One question...

If they win in 2010, will that be their first victory in history books or 80th

No need to "IF" (haha they wouldnt win at 2010 anyway), we would face this question and the solution soon when counting the number of race starts and total constructor points.

Yes, that is ridiculous. I suppose, as a designer who has worked for F1 teams, you certainly didn't design any of these abominations:

It depends who youtalk to. Lotus would probably consider it their 80th, since their attitude has been "We want to build on the Lotus Racing name".

When Team Lotus was liquidated in 1994, Hunt bought all the commercial rights to the use of Team Lotus and all its associated Lotus branding specifically for use in F1. The purchase by Hunt also the sale of Group Lotus to Proton.

As for the comment saying "Hunt leased or sold the rights to Litespeed".. unless there was some new development on this after he categorically denied doing that with Litespeed, in the press (Autosport) mid this year, I don't think the rights have been sold to anyone. Would be logical for Hunt to want to sell/lease it directly to Proton rather than Litespeed.

When did that happen?? I remember Autosport reporting that Lotus Cars denied any involvement with the Litespeed/Lotus project and suggested it would pursue legal avenues to protect the brand. But I didn't see anything about Hunt denying that he had made an agreement with Litespeed. Otherwise, why would Litespeed have thought they had the rights to use the name in the first place?



Lotus Cars to protect its name

That's what I understood the situation be be. Bid 1 - Litespeed agreed with Hunt to use the Team Lotus name, and Lotus Cars were opposed to the team because of the damage it could do to their brand. Bid 2 - the expanded team agree with Lotus Cars to license the Lotus name from them rather than use Team Lotus, and Tony Fernandes said in an interview there were still some issues around the name to be sorted out. Something happened around the time of the team's agreement with Lotus Cars that prevented them from continuing to use the Team Lotus name; it's exactly what happened that I'm wondering about.

If I had to guess, I'd say that the "issues" were really just whether to use the exact name of the old Lotus or not. Fernandes and Gascoyne have explicitly said that this is not the old Lotus. I think they figured that using the old Team Lotus name would be pushing it too far. But who knows...

I am glad they will be using the Lotus badge on the nose cone of the car.

I'm not a Trulli fan especially after the Sutilgate embarrassment. However they have chosen perhaps two driver which they can develop the car further, who both have recent experience.

I hope HK redeems himself and becomes the driver we all expected after winning GP2 and ROC against MS. He looked hot to trot. Not many get a second chance.

Funny stuff

http://www.lotusf1racing.my/article/items/..._Challenge.html

Obviously the words of a design guru.

http://www.autosport.com/news/grapevine.php/id/80599







Now Who can give me the location to reserve the exact flight where either Heads are to be on board!



THis will be an incredible amusement, great Bernie, you done it. This is a great great publicity.



Red Bulletin where are you?

A little unfair on the Tyrell, especially in that colour combination, it worked well as white on Tyrrell blue

Actually, yes, I am.

But to reiterate, as I said, the design is bad "to me." Meaning, in other words, "in my opinion." And it is just as valid to state as an opinion a love it or hate it stance, I certainly don't need to "STFU" as you so maturely put it.

A real Guru? Do they still exist?

Hi!

Can someone answer my previous question?:


As I'm curious, which 'rules of typography' are being broken?
I certainly don't care for it - the stroked 'F1', and especially the outlined quadrilaterals look arbitrary...

Well, just my opinion again, but there aren't any rules being broken, it's simply uninspired and doesn't speak to any company heritage or image. I mean, what makes this a logo for a race car company for instance? Could this just as easily be a logo for a self-storage company? Anyway, moving on...in the grand scheme of things, if they use the original emblem on the cars, I'm happy.

please bare in mind this logo, be it simple, boring or unoriginal, is still more than what we have seen in terms of branding compared to USF1...

USF1 will just slap a youtube logo on that thing and be done with it

Scroll up to the other race car company logos I posted. Only the Benetton and Prost logos really look like race car companies. The rest could all be storage companies.

New kids will change F1? What's wrong with the old kids? I thought commercial inequalities and lousy technical specifications were root cause of problem that we have. Sounds like after genius from Land of Oz left that we have another talking head in the paddock, and his focus is not what I would have expected.

I think he means it in the sense that the new teams mark a new era for the sport. Not in the sense that they'll be the ones winning races and the older teams will fade into obscurity, but that they'll bring ne blood into the sport. After all, when was the last time we had thirteen teams?

Lotus will join second Jerez test

I sure hope they can put their money where they mouth is, would be interesting to see...

Would there be a new thread on Lotus' F1 car Branding?


Completely Black with No sponsor, I predict.

Quote from Gascoyne from mid-December: "Basically, I am responsible for the entire technical direction of the team from design to production, from engineering to aerodynamics, and then ultimately all the technical decisions to be made at the race track. We are working with a design office in Germany at the moment, whilst we build our team up at Hingham, as well as an aerodynamics specialist company in Italy, all of which comes under my remit."

Does anyone know which DO in Germany?

Highly interesting article with some details regarding organization of technical structure of the team:

http://www.lotus-central.com/index.php/en/...cing-ahead.html

It is reported to be done in Cologne involving Carpricorn GmbH.

lotusF1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDMEvl7lkwo jarno interview
you can see also jarno meanwhile is testing the seat...and how big his the car behind him respect the 2009 car

Screen grab:

thanks to have extract the pic

It's certainly very wide looking. I wasn't sure if it was an optical illusion caused by the padding being removed, if it was a consequence of the large fuel tank, if the Cossie's a very big engine or if Lotus' main tactic will be to keep the Trulli train going all race!

The Cosworth is no bigger than any other 2.4L V8 F1 engine. The girth is due to Lotus' design. The fuel tank has to be huge this year and based on CAD designs I caught in their vids, the placement of the radiators could be further adding to the width

1Malaysia will be a sponsor (They sponsored Minardi $15m per season previously recall, it's not that much more spend (+$10m from FOM is also in the budget etc) but a much more polished team in promoting Malaysia most probably )

Air Asia and Petronas will need to see Lotus winning races to make the switch

Isn't that normal width?

The mock sidepod inlets seem to have the usual undercut.

The helmets and padding around the cockpit will bring that more into normal looking proportions.

"1 Malaysia" is a Malaysian govt campaign which was only created early last year and I don't think it can be compared to anything that happened with Minardi.

Air Asia is contracted to sponsor Williams this year maybe we'll see it on Lotus F1 next year, if the team is still around then. 0% chance Petronas will appear on the Lotus F1 car any time in the foreseeable future. They may 'consider' it if Lotus F1 suddenly becomes a championship contender. Once again, unlikely that will happen in the next 3 years, if not longer plus Petronas' deal with Merc is for the next 5 seasons.

Tony Fernandes is going to be very busy over next year if he wins West Ham.

He'll have to run an F1 team, an airline AND a football team. Will he manage?

He's got lots of money. He'll delegate.

Vijay Mallya is owner of different sport clubs (I believe cricket), Airlines, Force India and some other company's.

From the Times Today

The Davids take over West Ham.





Will he manage indeed?






Charlie

It's a monkey off his back.

Two very good signings by Lotus.

I've been very impressed by new-Lotus so far. They are making some very sound decisions.

twit of @tonyfernandes:

Lotus cars being sent to the paint shop. The dream is becoming more and more a reality. With incredible odds against we are getting there

I know he didn't buy it, but I think it is pushing it a bit far to call West Ham a football team - more like a netball team.

they seem to be ahead of all the new teams.

Nice. And it's going to be mostly green with bits of yellow. Should look good

I don't understand. If the cars are ready to be painted, why can't they make the first test session at Valencia?

It was reported they will not have sufficient spares for the first test (I think) but will have enough for the others