What's in a Name? Lotus to return to Formula One
With over a dozen teams all bidding to join a new cost-capped F1 next season, it would take a big name to stand out above the competition. Lotus ought to do the trick.
Teaming up with veteran F1 team leader Mike Gascoyne, the Litespeed Formula 3 team has secured the rights to use the Lotus name for its potential entry. Rights to use the name in motorsport reportedly belong to David Hunt, younger brother of renowned F1 driver/all-around lady's man James Hunt, who took over the former Lotus F1 team in 1994. Founded by the legendary Colin Chapman, the Lotus team went on to win seven world championship titles with such drivers as Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Jochen Rindt, Emerson Fittipaldi and Mario Andretti.
The new outfit plans on basing itself at the Racing Technology Norfolk (RTN) facility that previously housed various F1 efforts as well as Bentley's Le Mans team, and has enlisted the services of several former Lotus engineers as well as former Lotus F1 driver Johnny Herbert. While it remains unclear what association would exist with the eponymous automaker, the Lotus name promises to give the Litespeed/Gascoyne entry an edge against other bids using such throwback grand prix names as March and Brabham.
[Source: Autosport | Image courtesy of WikiMedia Commons]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
MikeInNC 8:06AM (6/09/2009)
The modern cars are awesome but the older cars are so much more beautiful. I've seen a few of these JPS cars in the flesh and they are stunning.
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Lucas 8:28AM (6/09/2009)
Why would the brother of a driver have the rights to the Lotus name in racing? Obviously he bought them, but why would the company sell such a thing??
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Alan 11:10AM (6/09/2009)
Team Lotus was more of a sister company to Lotus Cars The car part was a public company and Team Lotus was owned by Colin Chapman. After Colin died and the team went under Team Lotus was sold to another F1 team owned by David Hunt. So this effort has no involvment with the people that make the Elise.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Team_Lotus
Temple 1:03PM (6/09/2009)
This is silly, legally I'm sure it's fine, but at the same time there is no connection with between the real Lotus and this legal-naming Zombie (that is owned by the subsidiary of the main companies brother's guy's friend).
hashiryu 9:22AM (6/09/2009)
A name is just a name........ I have no taste for a counterfeit F1.
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John P. 9:26AM (6/09/2009)
Lotus isn't what it used to be, but this is good news anyway. Loved those JPS cars when I was a kid. They stood out above the crowd for sure.
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Alex 9:32AM (6/09/2009)
I'm curious to see the automakers reaction to this. If I were Lotus I would not want a group going out and tarnishing the Lotus name with a poor performing F1 team. On the other hand, if Lotus has the capital to join the team they could certainly benefit from the technology and testing.
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Spectacular Bid 9:49AM (6/09/2009)
Amazing that despite folding in 1994, Lotus remains the 4th most successful F1 constructor of all time. Agreed like the others the days of seeing the JPS livery were pretty special. No F1 car before or since has that type of immediate visual recognition factor.
I recall having at the time a few Matchbox cars of the Lotus racers with that gold and black paint scheme - in particular the Mario Andretti driven one. Few kids in the States like me would know that John Player Special was actually a cigarette brand.
Anyhow I hope Mr. Hunt for having held out all these years with licensing is making the right decision. I'm sure many startups have approached him to use it and he's passed on them until now.
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