Team Lotus to become Sonangol Caterham F1?

[steve nielsen]

http://www.thef1times.com/news/display/03170

Caterham F1 sponsored by an Angolan Petrol company??

it looks to be anounced tomorrow.

there are already some webadresses registered:

http://sonangolcaterhamf1.com/

http://sonangolcaterham.com/

http://sonangolcaterhamteamlotus.com/

[Knowlesy]

No, we want to be Team Lotus! It's not fair! Renault are bullying us! We're the REAL Lotus! We are, we are, we are!

Let's change to Caterham!

[ascarracinguk]

seems to me like fernandez knows that either he aint got a leg to stand on in the naming row and is either a) buying caterham to say 'look ive got the original lotus' or b) is trying to use caterham to wiggle out and save face by saying i was going to name it caterham all along, either way i dont like him using caterham as a pawn in his little game....stinks big time!

[ASCII Man]

I'm sure they're just covering their asses for the possibility that their court case goes tits up.

[GTRMagic]

Originally Posted by ascarracinguk

seems to me like fernandez knows that either he aint got a leg to stand on in the naming row and is either a) buying caterham to say 'look ive got the original lotus' or b) is trying to use caterham to wiggle out and save face by saying i was going to name it caterham all along, either way i dont like him using caterham as a pawn in his little game....stinks big time!

What F1 heritage does Caterham enjoy?

Its nice that Mr Fernandes chose to 'save' this cottage industry... but others have found it quite financially unrewarding (thinking of Spyker here...)

Any news on commercial sponsors (like naming rights..)?

[Bononi]

Interesting.

[ChrisPage]

Originally Posted by ascarracinguk

seems to me like fernandez knows that either he aint got a leg to stand on in the naming row and is either a) buying caterham to say 'look ive got the original lotus' or b) is trying to use caterham to wiggle out and save face by saying i was going to name it caterham all along, either way i dont like him using caterham as a pawn in his little game....stinks big time!

Or potentially wins the naming case and Caterham becomes 'Team Lotus Cars' or somesuch.

An interesting one to be watching the next couple of days. I do hope Caterham does come through ok though.

[ECW Dan Selby]

I just don't give a you know what anymore. It's stupid - all really, really stupid.

That's a technical term.

Selby

[ECW Dan Selby]

All confirmed that they've bought out Caterham.

Fernandes said: “Caterham has a unique place at the heart of the motoring world. As well as being proudly and staunchly British, it has an enviable and uniquely unblemished reputation within the industry for performance, handling and engineering excellence."

Sorry but i've lost respect for this guy. Worst public identity crisis in some time. Are you Lotus, Air Asia, Malaysia, or United Kingdom?!?!

Selby

[Mr V]

Originally Posted by ascarracinguk

seems to me like fernandez knows that either he aint got a leg to stand on in the naming row

Really? He bought the name from David Hunt, not Group Lotus, Team Lotus was in F1 before Group Lotus.

Funnily enough, i was just reading Andrew Bensons blog and here's what he thinks...

Fernandes is widely expected to win the rights to continue to use Team Lotus. He bought it legitimately from its previous owner, David Hunt, brother of the late world champion James, and Group Lotus has always acted in the past as if it knew it did not own the name.

I personally think that Group Lotus saw how well Team Lotus did last year and have decided to use their mussle to out the little guy, i hope that Fernandes wins.

[bella]

i think it's a great decision. and you're all miserable old cynics.

let's put another spin on it - caterham bought by sound, competant businessman with good corporate links and a strong existing brand. not many of those around willing to invest in a british based company, is there?

[ptclaus98]

Originally Posted by bella

i think it's a great decision. and you're all miserable old cynics.

let's put another spin on it - caterham bought by sound, competant businessman with good corporate links and a strong existing brand. not many of those around willing to invest in a british based company, is there?

Especially one as niche as Caterham. But no, Tony Fernandes is evil! This can only be terrible and you can't tell me otherwise! LALALALALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU.

[graeme]

Originally Posted by GTRMagic

What F1 heritage does Caterham enjoy?

A Seven raced in the 1963 (?) South Africian G.P...

[duke_toaster]

Originally Posted by bella

i think it's a great decision. and you're all miserable old cynics.

let's put another spin on it - caterham bought by sound, competant businessman with good corporate links and a strong existing brand. not many of those around willing to invest in a british based company, is there?

This. With regards to the nationality question, the money came from Malaysia, and some of those Malaysian backers stopped. The whole moving the team out to Sepang idea was quickly realized to be a bad one. I just don't understand why certain people seem to have such a bad attitude to Tony Fernandes, did he pee in their Weetabix or something?

[bella]

Originally Posted by duke_toaster

I just don't understand why certain people seem to have such a bad attitude to Tony Fernandes, did he pee in their Weetabix or something?

such an offence PALES INTO INSIGNIFICANCE compared to the HEINOUS crime of DARING to open a CLOSED chapter of motorsport or something.

[ECW Dan Selby]

Easy now, people.

All i'm saying is the fella's had a complete identity crisis. I just wish he'd stick to his plan rather than change it all the time and expect everyone to not notice!

One minute it's all Malaysian, the next it's hearty English. Just stick to the plan, Tony!

Selby

[davyboy]

The acquisition of Caterham Cars is a very odd move. I can't see any synergy between that organization and anything else in the TF portfolio. Caterham are a low tech small volume sports/kit car manufacturer that have been producing ostensibly the same model car since they started.

Maybe TF needs to plough his own furrow instead of dwelling on the past. His team have progressed reasonably well in F1 and would do well to focus their efforts there instead.

[ECW Dan Selby]

This is it davyboy.

I take nothing away from him as far as what he's done with that team. They've done the best of the newcomers, despite having less notice than the others. That's fantastic.

It just irks me this whole chopping and changing thing. "The good always win", us and them, we are the real Lotus, we arn't the real Lotus, we are British, we are Malaysian.

C'mon...

Selby

[bella]

regarding the british/malaysian identity "crisis". meet tony fernandes. he is very english. the only thing not english about him is his passport, and his businesses being mainly based in asia. he's so british he's been honoured by the queen. but he's malaysian. the other members of the board are malaysian.

so what can they do besides identify strongly with malaysia and the fanbase there and quite rightly point out they're malaysian owned, funded and managed. yet they're based in the uk - and are rightly proud of the people who work for them. no matter where they're from.

suggest everyone moves on and enjoys fernandes' business, publicity and entrepreneurial skills. they're not "living in the past". are mclaren "living in the past" by producing road cars? no. they're diversifying and taking what they know from f1 composites, precision engineering and handling and putting it in a road car. the difference is that team lotus are going for a different market, and they don't need to take valuable people away from the f1 side of the team to invest in the caterham side. the skills are already there, and there's no need to stage any form of management intervention.

[darcia2]

Tony will win the court case... and eventually he will own group lotus....

[Marbot]

Originally Posted by darcia2

Tony will win the court case... and eventually he will own group lotus....

He'd better hurry though because Bahar is leading Group Lotus into the valley of death.

[steve nielsen]

[Super Hans]

Jesus - there's like six drivers in that picture.

[steve nielsen]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGERIVg7ATE

[davyboy]

Originally Posted by bella

suggest everyone moves on and enjoys fernandes' business, publicity and entrepreneurial skills. they're not "living in the past". are mclaren "living in the past" by producing road cars? no. they're diversifying and taking what they know from f1 composites, precision engineering and handling and putting it in a road car. the difference is that team lotus are going for a different market, and they don't need to take valuable people away from the f1 side of the team to invest in the caterham side. the skills are already there, and there's no need to stage any form of management intervention.

They're living in the past by trying to resurrect a name from the past... and now aligning themselves to that name's road cars of the past through the acquisition of Caterham. Lotus themselves sold the rights of the 7 to Caterham almost 40 years ago... and that's pretty much all Caterham have done since.