Team Lotus and Renault Change Names!

The long-running row over the use of the Lotus name in Formula 1 has ended with an agreement for both teams involved to change their cars' names.

A meeting of F1 bosses has approved a request for Renault - sponsored by the Lotus car company - to change the name of their F1 cars to Lotus in 2012.

And Team Lotus will from next year run cars called Caterhams, and change their team name accordingly.

The Virgin team will also change the name of their chassis to Marussia.

The name changes, which relate to how the car's chassis is labelled, need to be ratified at the next meeting of the FIA World Council, F1's legislative body, on 7 December, but this will simply be a case of rubber-stamping Thursday's agreement.

Renault may also alter their official name, currently Lotus Renault GP, although they have yet to decide whether to do so.

The changes were approved at a meeting of the F1 Commission group of stakeholders, which also ratified the 2012 calendar as it has already been published.

There had been doubts about the Bahrain and Korean GPs - Bahrain because of continuing civil unrest and Korea because of financial difficulties.

The name changes surrounding the Lotus teams are the endgame in a bitter and complex naming dispute that has been running for more than a year.

At that time Group Lotus had made it clear to Fernandes that it did not own the rights to the name Team Lotus.

But the two parties soon fell out, with Group Lotus deciding that it wanted to promote its brand in F1 with a more established team.

It agreed a sponsorship deal with the Renault team for 2011 and terminated its licensing agreement with Fernandes.

Fernandes then reverted to the historic Team Lotus name, which bought the rights to the Team Lotus name from businessman David Hunt - brother of 1976 world champion James Hunt.

Both decisions were the subject of a lawsuit which was finally resolved in London's High Court in May.

A judge ruled Team Lotus could continue to race under that name but that Group Lotus retained the right to use the Lotus marque on its road cars, and in F1 if it chose to enter its own team.

Fernandes, however, had already begun formulating a back-up plan by buying Dartford-based sportscar manufacturer Caterham in April.

That led to new talks with Group Lotus, which ended with them submitting the joint request to change their names that was resolved on Thursday.

Source: BBC

thoughts?

About time, having Renault Lotus and Team Lotus has been tres confusing this year!

But the question still remains:- Who was the REAL Lotus? My guess is the real Lotus passed away in the 1990's and so feel the name should be left there. I am sure Renault could come up with another viable option here rather than pretend to be something they are not.

Agreed CaledonianCraig. Proton (who I understand are the owners of Group Lotus) have absolutely no connection with the original team. At least Team Lotus / Caterham are based in Norfolk.

Also, do Renault REALLY want to change their name to Team Lotus or whatever? They've always competed under their own name to promote their road car business...or so I assume. What could they hope to gain by adopting the name of a small British car firm, whose racing glories are far in the past?

Seems stupid to me.