The most ‘entertaining’ side show of the off season, the naming battle between Group Lotus and Team Lotus, will finally go to the British High Court today to be settled once and for all. However, all’s not well in the green and yellow corner as Tony Fernandes’ bitter dispute with David Hunt has come to surface. This is major, since Hunt is a main character in this soap opera.
This comes as a surprise as we’ve all been led to think that Hunt – brother of ex world champ James and the man who sold Tony the rights to use Team Lotus – is a firm supporter of Tony’s cause. The reason of the conflict? Money, of course!
As reported in UK’s Telegraph, the dispute centres around Hunt’s claims that Fernandes has gone back on an agreement they struck in January over payment for the Team Lotus name.
Tit for tat, Hunt is now refusing to back Team Lotus in court, despite having agreed to do so in January. He’s now claiming that there are “potentially some serious holes” in TL’s case. The paper also said that Tony has allegedly instructed his lawyers to sue Hunt for defamation in the past week.
“When we had to make the Team Lotus staff redundant in 1995 I made a promise to them and the fans to return it to F1 in the hands of a worthy custodian, and initially I had high hopes that Tony, Din and Nasa were going to tick the boxes,” David Hunt told Telegraph Sport.
“What angers me is that I have, in good faith, worked extremely hard on the build-up to the hearing because I believed Tony would honour our January agreement. He’s apparently ‘changed his mind’ at the 11th hour, by his own admission, now that I’ve done so much work on his company’s behalf, and he’s trying to renegotiate by offering new terms which are, frankly, ludicrous.
“All I’m looking for is for Tony to stick to his word and honour our agreement. If he doesn’t, then regrettably I don’t see why I should continue to provide assistance and this trial won’t be the last battle he’s facing, even if he wins,” the man added.
For full effect, read it through again with For The Love Of Money by the The O’Jays (theme song for The Apprentice) playing in the background. Money money money money…. money!
Looking to sell your car? Sell it with Carro.
The root of all evils – money.
the LACK of money is the root.
of course it is about money, if fernandes loses the court battle the name is worthless. maybe Hunt already knows its worthless “holes in the case” and is trying to sell useless merchandise.
truly evil people have little to no regard for money, only power.
It has always been about money only, all that stuff about passion la, childhood favorite la, are all PR and lies.
Tony keeps getting into more and more trouble with this saga. He is coming off as a bit of a dodgy character to me as more news gets unfolds.
ha. puns.
I agree with you Alma, I use to back him up a lot in coffee talks, now i fell that my respect for him just took a 360 deg turn….very disappointed
360 turn means facing the same direction…
If there are people that still can’t see through the lies and stories spun by you know who then you just dont want to know the truth………
Ask yourself why didnt 1MRT go straight to David Hunt right from the beginning to get the rights from him?
Ask yourself why the vicious tweets against Petronas recently about not sponsoring them?
The truth is 1MRT want all the glamour of F1 without having to pay for it.
They tried to get Proton to pay for it, they tried to get Petronas to pay for it and they are trying not to pay Hunt for it. That they are rated by far the worst paymasters in F1 shows they try not to pay anyone at all!
God knows why coz they are all loaded.
They even got the government to built the crappy LCCT and now LCCT2 for them… WTF!!
u do realize that lcct2 will totally be paid by air asia and sime darby, not by the government
go to skycrapercity malaysia n look who built LCCT2 aka KLIA2……update ur current knowladge bro….
u are blind supporter of tony?
govt award the tender. where got airasia money. liar!!
I’m sorry, do you expect private company to build their own airport? It will be complete mess then. You’ll then see 200 airports suddenly spring up around Malaysia, just like golf courses. Hantam benda yang logik sikit la.
i think what clutch basah meant was that air asia got govt to build two airports for them. he is not denying the govt’s role in building airports… but for govt to build 2 for airasia, wow that is something. a very powerful private company this airasia.
i cant get my adun to even build a traffic light in my kampung.
He even dared to ask for waiver from paying fees for landing and parking. Who the hell he think he is?..like building the airport using his grandfather’s money!
http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/3/5/business/3407764&sec=business
Now you know how AirAsia made 1 billion profit. They ask MAS to play fair but they’re not playing fair themselves!
Proton tak ada backup government kah?You think proton use their own money ka to invest at LRGP.All that money comes from kerajaan la even the money is huge than building an airport.
get news la… they take bank loan for that…
Good Luck Tony..The good always win.
HAHAHAHAHAHA!! I love your sarcasm!!!
People why thumb this guy down? He’s merely letting Tony have a taste of his own medicine! Muahhahahaha!
“The good always win” :D
Huh! Corporate games. It is always complicated than it is on surface. Both parties wont give up easily isn’t it? Money? Don’t always believe the news. News is only reporting the surface. Nobody knows the real part of the story except the people involved in it.
Tony says, it is only business decisions. So it be.
Kipala sula puhsingg!! aiyoo..hope this saga will end up soon..
erk! SAGA? isnt that Proton? aka Group Lotus? haha :P
aku percaya mereka semua bekerja ikhlas … :P
hahaha..aku pun percaya. semua kerja kerana cinta F1.
buku jumpa ruas hihihi
Ha!, Tony is just like his AirAsia: last min everything changes. Honor is not a word in his belief. Deception is his right to live by daily. As such, Most likely his agreement with Hunt is just like his airasia’s very fine print that you print out together with your airasia ticket; ie; he holds the knife handle while you, buyers, holds the naked blade. After 8 flight with airasia, i bid so long AirA**, never have I, or ever will again take another trip with it.
Now not only anybody can fly but everybody knows that Tony is a cunning bullshitter even Hunt pun kena kencing…
Dont thrust newspaper la.You think all newspaper display a true news huh?They create controversial to make people buy their newspaper.Aiyo.Peminat crap proton bulat bulat percaya.
Worthy of a Hollywood movie, I must say. For The Love of Money is an apt soundtrack!
When dealing with the westerner, American or British, they only deal with you in 1 thing, thats the money. So Protong and Tony got a wake up call. Protong since using not own pocket money doesnt matters, but still its some outsider who stir this up among the msian as well, since those Protong ego felt challenged. Bad day for Malaysian since the winner obviously is….outsider.
What does Proton have to do with Tony and Lotus Racing?
Tony, go back to fixing your airlines!! Why won’t you move to Terminal 1 of Kota Kinabalu Airport? Don’t you know it is so far away?
all of us knows that tony isnt going for the money
plain and simple
you remember the poll he did to ask the fans whether to fight for the lotus name ?
now that’s what i called listening to the people
its a matter of principles
TONY is da man
For The Love Of Tony
Tony tony tony tony…. tony!
money madness
Tony, go pay our airport tax!! You collect from us then u don’t pay to the airport..what the heck !!
I like this hahaha. He hasn’t pay yet? So looong.
I don’t know what the story is because this is purely a speculation in my part. I think Tony is now saying to David Hunt “There is no reason for me to pay you if the courts say that the company I bought from you does not has the right to the Team Lotus name.”
I think if that is the case than Tony’s logic is reasonable to me. If you bought something but cannot use as it is intended then you need to return it.
Make senses but I don’t believe in Tony as well. Huhuhu.
yet he still uses the name team lotus until now..the thing is he has agreed in certain with hunt but he fails to deliver his words..what a wan*er..
but a contract is a contract.. they agreed on the terms of the contract at that time. tony should honour it. Unless of course there is a clause in the contract that says hunt has to guarantee tony can use the name in F1 then tony can say otherwise. But Im sure there is none. hunt is just selling the name, he is not the FIA, or bernie, no way he will agree to a clause like that in the contract.
And Nasa get’s pulled into the filth by Tony. :-)
I’m beginning to suspect that people in Paultan do habour some agenda against Team Lotus. I remember you guys quashed a question about why not calling Team Lotus a Lotus instead of Lotus Renault.
Nah… I think too much. You guys can’t seriously siding to one particular team. :D
Huh? Your memory is wrong then.
let’s the game begin..
Fuyoooooo….this is so blardy shocking leh….tony turn his back against his allies….oh…wait…its tony tembam….
good luck tony!
what if Group L paid Hunt to turn his back ?.. anything could have happened behind the curtain.
all we need now is to get Vince McMahon to organize triple death hell in cell match
Dany bahar vs Tony vs Hunt
All I know, Paultan is only quoting The Telegraph, which by the way is the only British media reporting the news. Maybe they got the scoop, I don’t know. But maybe this is only allegation. Either way, Tony should come clean about this.
The best part is, when any news about Tony and Team Lotus is reported in Paultan, we suddenly saw a slew of hate comments against Tony and TL. I asked before, why the hatred. Some of you said you’re not hating them. Yeah, right. What then? Being patriotic? Being smart?
UK is just waking up now so u can see the story hitting more and more online websites as the day continues.
People here are very vocal and opinionated about all things Automotive and in this day and age of the internet, every bit of news or controversy is open for all to see. The thing about Tony is there is just so much dodginess that has clouded his F1 venture. Over and over again he has been fighting and changing his tune on why he is in it. U can see that every ally he has made or presented to legitimise his connection to the Lotus brand has deserted him one by one….
Its not hatred, just fact.
And his personal attacks on Dany Bahar, Proton management, Petronas and others on social media just makes it harder to sympathise
it is not about personal attacks, you must be able to accept other people’s opinions and criticism in order to improve.that’s why previous management for proton really s*cks. all about egos and moolah. just like when we were at teen age, we so rebellious and not willing to take advice and criticism and end up in the wrong path.it is painful for the eras sometimes, but only for the good.
Telegraph is a main stream media in the UK. I don’t see any other main stream media picking up the news. Only online media is doing it and even that, they’re merely just quoting Telegraph. I’m not siding TL but this is kinda fishy.
if this news is untrue.. it will only take tony and his PR machine about 15 secs to come up with a strong reply and counter reply… ok.. so i exaggerate, but he will usually come up with something the next day at least… and im still waiting.
He came up with something:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/motorsport/formulaone/f1news/8394913/Formula-One-2011-Team-Lotus-deny-David-Hunts-allegation-over-payment-for-Lotus-brand.html
More than 24 hours now. Still only The Telegraph picked that news.
You must be blind, or really bad at looking for stuff on the internet.
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/21032011/23/fernandes-hunt-row-scupper-team-lotus-court.html
http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/sport/team_lotus_civil_war_precedes_f1_high_court_battle_1_837063
http://formula-one.speedtv.com/article/f1-blow-for-team-lotus-as-court-case-starts/
http://asia.eurosport.com/formula1/hunt-hits-out_sto2715809/story.shtml
http://f1.madeinmotorsport.com/en/headlines/news-f1-team-lotus-loses-key-ally-hunt-in-name-dispute-20654.html
http://en.espnf1.com/f1/motorsport/story/43663.html
http://www.girlracer.co.uk/motorsport/kate-walker/9056-team-lotus-on-the-hunt-for-high-court-victory.html
http://www.crash.net/f1/news/167595/1/fernandeshunt_row_to_scupper_team_lotus_in_court.html
Tony, open a betting pool for this case and make more money
whooo..
so does it mean TF still yet to pay Hunt certain mutual amount that they both agree on Jan 2011???
how come 1MRT already widely use Team Lotus logo on their machine etc and tweeting of the other party like TL already 100% his own.. dengggggg
well, positively so naive as i am.. maybe TF had his reason to do so.. tonieeeeeeeeeeeeee montana!!!
what is it about TF that always polarises opinion. it seems you either love him or loathe him.
he seems to be reasonably talented to be able to put things together and build businesses…. but he seems to be leaving behind a growing trail of sh*t that may even outlast him.
i guess you may fool some ppl some of the time, but not all the ppl all of the time. and his selective use of the media, public poll, tweets..
you can win elections with that, but i don’t think you can build sustainable businesses with it.
Team Lotus deny David Hunts allegation over payment
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/motorsport/formulaone/f1news/8394913/Formula-One-2011-Team-Lotus-deny-David-Hunts-allegation-over-payment-for-Lotus-brand.html
If this is true..wow. Dont trust this Tony, keep spinning the story and yet some people still called him a hero. Nowadays people love to hear bullshit.
after all, the team is a bad paymaster what. hunt should give him 6 months before he could get the cash.
The root of all evils – not money but TONY. Without his trick l don’t think they’ll enter the F1 and P100m worth of sponsor is never been an issue. Imagine if Court decided that GL can’t race what happen to the P100m sponsorship?
Not gonna happen… cuz the court case is not about whether the two team can race or not. It is more about the name ‘Lotus’ and the termination of sponsorship by PROTON to 1MRT….
remember the movie Kramer vs Kramer?
buat bisnes jgn nak menipu, duit untuk dunia je
ah…i smell hunt being ‘bribed’ to change his mind…
This is getting interesting..let see who laugh at the end of the battle..