‘Team Lotus’ resolute after Group Lotus announcement

‘Team Lotus’ on Wednesday indicated it is in no mood to give in despite Group Lotus entering formula one for 2011.

F1 is now facing the bizarre situation of one team – Tony Fernandes’ Team Lotus – being known as Lotus-Renault, while the Renault F1 team is officially Lotus Renault GP.

Both intend to field Lotus’ black and gold cars inspired by the Lotuses raced by the likes of Ayrton Senna in the 80s.

Prior to Wednesday’s announcement, the situation looked destined for a bitter legal row, but even amid the pressure imposed by Group Lotus’, the group led by Fernandes sounded as resolute as ever.

“(Group Lotus CEO) Dany Bahar has done us a favour,” team boss Fernandes wrote on Twitter.  “Never felt better about our future and Team Lotus.  Looks like they (are) trying to hijack our black and gold idea.”

He re-published a ‘tweet’ from a fan: “Stick with the green and gold, save some cash to spend on the car!”

Fernandes was ‘tweeting’ from Bangkok.

“Funny, first meeting I had was in the Lotus room.  Wonder if Dany is going to try and sponsor that,” he typed.

The team’s technical boss Mike Gascoyne was also tweeting on Wednesday: “Lotus, just like buses, you wait for ages and then 2 come along at once.

“Rest assured, we are Team Lotus and we are here to stay.”

Chief executive Riad Asmat confirmed: “To clarify, since I’ve been receiving numerous calls from the media over here; we are ‘Team Lotus’.”

 © RIF | GMM