No new teams for 2011

Villeneuve never actually names HRT and Virgin though, just that they are (obviously), the "most likely targets"

I think STR could be a better option, considering they are Italian, and could do with a new direction/some investments

---

X (@ed24f1)

This may as well go here, as we were talking about the future of Lotus -
It seems after successfully buying the rights to the name "Team Lotus" from David Hunt, Tony Fernandez has incurred the wrath of Proton, who claim they hold the rights to everything to do with the Lotus brand and have terminated his entitlement to use the name in future seasons. So, looking beyond some possible and rather ugly court procedures, the team aka 1Malaysia may not be known as Lotus anything next year, unfortunately. :\

[www.gpupdate.net]

There's an interesting article on Autosport.com about this, from before today - essentially, it looks like Proton may have already shot themselves in the foot by previously stating on several occasions that they didn't own the rights to 'Team Lotus'. Previous court cases surrounding the name have also established it as a separate entity to 'Lotus Cars' - indeed, the recently-enriched former owner points out that 'Team Lotus' the racing organisation and 'Lotus' the car manufacturer were separated in 1954. Not sure if it'll work without a subscription, but:

[www.autosport.com]

If it doesn't, let me know and I'll post the juiciest quotes

---