Yes, the High Court trial between Group Lotus and Team Lotus may have begun, but it’s the stuff outside that’s making all the news, with claims and allegations bringing about counter claims.
The current outdoor blaze started when David Hunt claimed that Tony Fernandes had gone back on an agreement regarding payment for the brand, as reported in The Telegraph.
The relationship has deteriorated significantly, it would seem – the paper also said that Tony has allegedly instructed his lawyers to sue Hunt for defamation in the past week, although Hunt claimed he did not know on what grounds.
Hunt had told the paper that “he [Fernandes] 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.”
Now, however, according to another report, again by The Telegraph, Team Lotus have responded by claiming that it is Hunt who has refused to accept the original deal agreed between the two parties and is now seeking to extract more money out of them (Team Lotus).
“Team Lotus has an agreement with David Hunt which was signed by both parties. David Hunt has tried to renegotiate that agreement, which Team Lotus is not prepared to do,” said a team spokesperson.
So, how does all this affect the trial, if it does? Looks like we’ll just have to see what else comes along, but one thing’s for sure – this one just gets more sordid as the days roll on.
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Damn! this stuff is getting dramatic by the minutes! Sure la Hunt asked for more money since he could smell Team Lotus will loose in court without his support and perhaps he is never been paid at all. And Tony will not pay a penny more being a tangkai jering he is.
TL was rated WORST paymaster for F1, it shows ok …
Dramatic indeed. We can’t simply jump into our own conclusions based on these news, as we don’t know which one is more reliable. But this is absolutely bad press for Team Lotus and Tony Fernandes.
I still respect Tony Fernandes as he is truly an inspiring person, I just hope he doesn’t get dragged down further in all this drama.
I believe Team Lotus has what it takes to make it to the midfield this season, all the best to them.
1st: Team Lotus vs Lotus Group on name
2nd: David Hunt vs Team Lotus on money
3rd: (coming soon)Force India vs Team Lotus on intellectual properties
all in court but on the grid?none of these will win!!!
mengalah je la TF, people gonna love you more if u portrayed yourself as a gentlemen. Hunt, he’s no better than you la.. ur a billionaire, he’s some champ sibling who gain thru other’s legacy.
let GL face him 1 by 1. u had ur team. people on the paddock adore you, so whatever ur team name is doesn’t matter. ur still Tony Fernandes, western know u, person who loveeeeeeeeeee racing sport and had pure passion for it!! money was not the reason ur in this sport..prove it to the world, to us Malaysian..
“money was not the reason ur in this sport..” ….. hahaha
haha.. u get do u. nice!!
hahahaha.. if money was not the reason, then he should have done it with airasia team, or tune team or tony team.
What a joke and hell a good one too…
It makes my day reading this guy comments. If it’s not for the money, F1 team wouldn’t be bothered about the sponsorship. You’ll only see colorful cars with number painted on the body running round the track…
This article was reported on The Telegraph by the same person who reported the last news about this so called ‘civil war’ between TF and David Hunt.
I guess he must have asked both parties and they come out with their own version of the story. Allegation and counter-allegation. Nice soap opera.
Looks like Tony Fernandes in in real deep shit now. First with Group Lotus, now with David Hunt. If David Hunt chooses to side with Group Lotus due to betrayal by Tony Fernandes (which I doubt whether this could happen), then TF will surely die.
now everyone can lie.
how about… ‘now everyone can f-lie’?
On the related note, Team Lotus just signed Karun Chandok as their new reserved driver. This includes there will be 4 reserve driver including 2 drivers from the sister team Team Air Asia from GP2 and another reserve driver for that sis team.
With that, the driver’s lineup will be as below:
Heikki Kovalainen – Car #20
Jarno Trulli – Car #21
Karun Chandhok – Reserve Driver
Luiz Razia – Third Driver
Davide Valsecchi – Test Driver
Ricardo Teixeira – Test Driver
The most interesting part is Karun is designated as reserved driver who will participate in Fri practice seasons while Luiz Razia will be team’s third driver.
Not to mention in Team Air Asia, Luiz Razia got a few DNFs and didn’t do well in GP2 series. Meanwhile Davide Valsecch, is a better driver and scored a podium position, and won the 2009-2010 GP2 asia series. Davide is just a test driver for Team Lotus while his inferior team mate Luiz is the team’s third driver.
Confused? I have no idea what the hell Tony is up to……
Obviously Luiz paid more to Tony… That is how they run things. He chose the “hot seat” option on the ticketing system :P
Depends on who brings in more sponsorship MONEY. :-)
Its all in the money. Tony needs to hold on to the “Lotus” name at least for this year’s F1 season to be entitled to the payout (i.e. 2010’s TV money) from Formula One Management (FOM) (Bernie’s company which holds the right to the Formula 1 Series). This is the condition set in the Concorde Agreement (signed by all competing F1 teams with Bernie). – If Bernie can allow an ‘exception’ at least for this whole fiasco, I am sure Tony will be very happy to let go of the battle for the name – Lotus. The only other drawback for Tony of not being able to use the name Lotus would be that of sentimental & heritage value, nothing else.