Ambitious But Rubbish

Yes, Lotus (the car manufacturer) is back in F1 in a venture with Renault F1 called Lotus Renault GP (pretty much as was opined in a previous post).  This is not to be confused with Lotus Racing or indeed Team Lotus, which are actually the 1Malaysia team and now no longer sponsored by Proton who own Lotus (the manufacturer). However they will be using Renault engines, such that on the grid next year we might see two completely separate (and indeed feuding) Lotus teams with the same engine. 1Malaysia also still have the Lotus name under license, at least until the courts tell them they don’t.

Confused yet? No? How about this: both teams will apparently go for the black-and-gold Lotus livery from the JPS days. There’s probably a lot of talk about “lessons learnt” at the Proton HQ these days, most of it probably centering on how the company shouldn’t necessarily do business with just anyone who flashes a bunch of money at them…