{"id":20081,"date":"2013-12-02T07:08:11","date_gmt":"2013-12-02T12:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/?p=20081"},"modified":"2013-12-02T07:08:11","modified_gmt":"2013-12-02T12:08:11","slug":"grosjean-not-sure-if-lotus-budget-in-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/formula-1\/grosjean-not-sure-if-lotus-budget-in-place\/","title":{"rendered":"Grosjean not sure if Lotus budget in place"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Romain Grosjean has admitted he is not sure if Lotus&#8217; money problems have been solved.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"ngg-singlepic ngg-left alignleft\" style=\"margin: 5px 10px;\" alt=\"Romain-Grosjean-2\" src=\"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/gallery\/f1-2013-rif-images\/f1-2013-drivers\/Romain-Grosjean-2.jpg\" width=\"384\" height=\"256\" \/>The Enstone based team had been delaying signing its preferred option to replace the disgruntled Kimi Raikkonen &#8211; Nico Hulkenberg &#8211; until the money from the much-vaunted &#8216;Quantum&#8217; investment came through.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, while re-signing the impressive Frenchman Grosjean, Lotus announced on Friday that his new teammate will be Pastor Maldonado.<\/p>\n<p>The press release made no mention of the Venezuelan&#8217;s backing, but it is well known that he brings around EUR 35-40 million from the PDVSA oil company.<\/p>\n<p>After the news broke, some said it was a clear sign that the Quantum money will never arrive.\u00a0 But others insisted the deal headed by controversial businessman Mansoor Ijaz is still on the cards.<\/p>\n<p>Asked if he has been told Lotus&#8217; financial problems are now over, Grosjean told France&#8217;s L&#8217;Equipe: &#8220;Not yet, but I am going to see (team boss) Eric (Boullier) on Monday.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We will discuss it then.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Asked if Friday&#8217;s news was a relief, he told RMC: &#8220;I don&#8217;t know if relief is the right word, but it&#8217;s always nice to be confirmed sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The team had other things to deal with beforehand, but we had always wanted to continue to work together.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Grosjean said he is confident Lotus will handle the transition to the radical new 2014 rules well, but acknowledged: &#8220;We will have to have the budget, because it (the season) will be expensive and complicated.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>And asked if he has concerns that he will not be paid in 2014, the 27-year-old answered: &#8220;I have no problem.\u00a0 My motivation and my work have never changed during the season.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is a personal matter between myself and my employer,&#8221; added Grosjean.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #888888;\"><em>\u00a9 RIF | GMM<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Romain Grosjean has admitted he is not sure if Lotus&#8217; money problems have been solved. The Enstone based team had been delaying signing its preferred option to replace the disgruntled Kimi Raikkonen &#8211; Nico Hulkenberg &#8211; until the money from the much-vaunted &#8216;Quantum&#8217; investment came through. Ultimately, while re-signing the impressive Frenchman Grosjean, Lotus announced &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[3],"tags":[251,5262,5340,306,1842,295],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20081"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20081"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20082,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20081\/revisions\/20082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}