Friday 14th January 2011

Lotus Reveals 2011 F1 Colours, Signs Alesi

But don't get too excited - it's not quite what you think

---

Lotus is continuing its mission to confuse the heck out of everyone, revealing the black and gold livery of its new 2011 F1 campaigner at the Autosport show.

Except that the new JPS-inspired colours were clothing a 2010-spec Renault F1 car (Lotus having bought out the French giant's F1 team late last year), and the livery was revealed in photoshopped form when Group Lotus formally revealed its deal with Renault and investment firm Genii Capital...

If that wasn't odd enough, Lotus has also announced that it has a new star signing in the form of Jean Alesi - but this move has nothing to do with its F1 project. Instead, Alesi will be an 'ambassador' for the Lotus Type 125 and Exos programme - Lotus's F1-inspired super-exclusive hardcore track car project.

Meanwhile another old F1 hand is getting involved with Lotus, but again not in F1 - Nigel Mansell's sons Leo and Greg are campaigning an Evora GT4 in the Dubai 24-hour race.

Lotus has both the Type 125 and the Evora GT4 on display at the Autosport show alongside its 2010 Renault-dressed-as-a-2011-Lotus, as well as its Indycar, GP2 and GP3 racers, making a total of six different Lotus racers (well, five and a track car)...

Confused yet? We are. Thoroughly.

 

[TommyBuoy]

Que?

Very stange goings on....still, must be money to be made with track cars (lets hope)

Edited by TommyBuoy on Friday 14th January 11:26

[BelperJim]

Also if they win they will play the British national anthem. Which is nice.

[Howard1650]

Anyone else thinking that in 18 months time Lotus will disappear in a puff of smoke.

[Riggers]

BelperJim said:

Also if they win they will play the British national anthem. Which is nice.

True - playing La Marseillaise always seemed wrong to me for a team based in Enstone...

[splodge s4]

I can't get over how much Jean Alesi looks like President Sarkozy... Has anyone seen them in the same room?

Sarkozy
Alesi

[ccr32]

Lotus Indy Car too?! When did I miss that?!

Bahar is on an absolute mission...

[touring fan]

ccr32 said:

Bahar is on an absolute mission...

.....to milk what he can out of the Lotus name and whatever loans the Malaysians have committed - and to then have the company sink in a quagmire of debt, unfulfilled promises and dubious deals.

[nsmith1180]

ccr32 said:

Lotus Indy Car too?! When did I miss that?!

Bahar is on an absolute mission...

And ILMC as announced today. Lotus and JetAlliance will run two Evora GTE's in ILMC events at Spa-Francorchamps, Le Mans 24hrs, Imola, Silverstone, Petit Le Mans and the Chinese event which rounds out the season.

This is the piccy they sent me, Im guessing PH got it too but they are busy at the show I think.

[wab172uk]

touring fan said:

ccr32 said:

Bahar is on an absolute mission...

.....to milk what he can out of the Lotus name and whatever loans the Malaysians have committed - and to then have the company sink in a quagmire of debt, unfulfilled promises and dubious deals.

Give the man a chance FFS.

He has recruited some of the leading names in the motor trade.

They have come up with pant wetting designs.

They are promising high level of build quality.

They are hoping to make Lotus make money, and not lose it.

So what if they put on a bit of weight? Not everyone wants to drive around in a car with no comforts, and the smell of glue.

Good on them, and I hope they turn Lotus around. I love the new Elan. Thinks it's gorgeous.

Back them, don't sit there waiting for them to fail, just so you can come on here and say "told you so".

They have to move on. Look at Morgan. Pretty much stuck with what they know. How many people want a car made of wood? Not many.

Loving the new F1 paint work.

[cathalm]

touring fan said:

ccr32 said:

Bahar is on an absolute mission...

.....to milk what he can out of the Lotus name and whatever loans the Malaysians have committed - and to then have the company sink in a quagmire of debt, unfulfilled promises and dubious deals.

Better still, he could just not bother at all. After all launching a huge motorsport program for the company and daring to try for the first time since Chapman died on a proper road car range is just the sort of thing that should be discouraged. He should let this national asset slide into inevitable obivion rather than face the caustic barbs of whining little men on a hokey internet forum. I don't think too much would be lost, I'm sure your ilk will only have to wait 5 minutes for the next story that you can be scathing about and feel oh so knowledgable and important for having passed judgement.

[rob.e]

touring fan said:

ccr32 said:

Bahar is on an absolute mission...

.....to milk what he can out of the Lotus name and whatever loans the Malaysians have committed - and to then have the company sink in a quagmire of debt, unfulfilled promises and dubious deals.

Oh FFS!

Give the guy a chance for christ's sake.. he's only been in the job ten minutes and he's already secured more funding that lotus has ever had before, overseen the design of some fantastic looking cars, brought lotus PROPERLY back to F1 AND recruited some of the best names in the industry to support the road car programme.

He may not hit all his targets but so what - its better than just leaving the company making elises until the Malasian owners get bored and it finally folds, surely?

[mycool]

Agree with most of the points above but Lotus' main point decended from Colin Chapman was "add lightness". So the models putting on weight mark a significant shift from the core values.

[SC00P]

What I found was confusing was the fact that the Lotus car was "unveiled" in black and gold but opposite it all their other cars were green & yellow - the colours of the Other Team Lotus team.

My first thoughts were actually "Hahaha!! Somebody's put Lotus Renault next to the other Lotus! Brilliant!! Oh, wait, those cars ARE the same Lotus..."

[ukaskew]

wab172uk said:

They have to move on. Look at Morgan. Pretty much stuck with what they know. How many people want a car made of wood? Not many.

I was under the impression Morgan were operating quite nicely these days, so that's a strange example. Loyal customers, long waiting lists, championship winning racecars, no huge loans, very impressive new models occasionally (not made from wood)

No need to set the world on fire with mega profits or supercar concepts every five minutes, they would appear to be a model of good practice as far as UK car manufacturing goes.

[Eddw86]

I like the colour scheme, a lot, but... I think I'll be rooting for the oher Lotus F1 team, which is banged together in Norfolk...

[AbleArcher]

touring fan said:

ccr32 said:

Bahar is on an absolute mission...

.....to milk what he can out of the Lotus name and whatever loans the Malaysians have committed - and to then have the company sink in a quagmire of debt, unfulfilled promises and dubious deals.

Dude, don't you know that according to some PH'ers, Lotus could break into people's houses and drink all their beer, then burn down orphanages and still not a bad word would be said about this most sacrosanct of British institutions.

I agree with you - Bahar is playing a dangerous game here and I sincerely hope that he can make it work.

[cathalm]

mycool said:

Agree with most of the points above but Lotus' main point decended from Colin Chapman was "add lightness". So the models putting on weight mark a significant shift from the core values.

Often miss quoted and overused. Chapman was indeed thoroughly keen on lightness. But he did have other engineering principles too you know. One of the main benefits of lightness is simplicity, he was at least as keen on that. Also, when Chapman said most of these things he was talking about engineering racing cars rather than road cars. He was interested in ground effect aerodynamics, complicated twin chassis cars and active ride and aero at different points in his career which don't tally with a one track view that he, or Lotus is all about lightness over all else.

Colin Chapman was interested in whatever engineering solution was new, ground breaking and will provide an advantage. Lightness is only one of those principles. Besides which, Bahar has been quoted various times stating that they want each new car to lighter than it's rivals whilst having various new aspects of technology to enhance them. That is exactly what Chapman wanted, not a range of only stripped out pseudo racers, he moved on from that when the 7 ceased production. Elise obsessives still refuse to join him.

[bullies180]

Thats not a Lotus, thats a renault. Lotus is sponsoring it.

[nsmith1180]

SC00P said:

What I found was confusing was the fact that the Lotus car was "unveiled" in black and gold but opposite it all their other cars were green & yellow - the colours of the Other Team Lotus team.

My first thoughts were actually "Hahaha!! Somebody's put Lotus Renault next to the other Lotus! Brilliant!! Oh, wait, those cars ARE the same Lotus..."

I think that was a case of Bahar being childish. He went out to steal Team Lotus' thunder by getting into F1, hoping Fernandes would settle for running as 1Malaysia. When TF told DB to basically GET BENT, DB thought, right, we will steal his livery. By the time this decision was made, the IndyCar and GT4 liveries were already released.

The thing is, Lotus Renault couldn't have gone for the Green and Yellow colours because Team Lotus already had them. They would have been blatently stealing TF's glory then and be seen to be trying to steal the Lotus Racing fan base. So they had to come up with something different. Then it became a race to see who could get a black and gold out first but Team Lotus decided to stick with their 2010 colours. Its DB that has the dodgy company image now and the joke is on him.

All the yanks that are going to see the green and yellow IndyCar and GT4 cars, think that that is Group Lotus, then catch the occasional GP and wonder why Group Lotus is at the back of the field while a lotus pretender is up the front. (At least for the first few races.)

[Life Saab Itch]

cathalm said:

mycool said:

Agree with most of the points above but Lotus' main point decended from Colin Chapman was "add lightness". So the models putting on weight mark a significant shift from the core values.

Often miss quoted and overused. Chapman was indeed thoroughly keen on lightness. But he did have other engineering principles too you know. One of the main benefits of lightness is simplicity, he was at least as keen on that. Also, when Chapman said most of these things he was talking about engineering racing cars rather than road cars. He was interested in ground effect aerodynamics, complicated twin chassis cars and active ride and aero at different points in his career which don't tally with a one track view that he, or Lotus is all about lightness over all else.

Colin Chapman was interested in whatever engineering solution was new, ground breaking and will provide an advantage. Lightness is only one of those principles. Besides which, Bahar has been quoted various times stating that they want each new car to lighter than it's rivals whilst having various new aspects of technology to enhance them. That is exactly what Chapman wanted, not a range of only stripped out pseudo racers, he moved on from that when the 7 ceased production. Elise obsessives still refuse to join him.

Well said.