Team Lotus rebrand factory, website

[duke_toaster]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/88743

http://www.teamlotus.co.uk/ is the new URL, teamlotus.com being owned (domainsquatted, arguably?) by Group Lotus. Although is the .co.uk a possible sign of gaining a British competitor licence?

[jab]

.co.uk - hmm, funny that, considering Fernandes has always insisted it's a Malaysian team and registered it as Malaysian. Or at least he did until it wasn't in his interest to do so

[duke_toaster]

Teamlotus.my is a redirect to teamlotus.co.uk, so it appears that the .co.uk is an intentional decision.

[bella]

where's the drama? as d_t says, teamlotus.my redirects there.

if he doesn't at least make approaches towards being aware of being a british team, you'll whine about that. now he has, you're calling him out for daring to drop his malaysian heritage.

christ.

[jab]

I'm calling him out because he's a hypocrite, constantly going back on things he's said throughout the last year. He's not trustworthy. It's all about PR and image

Where have the plans to move the team to Malaysia gone? Funny that...

[bella]

any good, strong business plan evolves and changes from initial expectations to suit the industry and current situations. i'm sure you're aware of that already... yet it doesn't apply to fernandes...

[jab]

But he won't even acknowledge there's been a change. It's as if he's erasing history and pretending he never said this, because it doesn't suit him any more. He started off promoting it as a Malaysian team, saying he was doing it for Malaysia and wanted to move the team out there. And now, because the Malaysian government are behind Group Lotus, he's now ignoring this and that the team's official name is 1Malaysia, and seemingly promoting it as a British team, judging by this domain name and the fact that they've been promoting it as a Norfolk team with a base not far from the old Lotus base (despite the fact that a year ago, he was saying it was only going to be a temporary base before the move to Sepang)

And it's not the only thing. Halfway through the year, he celebrated Lotus' 500th GP. Now he claims that Group Lotus, the company he was borrowing the rights to the Lotus name off, have no rights to Lotus' F1 heritage. That's a complete contradiction

It's just incredibly shallow. It's not ethical business. To all intents and purposes, it's lying

[strider]

Originally Posted by bella

where's the drama? as d_t says, teamlotus.my redirects there.

if he doesn't at least make approaches towards being aware of being a british team, you'll whine about that. now he has, you're calling him out for daring to drop his malaysian heritage.

christ.

Thanks. You've said it for me.

[VIVA GT]

Originally Posted by jab

But he won't even acknowledge there's been a change. It's as if he's erasing history and pretending he never said this, because it doesn't suit him any more. He started off promoting it as a Malaysian team, saying he was doing it for Malaysia and wanted to move the team out there. And now, because the Malaysian government are behind Group Lotus, he's now ignoring this and that the team's official name is 1Malaysia, and seemingly promoting it as a British team, judging by this domain name and the fact that they've been promoting it as a Norfolk team with a base not far from the old Lotus base (despite the fact that a year ago, he was saying it was only going to be a temporary base before the move to Sepang)

And it's not the only thing. Halfway through the year, he celebrated Lotus' 500th GP. Now he claims that Group Lotus, the company he was borrowing the rights to the Lotus name off, have no rights to Lotus' F1 heritage. That's a complete contradiction

It's just incredibly shallow. It's not ethical business. To all intents and purposes, it's lying

Don't you think this is possibly why he's changed his mind about moving the Team to Malaysia?

[jab]

Of course it's the reason, but why doesn't he say that instead of just pretending it never happened?

[medius]

Oh my, someone has a change of heart about something. Its like New Coke and Coke Classic all over again.

Evil, evil man!

[Knowlesy]

F1 fans - overreacting about everything since forever.

[bella]

Originally Posted by jab

But he won't even acknowledge there's been a change. It's as if he's erasing history and pretending he never said this, because it doesn't suit him any more.

oh well if you're going to have an anti-fernandes rant, then how about you throw into the "he's dropping malaysia" mix that lotus binned off fairuz fauzy, which includes his formula renault 3.5 team and iirc, a malaysian formula bmw/whatever it's called now team. which is a large part of the young malaysian drivers scheme they were starting up.

at least bang a *different* drum occasionally. i'm surprised you didn't see that as being a significant part in your "he's dropping malaysia" puzzle to be honest.

[jab]

Originally Posted by medius

Oh my, someone has a change of heart about something.

I don't see this as a change of heart. It's not like he suddenly got up one morning and decided "hmm, I think my team will be British today. Don't know why, just feel like having a change". This is obviously a tactical decision, which will be solely for PR reasons

He is totally entitled to do this, but the point is he's not being open and honest about it, something he is accusing Bahar of. That's why he's a hypocrite - he's no better than his "opponent" despite getting up on his high horse and claiming that he is

[bella]

for the record, the lotus racing/team lotus gp2 team "team air asia" (based at their norfolk factory) is registered with gp2 with a malaysian licence for 2011.

[Marbot]

IIRC Fernandes called off the decision to re-locate in Malaysia quite some time ago.

[andrewc]

Didn't TF acknowledge early in the 2010 season that upon reflection moving the team lock, stock and barrel to Malaysia would be a bad decision, as the UK is such an important part of Motorsport, both in terms of brains and suppliers. He thought that Malaysia could play an important role as being a second home for the far flung races.

[duke_toaster]

Yes, basically.

[Wims]

Originally Posted by bella

any good, strong business plan evolves and changes from initial expectations to suit the industry and current situations. i'm sure you're aware of that already... yet it doesn't apply to fernandes...

I think the point he was trying to make was that TF is ALL BUSINESS and really no heart and passion :P

[Hubble]

Originally Posted by Marbot

IIRC Fernandes called off the decision to re-locate in Malaysia quite some time ago.

I'm glad someone else noticed that.........

[ASCII Man]

Originally Posted by Wims

I think the point he was trying to make was that TF is ALL BUSINESS and really no heart and passion :P

So the people that actually met him and say otherwise must be talking out their proverbial asses then.

Curse you, Joe Saward!

[Marbot]

Fernandes comes across as a genuine 'racer' at heart.

[Wims]

Originally Posted by ASCII Man

So the people that actually met him and say otherwise must be talking out their proverbial asses then.

Curse you, Joe Saward!

I'm not saying anything, im just trying to translate Jabs post

[jab]

Originally Posted by ASCII Man

So the people that actually met him and say otherwise must be talking out their proverbial asses then.

Curse you, Joe Saward!

It's hardly universal, though:

Originally Posted by James Allen

F1 inside opinion is divided on this – some feel sympathy for Bahar on the basis that he controls the Lotus brand and Fernandes has no real connection with it beyond a friendship with the Chapman family and the rights to Team Lotus. Others feel that Fernandes is a proven achiever through his airline and has done a good, honest job with reviving Lotus in F1 and has the right plan for moving forward in future.

You don't have to meet someone to judge them. All I've done is just read what the man himself has said, and there are plenty of contradictions and inconsistencies. That smacks of a man that's just going with the tide in order to gain as many fans and sponsors as possible, in order to make some cash. Whipping up a conflict with a bunch of suits from Malaysia is a perfect way of doing that, whilst conveniently covering the fact that he himself is a Malaysian businessman

I just don't like people who don't tell the truth. That's the way I've been brought up. If you can all accept and ignore the lying and spin, fine, that's your choice

[E.B]

Originally Posted by jab

But he won't even acknowledge there's been a change. It's as if he's erasing history and pretending he never said this, because it doesn't suit him any more. He started off promoting it as a Malaysian team, saying he was doing it for Malaysia and wanted to move the team out there. And now, because the Malaysian government are behind Group Lotus, he's now ignoring this and that the team's official name is 1Malaysia, and seemingly promoting it as a British team, judging by this domain name and the fact that they've been promoting it as a Norfolk team with a base not far from the old Lotus base (despite the fact that a year ago, he was saying it was only going to be a temporary base before the move to Sepang)

It's just incredibly shallow. It's not ethical business. To all intents and purposes, it's lying

I think you have perhaps missed a few episodes of Lotus News from a year ago.....

I dont know where all this as a result of 'the Malaysian government are behind Group Lotus, he's now ignoring....'etc has come from. You are wrongly informed if you think the delay to move Lotus F1 to Malaysia is new news or in any way linked to the recent issues between Bahar and Fernandes. Hell Team/Lotus F1 confirmed the move to Malaysia was on hold before they put their 2010 car on track pretty much.

Monday, February 15, 2010
Lotus F1 to stay in Norfolk

The official reason back then was amusingly ironic though..... partially because of the wish to be close to the road company, (at a time when it looked like Bahar was supportive of Lotus F1, until Bahar did his back flip and went on his little plan to launch the already losing money hand over fist Lotus into every known class of motor racing on the planet, whilst building Lotus Indy engines with the other hand. (forgetting to mention it is not even a Lotus engine but a rebadge),

The other reason for the delay mentioned was that the delay was also due to the employment at Team Lotus of many of the Toyota staff, many who it seems still work based in Germany.

Moving onto a slightly hypothetical thought..... Perhaps the real reason for 'TL' staying in the UK is because Fernandes has made it his business to pursue the purchase of Group Lotus, to complete his original plan. Given that the Group Lotus manufacturing is just down the road from the Team Lotus Norfolk premises I can see that there is a very strong argument to locate the two seperate businesses adjacent. Who knows maybe funding that was to be used for the Malaysian base is now needed to buy Group out

Actually I have just found an interview with Gascoyne on F1 Fanatic back in October 2009 when they first announced their entry in place of BMW, where Gascoyne was saying that a move to Malaysia was not a short term objective but very much a long term one, and also confirmed back then that indeed they would ALWAYS need to maintain a Lotus F1 base in the UK for the logistics of the European season..

Clearly anyway it is not a sudden or recent tantrum type of ethically bereft act of dishonesty about turn from Fernandes as you suggest. It has, as the interviews confirm, been planned for the past year to be a low priority to relocate to Sepang.