I found an interesting Nino Judge interview on racinginside.com last night. You can read the full interview by clicking this link but below are some key relevant interesting points that were revealed. The Lotus F1 Team is backed by Tune, Naza and Litespeed and I know alot of you are wondering who Litespeed are.
- Nino Judge was an R&D engineer at the old Team Lotus which has since quit racing. The new team name is Lotus F1 Team, not Team Lotus.
- He was the first person to make flow visualisation of sub sonic wings using Shear sensitive liquid crystals work, which is now a standard tool used by all F1 teams.
The Litespeed name first cropped up on this site when it was revealed that they submitted an F1 team entry application under the name Lotus, which sparked some controversy later as Lotus released a statement that they had nothing to do with this “Lotus” team and are not very happy with their name being used like that.
Of course later this has all been “settled” as Proton has agreed to license the Lotus name to the Litespeed F1 team, which is one and the same as Lotus F1 Team and the 1Malaysia F1 Team that keeps getting mentioned in the local media.
In another piece of news, Tune’s Datuk Kamarudin Meranun says the team will be able to make money in the first year! They seem very confident in the so-called Midas touch that the Tune Group has, claiming that this is what they have always done with their other ventures. The proposed stakeholding right now is 55:35:10 between Tune, SM Nasarudin SM Nasimuddin (in his personal capacity, not Naza’s), and Litespeed. It was originally 60:40 when Litespeed was not in the picture.
Main revenue drivers will be sponsorship, merchandise sales, and Formula One Management profit sharing. Tony Fernandes pointed out that the Lotus brand can be monetised in many ways and shared that there was one F1 brand that raked in £150mil worth of T-shirts sales.
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AI-generated Summary ✨
The comments generally view the Lotus F1 team effort positively, seeing it as a proud Malaysian initiative to elevate local brands and generate international interest. Many highlight the potential for merchandise sales, especially T-shirts, to bring in substantial revenue, similar to top F1 teams. Some comments discuss the strategic value of F1 for Malaysia's branding and tourism, while others question the financial viability and the credibility of business claims. There is criticism of existing companies like Naza for their business practices, skepticism about profits in early F1 ventures, and discussions about the importance of national pride. Overall, there's an optimistic tone about the team's potential for success, but also a cautious awareness of the high costs and challenges involved.