Although Malaysian Tony Fernandez brough Lotus name back in F1 with his Lotus Racing Team, Lotus Group decided not to grant name permissions anymore to the Malaysian Team but instead to buy a stake and sponsor Renault F1 team providing to the French team the historical Lotus name as title sponsor Genii Capital Chairman and RenaultF1 majority shareholder Gerard Lopez has revealed that Group Lotus will be the title sponsor and a major shareholder in the rebranded Lotus Renault GP Team in 2011
Lotus sponsorship means that team's livery will be in the iconic black and gold that Ayrton Senna raced in for Team Lotus in 80s before moving to McLaren.
Lopez commented:
"We are delighted that we can now go public with the news that we will be racing as Lotus Renault GP in 2011. It is extremely exciting to begin a new era for the team in partnership with Group Lotus, and we will continue to enjoy a strong relationship with Renault over the coming seasons. It is a tribute to the excellent work this year by the team in Enstone that we have been able to attract both major sponsorship and new investment for a very bright future."
Group Lotus CEO Dany Bahar in turn expressed his delight at the deal, which again partners the famous Lotus brand with Renault engines.
"I can think of no better platform for automotive brand communications than motorsport and F1 is the very pinnacle of open-wheel racing. We're well aware that there has been a lot of controversy around the usage of our brand in F1 and I'm delighted to be able to formally clarify our position once and for all: we are Lotus and we are back."
Renault will continue its strong support of the team with which it won the 2005 and 2006 world championships, as an official engine and technological-engineering expertise supplier. Reflecting this technological support, Lotus Renault GP will continue to compete with the Renault chassis name and Renault will enjoy pre-eminent brand exposure on the livery.
The team is still set to reveal the identity of its second driver to partner Robert Kubica in 2011 while Lopez informed the media that the announcement would probably be made in the first two weeks of December. Vitaly Petrov, Nico Hulkenberg, Nick Heidfeld and even Bruno Senna could be equally perfect candidates for the driving position.
The announcement throws into question what Tony Fernandes' F1 team will be called, while planning to run as 'Team Lotus' despite the ongoing naming dispute.
