Lotus Renault GP chairman and Genii boss Gerard Lopez has expressed his frustration about the fight over the Lotus name – and he says Team Lotus is holding out because a change of constructor name could cost it millions in payments from the Formula One organisation.
“I think it’s a shame, and it’s a shame for the brand also,” said Lopez in Valencia. “I’m actually a big fan of the brand. What I don’t like and I dealt with the press for many years, not only in F1 but also in business, you’ve got to call a spade a spade. I can tell when somebody is trying to twist things.
“It’s a shame because we’ve never twisted things in any form or fashion, we’ve just said that we have a partnership, Lotus is a straight car company. They want to promote their brand, and honestly there’s only one Lotus car company. Anything else is a bunch of BS.
“I am aware of the negotiations that took place, and I know that money is essentially the centre piece of this. It’s not passion, it’s not taking over Colin Chapman’s legacy or whatever. It’s a fact that if 1Malaysia Racing changes their name, they lose their FOM money. And yeah, it’s an issue for them, and it’s probably one I wouldn’t take too kindly too if I was in their shoes. Obviously I would be fighting. But just admit to the reality, it’s nothing else.”
He also cited the example of the announcement of a black and gold colourscheme by Team Lotus, which came after Lotus and Renault had begun pursuing the same idea.
“Playing things like who came up with the black and gold – and at the end of the day we don’t do the same games. If I had a Twitter account I could have emailed everybody and said here’s proof that we communicated with a bunch of agencies in black and gold in August, before anybody said anything. We just don’t want to enter that kind of stuff. The Chapman family kinda likes what we’re doing, not for better or worse or whatever, because at the end of the day we’re not trying to be any sort of legacy or link to Mr Chapman. This a completely different team.”