Lotus²

After months of public debate, the Team Lotus v Group Lotus quarrel finally hit the courts on January 24th. A hearing date has been set for March 21st and will hopefully resolve a long and drawn out dispute between the two groups. Ultimately after such a fascinating season last year, and the promise of an even better one to come, it's sad such a matter has taken up so much time in the off season as it's diverted attention from the potentially fascinating racing ahead. But in case you're a bit confused about the whole Lotus vs. Lotus saga, here's the basic story:

Team Lotus was established in 1954, driven largely by Colin Chapman. Based in Norfolk the team was very successful, winning 7 Constructors Championships and 6 Drivers Titles. Countless famous names drove for Lotus through the years; Stirling Moss, Emerson Fittipaldi, Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Nigel Mansell and Ayrton Senna, just to mention a few. The team was a mainstay of Formula 1, indeed only Ferrari, McLaren and Williams have competed in more Grands Prix than Team Lotus in F1s 60+ year history. However in its later years the struggle for funds became harder and the team eventually went bankrupt and folded in 1994. It was bought by David Hunt, brother of former World Champion James Hunt, who was going to attempt to salvage and re-enter the team, but nothing came of this and the time of Team Lotus came to an end.

Come 2009 and Tony Fernandes was in the process of entering a new team, then titled 1 Malaysia Racing Team, into the 2010 Formula 1 season. For his team he licenced the name of "Lotus" from Malaysian based Proton, the owner of the Lotus Cars brand, and entered his team under the name "Lotus Racing". Despite having a different name and in no part being associated with the team founded by Colin Chapman, there was regular talk of the team being a successor or even a continuation of the old team. Examples of this are quotes such as "our first win will be Lotus's 80th win"; designating the chassis the T127, which was the next in line for Team Lotus; and a cap similar the famous one worn by Colin Chapman being on the pit wall at all races. There is no doubt Fernandes saw his team as the same as Chapmans Team Lotus.

On September 24 Fernandes announced at the Singapore Grand Prix that his company had acquired Team Lotus Ventures Ltd. from David Hunt and will rename his team Team Lotus for the 2011 season. 3 days later Proton, the parent company of Group Lotus, issued a statement saying it had terminated Fernandes' licence to use the Lotus name due to "flagrant and persistent breaches of the licence...which were damaging to the Lotus brand". What these breaches were wasn't specified in the statement.

Proton also stated that as they're the owner of Group Lotus and the "Lotus" name Fernandes has no right to use it without their permission, that it was never David Hunts to sell, and the team cannot be renamed Team Lotus for 2011. Group Lotus then purchase 25% in the Renault F1 team and announce plans to enter that team in 2011 under the name Lotus Renault GP.

So what's ultimately in court is who does or doesn't own rights to use "Lotus". Proton claim they've always owned it since they purchased Lotus Cars in 1994; that David Hunt had no right to sell the name as never owned it, just the team which at that point was named Team Lotus; and that since they've terminated Fernandes' licence he has no rights to it either. Fernandes claims he licenced it from Proton; that David Hunt owned "Team Lotus" and that he then bought it from Hunt, giving him "Team Lotus". This argument is the one that will have to be settled by the courts.

This is more than just a minor inconvenience for Formula 1 however. As Fernandes' Team Lotus has engaged Renault as an engine supplier, his team will be titled in full Team Lotus-Renault. Meaning that there'll be a Lotus Renault GP team on the grid driven by Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov, competing with a Team Lotus-Renault team driven by Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen. In a sport as prestigious and professional as Formula 1, having two teams with such similar names on the grid is nothing short of ludicrous. A newcomer to the sport would think they're the same team.

The main casualty here though is the legendary name of Team Lotus, which is being dragged through the mud. The family of Colin Chapman have echoed this sentiment, saying they'd prefer it if the name was not used in Formula 1, backing Proton and Group Lotus.

Ultimately both sides can be accused of being in the wrong. Fernandes has been accused of just using the name of the famous F1 team in an attempt to give his team a credibility and history straight away without putting in any of the work to earn it. Whilst Proton/Group Lotus appear to have liked the idea of Fernandes' team at first, then realised how long it'd take them to get up the grid, deciding they couldn't be bothered to wait that long, and pulling their rights to the name in order to buy a better team in Renault. Both sides can be accused of being wrong, selfish and inconsiderate of the great name of Team Lotus.

Unfortunately it appears we'll be heading to Bahrain with the matter unresolved, as the hearing date isn't set for until just before the Melbourne GP. Hopefully the matter can be resolved before then but it appears almost impossible. So we just have to wait for the decision to be made for them, and hopefully the matter can be put to bed and the focus turn back to the racing once more.