it's been working on its livery since September. That, conveniently, is shortly before Tony Fernandes announced that, for next year, Team Lotus would adopt the famous Black and Gold livery - after all, at the time, Group Lotus had moved into sponsorship in CART -and coloured the car the green and yellow that Lotus Racing was using in Formula One: the original Lotus colours. Guess what colour Group Lotus want to paint their F1 cars? Yes, got it in one.

The dispute over the use of the name - which on paper is a foregone conclusion - comes before the English High Court next year - but that's only at first instance: the appeals process, if the parties decide to continue and the court grants leave, could take another two or more years.

And then there's the question of the FIA. They may be somewhat concerned that spectators who, from their point of view are the customers of the sport, will be very confused, although with so many teams with engine manufacturers co-branding cars, there is already much confusion possible. Where there is more likelihood of the FIA intervening is over livery: the FIA has to approve liveries. Someone made an error this year: in the carbon-fibre, the McLaren and Virgin cars did not look at all alike. But on TV, they were irritatingly similar. And TV is where most people watch F1.

Back in the days of BAR, the FIA ordered the team to abandon its plans to run cars in two different liveries in the style of CART. Then the team was told that it could not have asymetric designs i.e. each car having half of the original designs.

So there is some chance that the FIA will intervene.

This is where it all gets political: Bernie Ecclestone is not the FIA: he's from FOM, which manages the sport on a day-to-day level and makes most of the money. He has a long-term relationship with former Malaysian PM Mahathir, following their working closely together to bring F1 to Malaysia and the construction of the Sepang circuit. Petronas, a Malaysian government linked company, is a long-term major sponsor in F1, switching last year from Sauber to Mercedes. Again, Mahathir has been connected to the Petronas involvement in the sport: and it's right that he should have been. Mahathir is credited with turning Proton from a small-time screwdriver plant into a profitable and progressive motor manufacturer and he remains an adviser to the company. The president of the FIA is Jean Todt, who is married to a Malaysian actress - and who has been awarded a high honour in the country.

In the other corner is Tony Fernandes who bought a broke airline from the government and turned it into a success story and in doing so has become an outspoken critic of the hand of government in commerce. In particular he has complained about protectionist measures. He, too, has a working relationship with Ecclestone through AirAsia's long term sponsorship of the Williams F1 team - and their shared love of English soccer - through a good natured rivalry as a result of part ownership of competing London teams.

When the Lotus issue broke, Mahathir asked Fernandes not to take the issue into the media.Yet the sniping from Proton and Group Lotus in the past few weeks is just nasty and snide.

Whatever happens, the main thing that is suffering is the love of Lotus that still runs deep. Ironically, Fernandes is much more of the spirit of Colin Chapman than the current Group Lotus: he's a renegade who says "I can do that" and finds a way.

Chapman rarely complained that another team had a development that his cars did not have: he would kick himself for not thinking of it first. Other teams took the view that they should try to get Lotus innovation banned.

Looks like Team Lotus is back in the same position: it's just that the other side also wears the Lotus badge on its sleeve.