Yesterday was a big day for Team Lotus, when it bought over British carmaker Caterham, which defining model Seven started life as a Lotus. Some see this move as a “Plan B” if Tony Fernandes and friends lose the Lotus name battle to Group Lotus.
Domain names with Caterham in it have been booked, along with a possible title sponsor, which strengthens this idea.
But Team Lotus boss Tony Fernandes isn’t committing to anything yet. “I don’t know yet, to be honest. I am waiting to see what happens with the case, and all these sort of things. But an ideal scenario would be a marriage of the two. The ideal world is both,” he told Autosport.
“People have said that Lotus has its own F1 team, but so what? There is Manchester United and Manchester City. People will come to understand what each brand stands for, and say – we want this, or we want that. It is no different to me, and I really hope we can keep both,” he added.
On the failed relationship between him and Group Lotus, he has no regrets. “Obviously we thought Group Lotus was an unpolished diamonds in many ways, and with an F1 team we could have done many things together. That didn’t transpire but it is funny how in life if you go down one road, it gets blocked heavily, and so you switch to another road. But then, in fact, the other road looks a lot nicer.
“I believe that if you are doing things well, you give it the right attention and you have the right people, luck will find a way for you. And certainly, fortune favoured the brave here – and if I was to redo things, I would have much rather gone down this route to be honest.
“It is a simpler, easier one. It is a profitable business, it doesn’t require lots and lots of capital and the F1 teams adds a lot to it to grow the business. Without sounding like a cliche, it is a marriage made in heaven in many shapes and forms,” he said. We’re not sure if the “profitable business” bit is a dig at Proton and Lotus, though.
So there’s no Caterham F1 team, yet, but there will be a Caterham GP2 team if it’s allowed. “I can confirm pretty clearly that there will be a Caterham GP2 Team. I have to check with the regulations, rename the team ‘Caterham’ and AirAsia will become a sponsor. So AirAsia Caterham… but when we do it and how we do it, I don’t know yet,” he revealed.
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if so….then Singapore can name 1Malaysia and Malaysia can change name to 1Singapore…
All the best….Pls try your best to beat Lotus Renault. They do not represent Malaysia. You do with more than half the sponsors being malaysia and a very malaysian name. Team Lotus 1M F1
proton not malaysia meh?
haha!! proton not malaysia… i reckon malaysian are really into F1 very much. at the moment there are 4 sponsors. Petronas, Team lotus (Air Asia) , Lotus GP (Renault) and Virgin Racing (QNET)
stop pretending macha!
Macha, this is the law of life….otherwise u’ll be suck if you’re not brave enough…! You should be on par to make a comment on others….otherwise..????
I’m sure Top Gear will have somthing to say about this
and we cant wait to hear it..
talk so much…walk what other road? in the end still have to resort to use lotus’ name bought using another channel
Come on dude…he’s trying his best to achieve his wisdom…why are you being sooo jelous….i guess that u are one of those malaysian crabs….pulling other from from going up the ladders….
interesting approach to car racing.
its just ‘brands’ now.
not one bit about rpm, power, aero, grip, testing, track etc..
i wanna build a brand….NOT i wanna win a race…
Thats the mindset of malaysians…we’re always proud of driving a branded car despite of having many other choices………!
TF is a businessman la bro of coz he is talk about brand and marketing. If TF is a an expert engineer then he will talk about rpm, power etc..
It’s all about Brands. With brand power the team will attract more media coverage and higher sponsor. With higher sponsor team can hire top driver, engineer, mechanic, technician etc to build and race the team.
hohohoho…the next step for potential Caterham cars buyer, surely they will be offered optional add on with extra charges just like TF’s own Air Asia and Tune hotel..muahahahahaha……..what la…..
talk stupidly…..as if you buy proton cars base line model and compare with high line model(with a lot of optional higher spec) doesn’t cost you more……Proton will do charity and sell you the same price?
wait a minute, am i a plain stupid and naive person never noticing it or you’ve been living in a cave all this time? Do Proton sell basic line model and high line model the same price(with those optional add on)That means i’ve also been cheated by Proton because they’re selling me higher price for high line model?…..talk about being an imbicile giving stupid comment.
wait a minute, am i a plain stupid and naive person never noticing it or you’ve been living in a cave all this time? Do Proton sell basic line model and high line model the same price(with those optional add on)That means i’ve also been cheated by Proton because they’re selling me higher price for high line model…..talk about being an imbicile giving stupid comment.
All the best Tony! Really wanna see how you gonna transform your F1 team and also Caterham.
I wonder how fans of the classic Team Lotus and current fans of Lotus sports cars feel about this link up to Caterham. The fact is Caterham is a bl**dy kit car. Associating Team Lotus, a prestigious name with a wannabe car manufacturer like Caterham is sure to turn Colin in his grave. He spent all those years making TL and Lotus Cars into 2 elite engineering operations and now one of them is ‘endorsing’ (by association) a wannabe (kit car) Lotus. It will certainly benefit Caterham immensely but talk about bastardizing the Team Lotus brand.. doesn’t get any better than this folks. Who takes Caterham seriously? It’s not unique like say a Caparo T1 or even Ariel Atom. lets not even compare with one of those boutique but serious engineering super sportscar outfits like Pagani, Koenigsegg etc.
Perhaps with Tony’s financial injection Caterham can make stuff that’s more like Ariel Atoms. That could be the idea. But I dunno lah, to me, the mid-range sports car segment is already filled with mid-range sports cars by regular marques – you’ve got things like Audi TT lah for example, and if you look lower down the spectrum you also have the upcoming Toyota FT-86 lah, Mazda MX5, RX8, etc. Backed by even huge brands/companies with huge engineering resources. Gotta be a reason why dedicated sports car manufacturers have remained the way they are for so long… and selling essentially a kit car could be the only reason why Caterham is profitable.
the difference is, Manchester is a city name, nobody owns the copyright to that. even in Malaysia we can have Kelab Selangor Bersatu vs Pasukan Negeri Selangor.
but Lotus in car industry is already associated with Group Lotus. when you say Lotus, everybody thinks Group Lotus.
Team Lotus is not done yet. It is not over until it is over.
Its a different league altogether.
Pagani, Koenigsegg or Spyker is about full featured supercar.
Catherham on the other hand, is back to basic sports car.
Lightweight, well balanced, all mechenical handling.
One Pagani and others or other can’t compare with Catherham.
Lotus Elise, Ariel Atom or anything so called kit cars are the competitor.
Why should we be fuzzy about Lotus or Catherham?
Except the legacy the shared on Super 7 and propably Cloin Chapman principlle on a sports car, there no link in between.
I can remember HK automobile journalist rated Catherham highly as how a sportscar should behave, even higher than a Lotus car
If TF is about to link F1 and GP2 to Catherham, I don’t see there’s any issue, except to some die hard TL fans, which I can understand.
If its about TF personal.. I think its irrelevant at all.
I’m sick and tired of seeing this fatty and his company in so many posts
you not sick la… you jealous!
Exactly right…some morons are just too jelous as to accept the fact…..they should learn and lead their life instead…dont talk much, if you’re smart enough, why dont u challenge to be on par with this guy…..!
Ha,ha that is how he wants it, any kind of exposure and free advertisement. TF is one very smart businessman. No wonder he can turned a once critical GLC airline company into the biggest LCC in the world. Lets just hope he won’t join politics.
another rotten-grape comment here ?… get a life.. you need to learn to look at so many bright things in life. you are not only sick – tired, but also clueless and lifeless…
as long it is malaysian.. i support it.. world domination by Malaysian….
No different from say a Brit supporting his country when the British Empire colonized most of the world.
Sorry i don’t subscribe to any racist or nationalist mentality or agenda. Often times it has backfired and caused delusion, backwardness and complacency.
I support people who succeed on merit REGARDLESS of creed or nationality.
Malaysia Boleh!!
i like the analogy given by tony,:
“sometimes when the road u go blocked, switched to other road that could be nicer”..
very motivational..
Like ‘the grass is greener on the other side’? :-D
Browsed the Caterham website. Look at this link http://www.caterham.co.uk/assets/html/technical/download.html
You can buy and assemble your own Caterham hence its a kit car.
Now Everyone Can Drive A ‘Lotus’! …. almost.