Eric Boullier

[bishbash]

Apparently Eric Boullier is out at lotus. With Lopez replacing him as team principal!

Boullier possibly to replace Whitmarsh at McLaren.

[designndrive62]

confirmed on autosport

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/112254

lotus really are in the st now

[cookracing]

Hoe. Lee. Crap....

Interesting times gentlemen!

[n3il123]

Blimey, I didn't see that one coming...

[Leithen]

Boullier et Ron.

[TheHighlander]

Bloody hell.

Its going to be an interesting start to the season then...

[DanielSan]

He'd be a great asset to Mclaren at the moment IMO

[StevieBee]

What on earth is happening in F1 at the moment ???

[rdjohn]

If they do survive, it will be good news for Williams as I cannot see them winning many points with the way they have haemorrhaged talent over the last few months and no car at the first test.

[m0rris]

Well, that I did not expect... I can't honestly see Lotus doing anything other than a) not turning up or b) propping up the grid.

I noticed in recent weeks that there seemed to be a continuous stream of staff leaving to Williams etc, a lot of them were not big names, which makes you wonder who is left up at Enstone?

As far as I can see Genii have managed to take a championship winning F1 team and run it into the ground, Toleman, Bennetton, Renault, Lotus - whatever you called the 'Enstone mob' before its not looking good for them.

[Megaflow]

Gaz. said:

Will Lotus/Enstone survive the season? Will they even make the first race?

I said it in another Lotus thread, I can't see them making the end of the year.

[paulrockliffe]

Boullier tweeted denying all of this.

[HarryFlatters]

On the up side, it means that Sam Michael won't take over at McLaren.

[bishbash]

paulrockliffe said:

Boullier tweeted denying all of this.

That was in December when there was rumours of him leaving to go to Force India.

[Chrisgr31]

m0rris said:

As far as I can see Genii have managed to take a championship winning F1 team and run it into the ground, Toleman, Bennetton, Renault, Lotus - whatever you called the 'Enstone mob' before its not looking good for them.

Isn't that what capital investment managers manage to do fairly regularly when they acquire things?

[paulrockliffe]

bishbash said:

paulrockliffe said:

Boullier tweeted denying all of this.

That was in December when there was rumours of him leaving to go to Force India.

So it was, bit cheeky of Scarbs retweeting it today!

[CharlesAL]

I hope this preseason doesn't turn out to be more exciting and unpredictable than the action out on the track this year.

[Likes Fast Cars]

Interesting times alright. Definitely a recipe for disaster having the co-chairmen running the team, smacks of financial issues and short-sighted cost-cutting. As for speculation of Boullier going to McLaren, I really don’t see that as a good move for the Maccas.

[FourWheelDrift]

I can see it now, Grosjean and Maldonado have to pit at the same time because they are the only ones left to do the tyre changes.

[P-Jay]

StevieBee said:

What on earth is happening in F1 at the moment ???

IMO The raft of 'cost cutting' measures implemented a few years ago have had the opposite effect and to be a front row F1 team you need more money these days than you can reliably squeeze out of corporate sponsors, so we've got teams at the front with huge budgets - like RBR and Mercedes, teams at the back barely covering costs with pay drivers and the like and a huge performance ocean between them the teams in the middle are in complete turmoil.

IMO If Max hadn't been caught in the dungeon and / or got the budget caps he wanted back then F1 would have a larger grid now, closer teams in terms of performance and we wouldn't see good, solid drivers with decent track records loosing seats to unknowns with better backing, and it seems Bernie finally agrees because whilst they dropped the double points for Brazil bombshell, they quietly announced budget caps from 2015.