FORUMula1.com

[andrew]

If microsoft takes over I'm fully expecting apple to join f1 as well

If Micro$oft takes over, I fully expect a restart button in every car because they'll need it multiple times during a race

If Lotus (the brand) pull out of F1 then Lotus (the team) should change their name and I'm sure they will. Plenty of other brands would pay to have their name in F1 and it's no financial sense for Lotus (team) to keep it.

Could be worse. Apple could take over and the entire team would have a false sence of thinkong they're better than everyone else.

nothing false about it, its Fact!

I've used a Mac once many years ago - ain't making that mistake again!

[bud]

the attention to Design both software and hardware by the one company is too some, just a bit too much and like the look and feel of a dirty makeshift bitsa PC.

[What's Burning?]

If there's a company that would "fit" the F1 image it's apple. Anyway, they've got to do something with that 3/4 trillion dollar war chest of cash they've got on hand. Bernie would love to suck up half of it.

[andrew]

Group Lotus says it remains committed to Formula 1

Group Lotus insists that it remains committed to Formula 1 until at least 2017 despite the recent change to the terms of its sponsorship deal with the Lotus F1 team.

A Lotus statement issued today claims that under the "reshaped" commercial relationship, it continues to be the title partner of the ex-Renault outfit despite the team now searching for new sponsorship income.

The team had previously confirmed that it would continue to carry the Lotus name in F1.

"Lotus F1 team and Group Lotus reshaped their commercial relationship earlier this year," said Group Lotus in a statement in which it criticised rumours about the company.

"The new governance agreement signifies the continued commitment of Group Lotus to the team and the sport.

"Group Lotus' branding and marketing rights and subsequent activities remain unaffected by the new agreement until at least 2017.

"Alongside continued branding and title partnership status, Group Lotus is also the exclusive master licensee for all Lotus F1 Team merchandise."

The statement also revealed that Group Lotus owner Proton it still has the right to purchase 10 per cent of the team, with a further 10 percent also available if the team defaults on repayments on a £30 million loan that forms part of the agreement.

"The new agreement was reached following Group Lotus owners Proton providing team owners Genii with a £30m loan which is repayable within three years.

"In order to secure the loan Genii used 100 per cent of the F1 team's assets as collateral meaning that under the conditions of the loan agreement Proton have been given full title guarantee to all plant, machinery, show cars, computers, office and the Lotus F1 Team headquarters.

"In addition Proton retains the rights to purchase 10% of the F1 team. Another 10% share option will be activated if the team default on their loan obligations with Proton."

The statement also hit out at Caterham F1 team owner Tony Fernandes and its technical chief Mike Gascoyne.

"You can thank good old Tony Fernandes for these two. Don't take everything he tweets too seriously - perhaps he's still frustrated about owning Caterham instead of Lotus and the fact that he fights HRT and Marussia instead of Mercedes and Ferrari in F1," the statement read.

Group Lotus's press release in full

This is the full release sent out by Group Lotus on the Wednesday before the Chinese Grand Prix.

Never let the facts get in the way of a good story....

Take a little look at what we found online. Don't you think it's funny? We do. We had a good old giggle. After all, we love a bit of self irony, just as well really. Although it's funny, this one's not accurate but then again, why let the facts get in the way of a good story? The inconvenient truth is - surprise, surprise - we have never said that there are no problems at Lotus.

So whilst lots of people obviously feel the need to comment on Lotus' current situation in the absence of proper facts or evidence, we can't ignore these particular mistruths any longer even if we would like to, so we have decided to turn a negative into a positive and use this hilarious piece of 'art' to set the record straight regarding the status quo at Group Lotus and try to return a little stability to a fast changing situation.

False rumour #1: Dany Bahar is no longer CEO of Group Lotus.
Fact: Rubbish - Dany Bahar still is.

False rumour #2: Dato' Sri Syed is no longer Managing Director of Proton.
Fact: Again rubbish. He still is.

You can thank good old Tony Fernandes for these two. Don't take everything he tweets too seriously – perhaps he's still frustrated about owning Caterham instead of Lotus and the fact that he fights HRT and Marussia instead of Mercedes and Ferrari in F1.

And whilst we're on the subject of jokes - do you know the latest F1 joke? Mike Gascoyne, Caterham Group's Chief Technical Officer, has gone missing. Why? He's looking for the 30 to 40 points he predicted for the last F1 season. Funny.

Speaking of F1: It seems that one special so called 'independent' source is at the root of the lion's share of damaging rumours and misleading stories. The delightful Joe Saward which leads us nicely to....

False rumour #3: Joe Saward is JUST an independent journalist.
Fact: He is an active Director for the Caterham Group.

And unlike some, we don't want to get too personal, so we'll leave it to you to judge how 'independent' his stories about Lotus are.

False rumour #4: Group Lotus is no longer involved in F1.
Fact: Lotus F1 Team and Group Lotus have reshaped their commercial relationship earlier this year. The new governance agreement signifies the continued commitment of Group Lotus to the team and the sport.

Group Lotus' branding and marketing rights and subsequent activities remain unaffected by the new agreement until at least 2017. Alongside continued branding and title partnership status, Group Lotus is also the exclusive master licensee for all Lotus F1 Team merchandise.

The new agreement was reached following Group Lotus owners Proton providing team owners Genii with a £30m loan which is repayable within three years. In order to secure the loan Genii used 100% of the F1 team's assets as collateral meaning that under the conditions of the loan agreement Proton have been given full title guarantee to all plant, machinery, show cars, computers, office and the Lotus F1 Team headquarters.

In addition Proton retains the rights to purchase 10% of the F1 team. Another 10% share option will be activated if the team default on their loan obligations with Proton.

Again we leave it to your judgement how 'bad' Lotus' current situation in F1 is. And speaking of bad situations.....

False rumour #5: Group Lotus is going into administration.
Fact: Rubbish. The takeover of our parent company Proton by DRB-HICOM couldn't have come at a worse time, but up until that point Proton was (and still remains) fully committed to our five year business plan to create jobs and to expand the factory and business. With the takeover process the funding has been restricted and DRB-HICOM is taking time to understand what to do with the business. DRB-HICOM is currently in the middle of due diligence of Group Lotus and there have been and continue to be positive discussions between Group Lotus senior management and senior management at DRB-HICOM both here in Hethel and in Malaysia. At no point has DRB-HICOM indicated to Group Lotus that it intends to put the company into administration. The over-active rumour mill is seriously damaging our business reputation, image and credibility but it is what it is.

The simple fact is, and we haven't denied this - Lotus is going through a very difficult phase at the moment but we are showing true fighting spirit every day in trying to keep this vision alive. This is also a fact – no matter what people outside of Lotus may say or tweet or blog.

ENDS

[scotty]

Romain Grosjean and Kimi Raikkonen believe Lotus will need to get everything perfect during races in order to have a shot at winning this year.

The Frenchman and team-mate Raikkonen have enjoyed a strong start to the season, with both finishing on the podium in the previous race in Bahrain.

Raikkonen was in the fight for victory but finished second, while Grosjean scored his maiden F1 podium with third.

Despite the strong outing, however, Grosjean reckons Lotus will need to get everything right during a race in order to win.

"We are in good shape, we had a good race in Bahrain but the base of the car in the race is good," said Grosjean. "We know the team need to improve some areas but honestly to win a race this year would be to get everything right: the qualy, the race, the start.

"It is so tight it is very difficult to predict what will be the result on Sunday and if we were to have a bet we would get a lot of different points of view."

Raikkonen agreed with his team-mate, the Finn confident his team can be up with the best if the weekend goes smoothly.

"I don't know how it will go, it is difficult to say before the weekend starts," said Raikkonen. "The teams are close and if everything goes smoothly we can be up there, but small difficulties mean you can be further back so we will try and do everything right."

The 2007 world champion said he was still disappointed to have missed out on victory in Bahrain, but admitted it had been a good result for the team.

"I think once you get so close you are not happy with second and if you are 20 seconds behind it doesn't matter, but we had a chance so it was a bit disappointing. But for the team it was a good weekend."

Yes, everything must be done perfectly to win, but you must say it's the same for every single team in contention at the moment - but the fact that they're even just in a position to be saying this is therefore such a great sign given that aspect. They could very well get third though, seeing as Ferrari are a one man team and Mercedes seem a little hit and miss and very reliant on being in the correct tyre temp window (and also perhaps a one man team, although i think Schumacher will pull good results out at some point personally). Could they go even further and beat Red Bull and/or McLaren? Possible, but improbable i think. Can't wait to see how the top 5 in the constructor's turns out come November.

[LewEngBridewell]

Similar to what scotty said, the WCC is going to be magnificent this year, at the rate it's going. Lotus have every chance of getting a win in 2012, providing the circumstances are right. There's clearly no consistency at the sharp-end this season.

[geetface9]

All I know is dany bahar can smoke my

[madbrad]

Apple cars would be disqualified for running on self esteem rather than the mandated pump gasoline.

[What's Burning?]

With the inability of Ferrari or Mercedes to have both drivers score points, this is looking like a very good possibility for Lotus right about now.

[Hammer278]

This is looking very realistic at this stage of the season. Especially since Ferrari only have 1 1/4 drivers in the team right now.

[LewEngBridewell]

This is looking very realistic at this stage of the season. Especially since Ferrari only have 1 1/4 drivers in the team right now.

It makes you realise how seriously Massa is holding the team back.

[Jabberwocky]

or how much Alonso is dragging the car along well

[The Second Coming]

This is looking very realistic at this stage of the season. Especially since Ferrari only have 1 1/4 drivers in the team right now.

1/4? That's high praise indeed for Massa.

[acosmichippo]

after a decent start to this thread, me while perusing this Group Lotus BS:

[Jabberwocky]

I have come to the conclusion that this years Lotus' have taken over from what Button did so well last year. Being almost unspectacular in the race but always at the end pop there heads up and take a big bite of points.