"Lotus name ready for return to F1"

[Pints]

Linky

Sincerely hope this is not a repost.

I could certainly do to see the black and gold back on the grid.

[heebeegeetee]

Hmm, not sure i'd like to see that.

I read that Brawn GP had toyed with the idea of reviving the Tyrrel name, which would have been great to see, but the Lotus name is too special to be used in F1 by anybody other than Lotus.

[delays]

Just saw this on BBC.

Litespeed seem to have the rights to use "Team Lotus" name.

So that's March, Brabham and Team Lotus back on the grid? (Obviously none are confirmed.)

Interesting.

Wonder what Lotus Cars will say about this. . .

[Pints]

If not those named, then who else would qualify to bear the name?

ETA - completely missed that first paragraph. Sorry.

Edited by Pints on Sunday 7th June 08:46

[Eric Mc]

The Lotus Formula 1 team name is not owned by Lotus Cars any more so Lotus Cars would have little legal hold over its use.

It would be interesting to see what livery a Lotus car of today might feature. Black and gold would be nice, as would Racing Green and Yellow. The black and gold colours were, of course, based on the John Player Special cigarette box so there could be a problem with the current ban on ciagerette advertising. Having said that, Ferrari's present colour scheme still echoes their spnsorship by Philip Morrois/Marlboro.

[Derek Smith]

delays said:

So that's March, Brabham and Team Lotus back on the grid? (Obviously none are confirmed.)

I can't see the point. Call the teams what you want but they will have no connection with March, Brabham and Lotus in any way apart from the letter headings.

[Fire99]

Derek Smith said:

delays said:

So that's March, Brabham and Team Lotus back on the grid? (Obviously none are confirmed.)

I can't see the point. Call the teams what you want but they will have no connection with March, Brabham and Lotus in any way apart from the letter headings.

Absolutely. The untrained eye would assume they are linked with the historical teams that bore the names. I would certainly expect that Lotus F1 was part of Lotus cars.
If it is just 'badge engineering' then I think the names should be left alone.

Edited by Fire99 on Sunday 7th June 10:45

[odyssey2200]

How would Lotus Cars react if the F1 car that bore their name and was assumed by many to be theirs was a complete and utter lemon?

[Munter]

odyssey2200 said:

How would Lotus Cars react if the F1 car that bore their name and was assumed by many to be theirs was a complete and utter lemon?

They'd go "ta very much for the advert"

[Northern Munkee]

Fire99 said:

Derek Smith said:

delays said:

So that's March, Brabham and Team Lotus back on the grid? (Obviously none are confirmed.)

I can't see the point. Call the teams what you want but they will have no connection with March, Brabham and Lotus in any way apart from the letter headings.

Absolutely. The untrained eye would assume they are linked with the historical teams that bore the names. I would certainly expect that Lotus F1 was part of Lotus cars.
If it is just 'badge engineering' then I think the names should be left alone.

Edited by Fire99 on Sunday 7th June 10:45

I really can't see the point either, and rather backward looking, unless it is to gain the perception of credibility of a 'brand' amongst the ill informed populace and sponsors, and perhaps as a sop to the FIA, if they think it might help them get a slot next year, if say another famous name leaves... It is just a name.

For all our howls of derision it must have some value, or else why would David hunt (brother of James Hunt) have bought the rights to it when Team Lotus folded back early 90's, intellectual property bks. Although to their credit, listening to the radio interview on the BBC web page, Gascoyne did state the two guys running the show are ex Lotus mechanics, it will be based near Lotus Cars in Norfolk, and they have had discussions with Lotus Cars (and Proton).

As to it's colours, well in honour of the memory of Chapman, it should be consigned to history or if not, Green & Yellow, and certainly not Black & Gold, John Player no longer exists, and as the man who introduced commercial sponsorship to his cars, they should clearly ignore sentiment, as Chapman ignored it. Hmmm... In that case I guess exploit the Lotus name, and cars will be coloured whatever their corporate sponsors are.

[odyssey2200]

Munter said:

odyssey2200 said:

How would Lotus Cars react if the F1 car that bore their name and was assumed by many to be theirs was a complete and utter lemon?

They'd go "ta very much for the advert"

or " Thanks for embarrassing us and making us look like a Cunch of Bunts"

[llewop]

Derek Smith said:

delays said:

So that's March, Brabham and Team Lotus back on the grid? (Obviously none are confirmed.)

I can't see the point. Call the teams what you want but they will have no connection with March, Brabham and Lotus in any way apart from the letter headings.

+1

It grabs headlines but is utterly meaningless otherwise.


Although it does cross my mind that it is all a bit 'Life on Mars': Cosworth engines everywhere, Lotus, Brabham, March (Brawn getting told to go back and use the Tyrrell name after all)... of course Ferrari will somehow still be there. But other than that those nasty manufacturers will have run away because MM won't let them play with his ball.

[FourWheelDrift]

Let's see now. 3 spaces for new teams next year, USF1 will fill one of the spaces. Prodrive will fill one of the others. That leaves one place for the others, most likely to be Lola with "Brabham" (since they own the ex-Super Aguri team) being the outside bet for the last place.

Which leaves nowhere for the others. Since it is June already and F1 cars are usually up and running by December/January for the following season I can't see how any of the other new teams could start to design, build and get running an F1 car. Even if a major manufacturer pulls out of the 2010 season freeing up another place none of these new teams will be able to fill it. If they were to be on the grid next year I can see a further tweak needed on the qualifying sessions. Perhaps even brining back a 107% of fastest Q1 limit, slower than that and they aren't quick enough to race. I doubt if they would complete the season.

It's pure headline grabbing, if one of the minnows is accepted they are likely to sell their place to someone who can use it, can't think who that might be though. In better times I might suggest that one of the new teams were fronting a manufacturer based entry but not in this current economic climate.

[DJC]

Its F1 journalism for the numpties (which acounts for 75% of F1 fans and ph these days).

[delays]

FourWheelDrift said:

Let's see now. 3 spaces for new teams next year, USF1 will fill one of the spaces. Prodrive will fill one of the others. That leaves one place for the others, most likely to be Lola with "Brabham" (since they own the ex-Super Aguri team) being the outside bet for the last place.

Which leaves nowhere for the others. Since it is June already and F1 cars are usually up and running by December/January for the following season I can't see how any of the other new teams could start to design, build and get running an F1 car. Even if a major manufacturer pulls out of the 2010 season freeing up another place none of these new teams will be able to fill it. If they were to be on the grid next year I can see a further tweak needed on the qualifying sessions. Perhaps even brining back a 107% of fastest Q1 limit, slower than that and they aren't quick enough to race. I doubt if they would complete the season.

It's pure headline grabbing, if one of the minnows is accepted they are likely to sell their place to someone who can use it, can't think who that might be though. In better times I might suggest that one of the new teams were fronting a manufacturer based entry but not in this current economic climate.

True, it's a mammoth task, and they're going to be absolutely rubbish.

But. But. Does nobody else think it would be brilliant if all were let in, and pre-qualifying returned?

Or, since the cars will be rubbish in comparison to the establishment - how can a competitive car possibly be produced by January to rules which haven't even been published yet? - maybe do a Saturday race for all drivers in totally equal cars in place of qualifying. A grid full of race spec Fiestas being ragged to within an inch of their lives? Yes please. Defeats the point slightly, but would certainly shake things up a little!

[rubystone]

If Gascoyne is involved it has to have half a chance of getting off the ground. There is also the assumption being made here that Max will let all those "conditional" teams have an entry for 2010. He could be arsey about it and deny them all entries...or select just one of the RBR teams for example.

Flav's been very quiet hasn't he....

I'm up for as many teams as we can get in F1 - the FIA will weed out the Andrea Modas...

[thunderbelmont]

The thing is - you never ever know. One of the teams could interpret the rules and find something that nobody else has got, and be like Brawn is this year.

The rules we have this year are "new", and many teams are still trying to find that extra 'thing'.

[anonymous-user]

FourWheelDrift said:

Let's see now. 3 spaces for new teams next year, USF1 will fill one of the spaces. Prodrive will fill one of the others. That leaves one place for the others, most likely to be Lola with "Brabham" (since they own the ex-Super Aguri team) being the outside bet for the last place.

The old SA facility/team was pretty worthless in terms of building a new team post it going under, most of the engineering came via the works Honda team. I went around the SA factory when it closed, it had very little in the way of manufacturing capability, it was mainly an assembly site for a kit supplied car with some composites capability, plus the admin for running the team. The site was already broken up as a technology centre for lots of other small companies, so was a lot smaller scale than the Arrows setup that used to be based there.

[anonymous-user]

thunderbelmont said:

The thing is - you never ever know. One of the teams could interpret the rules and find something that nobody else has got, and be like Brawn is this year.

The rules we have this year are "new", and many teams are still trying to find that extra 'thing'.

Brawn is reaping $400 million worth of Honda investment with a year head start on teams like Ferrari/McLaren as a bonus, these new teams don't stand a chance of repeating what Brawn have done this year.

[williamp]

Assuming someone would sell, would they be able to buy an 09 chassis once the season is over?