Lotus back next year....whut

[news.bbc.co.uk]

That mean BMW got shafted or what? :P



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/15/2009 10:34AM by elemental.

Hate it, only thing Lotus about it is the name, and it uses those #*@*@**! Cosworth engines, does the FIA want a Cosworth vs Mercedes championship or what? Why not Prodrive?

I'm surprised there haven't been any ProDrive BMW buyout rumours yet.

EDIT: The FIA are now considering 14 teams for next year so BMW can still enter if they find a buyer.

[f1.gpupdate.net]

Yay for that, but boo for keeping ProDrive and Lola out!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/15/2009 11:09AM by Nickv.

Nickv Wrote:
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> I'm surprised there haven't been any ProDrive BMW
> buyout rumours yet.
>
> EDIT: The FIA are now considering 14 teams for
> next year so BMW can still enter if they find a
> buyer.
>
> [f1.gpupdate.net]
> s-for-14-teams-in-2010/
>
> Yay for that, but boo for keeping ProDrive and
> Lola out!


i didn't think prodrive were still in the running?. i thought they pulled the plug on their F1 program a few months ago along with lola.

certainly, the suggestion last week seemed to be that it was between lotus, epsilon and sauber for the final place.

i guess the malaysian governments backing to the project (with the possible funding guarantees that would come with it)swung it in lotus's favour

They pulled the plug? I thought they had it still running, but didn't want to wait for the whole FOTA/FIA saga to end, which could give them a spot afterall if the split-up had gone through. They wouldn't have had enough time. I thought they were focusing on an entry for 2011 now, or buying another team, if the opportunity appears.

'Manufacturer BMW agrees to sell BMW-Sauber team to Swiss-based investment company'

Thats being shown on the ticker at the top of the BBC sport website so the lotus things makes even less sense.

Iceman-Kimi Wrote:
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> Hate it, only thing Lotus about it is the name,
> and it uses those #*@*@**! Cosworth engines

Yup, it's a name, and nothing more.

As for BMW, if it's a Swiss consortium that bought the team, hopefully that means Peter Sauber is still running the show.

You could say that it is more than just a name - Lotus is owned by a Malaysian car company now. They will be racing under the Malaysian flag. It's just like Prodrive entering as Aston Martin, is it not?

They will be based in Norfolk initially, the original Lotus base. But, like Renault, they will be based in the UK while racing under a different flag. Because the car company itself is now owned by a foreign company.

It doesn't seem right, but I think that's purely because of the nostalgia involved with the 'old' Lotus team. Lotus have changed, so will have the team.

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You know you want to. [judgegrudge.mybrute.com]




Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/15/2009 01:43PM by flat tyre.

hhhmm, they say it's lotus but....

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Nickv Wrote:
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> They pulled the plug? I thought they had it still
> running, but didn't want to wait for the whole
> FOTA/FIA saga to end, which could give them a spot
> afterall if the split-up had gone through. They
> wouldn't have had enough time. I thought they were
> focusing on an entry for 2011 now, or buying
> another team, if the opportunity appears.


that was kind of what i meant,(poorly worded, my fault). that prodrive and lola weren't actively looking for their own entry for 2010 anymore, and neither seemed interested in buying sauber. so it was only ever going to be one of the 3 mentioned a few weeks back.

whilst i its a bit tenuous, as the link seems be some people from proton who own lotus cars (ok team lotus and lotus cars were always separate companies). but i guess its less tenuous than the lightspeed-lotus entry.

+ i like the idea that the prospect of 28 cars will be put to the teams.

come to think of it, its not a bad ruse from the FIA if they want more entries.

The concorde agreement says they cant have more than 26, but FOTA pledged to help bmw-sauber. so if bmw-sauber now have a buyer, give the entry to the best backed team that isn't them.(which would seem to be lotus), put them in reserve so bmw-sauber will lobby FOTA to let them in anyway.

wow, so alot of new names to get used to next year. I do hope for 14 teams! Q1 is gonna be like the M25!

edit - Ive just noticed the date. It's september. Thats not alot of time to get a team together and build a racecar. From the begining the FIA's selection process was abit iffy, I do hope they made the right decision here.

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/15/2009 02:36PM by chet.

I see Mike Gascoyne is the team's nominated Chief Designer. Expect the Lotus cars to be circulating at the back of the field, then.

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Locke Cole Wrote:
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> I see Mike Gascoyne is the team's nominated Chief
> Designer. Expect the Lotus cars to be circulating
> at the back of the field, then.

With Cosworth engines, i think this will be the case regardless of Gascoyne's role. Many estimates have indicated that the Cosworth engine might be more than a second slower than other engines (due to a higher fuel consumption)

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X (@ed24f1)

Locke Cole Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I see Mike Gascoyne is the team's nominated Chief
> Designer. Expect the Lotus cars to be circulating
> at the back of the field, then.


Regardless he does know his stuff, and for a new team I can imagine this being quite a coup.

For Manor, USF1 and now Lotus NOT to be at the back would be an achievment anyway. Mike has recent experience, with a number of teams so its only a good thing. Aside from that we also have Willis and Zander on the market I believe. Unless already working somwhere else will be on the radars for the new teams.

Only major loss to all this that I doubt we will see grids covered by 2 seconds anymore. More like 3-4 again.

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

chet Wrote:
------------------------------------------------------->
> Only major loss to all this that I doubt we will
> see grids covered by 2 seconds anymore. More like
> 3-4 again.
>

That's true but back in the early 90s - the last time we had 26+ cars on the grid, the spread was often over 5 seconds. The problem I see is that at that time the smaller teams such as Lotus, Dallara, Minardi, Lola etc still picked up a fair few points from a top 6 finish because even the top teams still suffered from car failures on a semi-regular basis. Sometimes even a top driver binned it off a track and would end up in a wall or lodged in the gravel - nowadays the walls are 6 miles away and the gravel is just tarmac. Some of the races in recent years have barely seen any retirements at all. A car which is genuinely that much slower will have a bloody hard time getting any points next season, unless the points themselves are overhauled. I happily wait to be proven wrong though...

Team CLR schreef:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Iceman-Kimi Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Hate it, only thing Lotus about it is the name,
> > and it uses those #*@*@**! Cosworth engines
>
> Yup, it's a name, and nothing more.
>
> As for BMW, if it's a Swiss consortium that bought
> the team, hopefully that means Peter Sauber is
> still running the show.


Actually I read abit more into it, Lotus Cars is owned by Proton, a Malaysian car manufacter, which is owned by the Malaysian goverment, so it actually does has something to do with Lotus Cars So I take back what I said earlier and am quite happy with it.

W00t! Great to see this name back in F1.


zulu_85 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> chet Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> ----->
> > Only major loss to all this that I doubt we
> will
> > see grids covered by 2 seconds anymore. More
> like
> > 3-4 again.
> >
>
> That's true but back in the early 90s - the last
> time we had 26+ cars on the grid, the spread was
> often over 5 seconds. The problem I see is that at
> that time the smaller teams such as Lotus,
> Dallara, Minardi, Lola etc still picked up a fair
> few points from a top 6 finish because even the
> top teams still suffered from car failures on a
> semi-regular basis. Sometimes even a top driver
> binned it off a track and would end up in a wall
> or lodged in the gravel - nowadays the walls are 6
> miles away and the gravel is just tarmac. Some of
> the races in recent years have barely seen any
> retirements at all. A car which is genuinely that
> much slower will have a bloody hard time getting
> any points next season, unless the points
> themselves are overhauled. I happily wait to be
> proven wrong though...

It was really more like 7-8 seconds sometimes, especially in the case of teams like Forti and Pacific. That was why the 107% quali time rule was brought in. It forced these teams to speed up or not qualify.
I think we might have a bigger difference between fastest and slowest next year, but not by much. Probably no more than 3 seconds.

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just like to point out that the lotus f1 factory will be less than 10 minutes away from where i live

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We expect some sneak previews from next years car soon then :P

Iceman-Kimi Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hate it, only thing Lotus about it is the name,
> and it uses those #*@*@**! Cosworth engines, does
> the FIA want a Cosworth vs Mercedes championship
> or what? Why not Prodrive?

Quite glad it's only the name in a way. Colin Chapman was an utter cunt, and the cars he designed were nothing but faulty rolling coffins.

But then again, Mike Gascoyne is involved in this new one, and he has proven himself to be utterly incompetent at anything F1 involved. So this should be quite a funny entry. Any driver willing to sign up to drive a Gascoyne car will get a reality check.

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