RE: Lotus F1 Goes Black And Gold For 2011
Tuesday 16th November 2010
The classic black-and-gold John Player Special livery is to make a comeback to the F1 grid in 2011.
Lotus F1 Goes Black And Gold For 2011
JPS Lotus is back - though without JPS sponsorship of course...
Lotus is to ditch its current green-and-yellow colours for next season and, for the return of 'JPS' colours (though not sponsorship of course), will even hold a competition to let Lotus Racing fans design the new livery.
"Giving those fans the chance to help us bring it back to the contemporary grid is true to our core belief of putting our supporters right at the heart of Lotus Racing - we can't wait to show the world what we come up with," said Riad Asmat, the team's chief exec.
Lotus Racing clearly hope that they can emulate the success of their illustrious forebear which, in JPS livery, took two drivers' and three constructors' titles during the 1970s - the last championship trophies that Lotus lifted in F1.
The iconic livery was run from 1972 to 1979, then again from 1981 to the end of 1986 and even gave Ayrton Senna his first GP win, before Camel backing came in 1987.
"When we first unveiled our 2010 car there was unanimous praise for our decision to bring the historic green and yellow livery back to the modern F1 grid," said Asmat. "I know the return to the track of the legendary black and gold will be met with even more universal support as it strikes such an emotional chord with fans around the world."
 |
 |
Pics: edvvc, Mike Powell, Lothar Spurzem
Discussion
NotNormal said:
Ahem! Oh well - I must have been sleeping that day... 
ETA: Good news is surely worth talking about twice, no?
Edited by Riggers on Tuesday 16th November 10:51
Doshy said:
Can you still buy JPS fags ?
Yes you can, although they seem to have gone for various different colour schemes depending on strength - 'lights' in blue and silver, 'menthol' in green and silver. You can still get 'JPS Black', the high-tar '70s lung-busting furniture-stainers for 'real men'. James Hunt would be proud.I should point out that I don't actually smoke, but if I did, I'd buy JPS. Just because.
This seems pointless. With Lotus (the actual Lotus) buying Renault tomorrow according to reports exactly what is Tony Fernandez going to do? Have two Lotus teams on the grid, one being clearly the real Lotus racing under British colours and having Kubica at the wheel,with a chance at actually winning races and his team languishing at the back pretending to be Lotus whilst racing under a Malaysian flag?
He should have been sensible and abandoned his Malaysian plans in the first place and Dani Bahar would probably have accepted it. Fernandes is blind if he can't see the dirty great union Jack on the side the JPS car pictured above. Like Bahar was ever going to mastermind a 700 million investment in rebuilding a brand based on britishness and have it's F1 presence racing as Malaysian. Proton understood this as soon as it was put to them god knows why Fernandes can't.
His whole plan was daft from the start, move the team to Malaysia eh? Naming problems aside, that whole team is British apart from himself and some management faces put in for appearances. Were they going to move the the whole technical team to Sepang? Not likely. Or perhaps they were going to staff the technical side and mechanics with Malaysians. A recipe for success if ever I heard it.
He should have been sensible and abandoned his Malaysian plans in the first place and Dani Bahar would probably have accepted it. Fernandes is blind if he can't see the dirty great union Jack on the side the JPS car pictured above. Like Bahar was ever going to mastermind a 700 million investment in rebuilding a brand based on britishness and have it's F1 presence racing as Malaysian. Proton understood this as soon as it was put to them god knows why Fernandes can't.
His whole plan was daft from the start, move the team to Malaysia eh? Naming problems aside, that whole team is British apart from himself and some management faces put in for appearances. Were they going to move the the whole technical team to Sepang? Not likely. Or perhaps they were going to staff the technical side and mechanics with Malaysians. A recipe for success if ever I heard it.
+1..
cathalm said:
This seems pointless. With Lotus (the actual Lotus) buying Renault tomorrow according to reports exactly what is Tony Fernandez going to do? Have two Lotus teams on the grid, one being clearly the real Lotus racing under British colours and having Kubica at the wheel,with a chance at actually winning races and his team languishing at the back pretending to be Lotus whilst racing under a Malaysian flag?
He should have been sensible and abandoned his Malaysian plans in the first place and Dani Bahar would probably have accepted it. Fernandes is blind if he can't see the dirty great union Jack on the side the JPS car pictured above. Like Bahar was ever going to mastermind a 700 million investment in rebuilding a brand based on britishness and have it's F1 presence racing as Malaysian. Proton understood this as soon as it was put to them god knows why Fernandes can't.
His whole plan was daft from the start, move the team to Malaysia eh? Naming problems aside, that whole team is British apart from himself and some management faces put in for appearances. Were they going to move the the whole technical team to Sepang? Not likely. Or perhaps they were going to staff the technical side and mechanics with Malaysians. A recipe for success if ever I heard it.
I will be very interesed to see how this rolls out... as they are both customers of mine..! as it stands today, it's unclear who owns what on the brand name.., RF1 could be green and yellow soon, then what happens to F1 Norfolk is unknown.. I wouldn't bank on the colour schemes just yet..! He should have been sensible and abandoned his Malaysian plans in the first place and Dani Bahar would probably have accepted it. Fernandes is blind if he can't see the dirty great union Jack on the side the JPS car pictured above. Like Bahar was ever going to mastermind a 700 million investment in rebuilding a brand based on britishness and have it's F1 presence racing as Malaysian. Proton understood this as soon as it was put to them god knows why Fernandes can't.
His whole plan was daft from the start, move the team to Malaysia eh? Naming problems aside, that whole team is British apart from himself and some management faces put in for appearances. Were they going to move the the whole technical team to Sepang? Not likely. Or perhaps they were going to staff the technical side and mechanics with Malaysians. A recipe for success if ever I heard it.
The worst that can happen is that there will be four black and gold cars on the grid next year.
Little birds have told me that Renault-Lotus decided to go with black and gold way before Mr. Fernandes's claim on the colours. Further, the continued Lotus entry in to IRL (still with Takuma Sato?) next year is due to get the same paint job. Ex-Red Bull Danny Bahar knows a lot about marketing (a lot more than he knows about light weight sports cars...) so will no doubt want to continue the colour scheme through the new Lotus GP2, Formula Renault and GT3 Evoras due to start racing next year.
Happy, happy days.
"If everything is under control, you're not going fast enough." M. Andretti - the first, great JPS driver.
Little birds have told me that Renault-Lotus decided to go with black and gold way before Mr. Fernandes's claim on the colours. Further, the continued Lotus entry in to IRL (still with Takuma Sato?) next year is due to get the same paint job. Ex-Red Bull Danny Bahar knows a lot about marketing (a lot more than he knows about light weight sports cars...) so will no doubt want to continue the colour scheme through the new Lotus GP2, Formula Renault and GT3 Evoras due to start racing next year.
Happy, happy days.
"If everything is under control, you're not going fast enough." M. Andretti - the first, great JPS driver.
NotNormal said:
I didn't want to blow my own horn again - but 5 days earlier Woof News brings you "Lotus goes Black & Gold"RF1 or Lotus, personally i'm not especially bothered which company takes on the black and gold livery as neither are attached to the original Colin Chapman outfit anymore in anything other than name.
However, for what its worth the colour scheme remains IMHO the finest ever to grace an F1 car. I cant wait to see it on the grid again if this does actually happen and hopefully it will be somewhere up near the front - which realistically means it should be on the Renault car - as it would be a shame if the only TV coverage it received was whilst being lapped by Ferrari et al.
Now if only Canon could be persuaded to sponsor Williams again and the tobacco ban removed so that Marlboro return on the Maclaren
However, for what its worth the colour scheme remains IMHO the finest ever to grace an F1 car. I cant wait to see it on the grid again if this does actually happen and hopefully it will be somewhere up near the front - which realistically means it should be on the Renault car - as it would be a shame if the only TV coverage it received was whilst being lapped by Ferrari et al.
Now if only Canon could be persuaded to sponsor Williams again and the tobacco ban removed so that Marlboro return on the Maclaren
I dont smoke but the JPS livery is the best in F1 ever. (i have two team lotus JPS gear knobs in my land rover )Even better than the scarlet Ferrari's
I think you can still buy JPS but as far as i remember the last time i saw any the packets where blue and red for lights (?) instead of the old black and white.
)Even better than the scarlet Ferrari'sI think you can still buy JPS but as far as i remember the last time i saw any the packets where blue and red for lights (?) instead of the old black and white.
Mazda Baiter said:
Miura Anjin said:
"If everything is under control, you're not going fast enough." M. Andretti - the first, great JPS driver.
Have you never heard of Ronnie Peterson?
I stand by my comment, but will still put my nomex underwear on now...
Mazda Baiter said:
Miura Anjin said:
"If everything is under control, you're not going fast enough." M. Andretti - the first, great JPS driver.
Have you never heard of Ronnie Peterson?
For what it's worth (probably nowt), I actually like Fernandes and the way he and Gascoyne have built up a decent team from nothing. They have been pretty credible and have treated the Lotus community with respect - turning up with a car for the festival at Snetterton and letting Gascoyne/Trulli/Kovi have a crack in some historic cars for the weekend being a prime example. I have seen more good from them than from Bahar. Group Lotus seemed to have approached their recent motorsport activities in a most confused and haphazard fashion which I struggle to understand. While adding their name (let's be honest, that's all it amounts to) to Renault is fine, Fernandes has set up a team from scratch and, to me, that seems a far more "Lotus" endeavour than yet another badge-engineering exercise, ala Bahar.
Gassing Station | General Motorsport | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff