Group Lotus, Proton, 1Malaysia Racing Team and the current Team Lotus have announced today that the legal dispute surrounding the names of Team Lotus and Renault Lotus is now officially over. As of 2012, Team Lotus will become Caterham F1 Team and Lotus Renault will be rebranded purely as Lotus.
Through the settlement, the “Lotus” brand has been re-established under the sole ownership of “Group Lotus”, which includes the use of the name throughout Formula One. This means that any relations between Tony Fernandes and Group Lotus has come to an end. The 1Malaysia Racing Team (1MRT), which is owned by Fernandes has been given the full backing of Caterham and they are looking forward to growing as a new team over the coming years. “We are excited about owning our own future and being in control of our own destiny. Now we have no one to be compared to. We make our own history and we will remain green and yellow.” Riad Asmat, 1MRT CEO said.
The disagreement was resolved amicably with both Group Lotus CEO Dany Bahar and Riad Asmat believing that they had settled on the best future for their particular group.
“On behalf of Group Lotus and Proton I would like to express how pleased we are that this matter is finally closed and we can now focus on looking forward to the future,” said Bahar.
The row has been on-going since September 2010 and the recent name changes have brought clarity to the ownership and identity of both teams.