Lotus versus Lotus - Anyone else confused???

[Jon notbutton]

So first there was a team called Lotus and that disapeared and it was very sad but then there was a new team that decided to re-use the name Lotus and, very soon after that, then they tried to be "team lotus" but that was a problem because Lotus road cars (which is actually Proton) bought Renault and called their car a Lotus so now Renault is Lotus and Lotus is Caterham and everybody is friends...

But it seems to me like the original "new team lotus" lost everything and had to buy Caterham so as to have a name that actually meant something because team F1 Malaysia (or whatever) has the same value as Team HRT (in other words not very much)!

And to sweaten the blow, Caterham will help Proton develop road cars?... Or something like that. But a guy called Danny Bahar is very happy and Tony Fernandes is very quiet (however we all think he still has a certain Colin Chapman's (Lotus) cap)!?........

Sorry but I am confused!

[Rob]

As far as I am concerned Lotus is an OK name, but Caterham is is only one level above Wartburg.
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It's F1, Jim, but not as we know it.

[Editor]

[Gary]

Edited out.

[xynaria]

but Caterham is next decades Ferrari...you heard it here first..............
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it'll all end in tears..........cool!

[Jon notbutton]

I am going to start supporting East Grinstead. My local F1 team.

[sportsman]

Fernandes bought Caterham because they own the IP to the original Lotus Super Seven.
Caterham still build a car which is based on the Super Seven designs and are raced in their own series together with Lotus 7's.
Fenandes is still trying to hang on the Chapman link.

Incidently a race prepped Caterham is great fun to drive and their perfomance is none to shabby either.

[Ash]

Perhaps Tony should call his team Queens Park Rangers.

[easy_rider]

It does make you wonder what was the point of the litigation over Team Lotus (Caterham)'s right to use the Lotus name, if they are now voluntarily dropping it. At the time of the original court case they didn't have the right to the Caterham name, of course.

Clearly the original Fernandes plan was never going to work once Group Lotus took over a team in its own right; hence the need for Caterham as a back-up plan. I wonder how much money has changed hands for Team Lotus to stop using the name.

Quite amusing that Riad Asmat has said that one of the advantages of this is that they now own their own future and have no-one to be compared to. They could have had those advantages from the outset if they hadn't bought the rights to a great but dead team's name...

[The Rumble Strip]

This whole sorry saga is really rather a farce.

We've got a Lotus racing against a Lotus which used to be a Benneton which would therefore have raced against itself.

Perhaps the only winner in this and in effect the only one who can really call themselves Lotus is the Colin Chapman variety.

[bewildered_jim]

Tangent: on the topic of the same team changing names I'd love to know why Jaguar went so majestically to pot after Stewart did well in 1999.
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"With its F1 coverage from 2012 set to play second fiddle, the BBC promises to get fans close to the true experience - of being Mark Webber" #HIGNFY @don_lyall

[The Rumble Strip]

Different management who weren't up to it perhaps.

[AllanL]

As the bumpy one said, Jaguar were a corporate exercise that took more clueless PR staff to races than technical staff. Oddly enough the luvvies were no more use to developing and racing cars than they are in any other way of life.

But then as a crusty old enjunear I would think that. The lack of results was no doubt down to the incompetent technical staff in the face of the valiant efforts of the marketing executives in establishing powerpoints full of vision and mission statements.

So when do we get a chance to build our very own kit car Caterham F1 out of spare Fiesta bits?

[porscheman]

Personally I'm quite happy now that it's resolved. I no longer have to get a throbbing headache when I try to explain it all to casual fans

[Ash]