A Tale of 2 [or 3] Lotuses [or Lotii]

R-L: Graham Hill [62 & 68 champ], Jim Clark [63 & 65 champ], Colin Chapman [genius] and an Unkown Guy circle the Lotus Cosworth 49 [68 constructor champ]

The story starts with a man called Colin Chapman who founded Lotus Cars in 1952. In 1954 he formed Team Lotus, a separate [yet closely related] entity to Lotus Cars. Team Lotus' focus was set solely on the development of race cars. Over time the two companies featured both defeat and success in their respective fields with Team Lotus having won the F1 Constructors Championship 7 times [4th overall in total wins]. Unfortunately after Colin's death in 1982 both Lotuses [or Lotii] faced economic woes which lead to Lotus cars being sold and bought by nearly every company on the planet while Team Lotus suffered a slow yet sudden death in 1994 after years of uncompetitive action.

Lotus 72 [2 driver's champs and 3 constructor's champs]

Lotus 49 [68 driver's and constructor's champ]

Fast forward to 2009

Lotus the car company is just getting back on its feet thanks to Malaysian money and pocket money from helping out Toyota. Along with Lotus' plans of pushing out more cars than it has ever done before, it was also considering re-entering motorsports, first on the list was the series that made it famous in the first place, Formula 1. The team that would step up to the plate would be Litespeed which registered to race under the name Lotus Racing on behalf of them [after being unable to get clearance from using the original Team Lotus name]

Now take a break and notice that there is Lotus Cars, Lotus Racing and Team Lotus, all coming from the same roots yet currently independent.

Back to Lotus Racing..... seeing that Lotus Cars is owned by Malaysians, the biggest sponsor to Lotus Racing is of course the Malaysians [as in it actually has 1Malaysia as a registered sponsor]. As a matter of fact Lotus Racing races under the Malaysian flag with a Malaysian team principal and test driver. Because of this cultural gap, there is a discontinuation between Lotus Racing and Lotus cars [evident in the fact that the Malaysians cannot use the official Lotus logo] Despite this they named the car T127, as a continuation in the number scheme Team Lotus and Lotus cars use and even stated that if they won, it would add to Lotus' overall records. To blur the line even more, Lotus Racing has chosen to choose the British Racing Green and yellow outline used by the Lotus 49 as well as using Cosworth engines which were used by both the 72 and 49.

Lotus T127 [tied for last place in 2010 but voted as best of the new teams]

To continue its quest for official status, Lotus Racing announced that as of 2011 they will be called Team Lotus after acquiring the name legally [aka a lot of money] from David Hunt [James Hunt's brother] As to why he had the rights to the Team Lotus name and not Lotus cars, I dunno. In addition to switching to the Team Lotus name for 2011 they also announced a switch to Renault engines after they suffered problems with the transmissions attached to the Cosworth engines. To distance themselves even further from the Lotus Racing moniker they also announced a return to the Black and Gold livery first used on the Lotus 72 which would be designed by the fans. Of course all these changes seem fine and dandy until another company decides they want a slice of the Lotus pie.

First rendering of the Renault derived Lotus R31

After rumors and speculation Group Lotus [aka the Lotus that makes the road cars] decided that they would enter F1 officially by buying out the current Renault team [which is officially the most successful dead broke company on the grid] Of course this just seems to be more coincidence than deliberate. After losing big money sponsor ING, Renault has been in big money problems and this sellout to Group Lotus is no surprise, what is a surprise is the timing. Group Lotus has decided to enter the 2011 season as Lotus Renault GP [remember that Lotus Racing is also using Renault engines so their names should be Team Lotus Renault].

Confused yet???? But wait there's more.

Because Lotus Racing runs their F1 factory in England near to the Lotus Cars factory and has used the T127 naming scheme as well as bought the Team Lotus name, Group Lotus, being the real Lotus F1 team, now cannot be 100% the Lotus it wants but instead more Renault than Lotus. As a result the chassis will be called the R31 [continuing Renault's naming scheme] Fortunately, Renault was based in England anyways. To make their own unique link to the past [as well as not to differ too much from the Renault car] Group Lotus has decided to choose the same black and gold livery used by the old Lotus 72s [and the 2011 Team Lotus team]. So not only will we F1 fans be stuck with 2 Lotus teams going by the same name, but they will also be using the same color scheme. One can think, "o but didn't Red Bull do something similar with Torro Rosso?" yes and no. Yes in that they are two separate teams with similar paint schemes and names and no in the sense that they are actually in a dispute rather than one being a step up to the next.

So in other words, what will happen next season? Will one rename? Will one change color scheme? Will both be forced to do both? From what I'm seeing, both are stand strong on their decision with Lotus Racing [aka Team Lotus] debating that they were here first and Group Lotus debating that they're the real deal. Only God knows what will happen but all I hope is that Hulkenberg gets that empty seat at Lotus Renault GP beside Kubica.

Update: Team Lotus [the Malaysian one] will stick to their old green and yellow paint scheme while Lotus Renault will have Petrov alongside Kubica and Team Lotus will have the same old Trulli, Kovalainnen line up.

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