Peter Sauber is in Malaysia at the moment with his longtime sponsor Petronas, trying to mend the damage that was created by BMW’s decision to quit Formula 1 only a few weeks after the oil company agreed a three-year extension to its sponsorship. Sauber his still hoping to save his team but it seems that some within the Malaysian government are backing the rival Team Lotus concept. The sponsorship is believed to be worth as much as $70m a year. The logic is to go with Sauber which has a F1 team already in place, but there are clearly people in Kuala Lumpur who want to use the opportunity to put the Lotus name back into F1 and if that is the case they need to involve Litespeed, which has some kind of agreement with David Hunt to the Team Lotus name. He acquired the name when the original team went out of business back in 1995. When the idea of a new Lotus team emerged in June the reaction from Group Lotus was was to say that it was “not connected or affiliated to, nor in any other way associated with the newly-announced Team Lotus”. The company added that it would take “all necessary steps to protect its name, reputation and brand image”.
It seems that since then the logic of the idea has become more attractive to Group Lotus owners Proton and there is believed to be pressure from the Malaysian government for Petronas to associate itself with the Lotus idea, rather than sticking with Sauber. There will be added impetus for the idea with the arrival at Lotus of former Ferrari marketing man Dany Bahar, although he does not start as chief executive of Group Lotus for another month.
What is currently clear is that no deal is yet done either way.
The competition for the 13th entry also includes the Epsilon Euskadi team in Spain. The team says that it has the funding needed to enter F1 but that’s its sponsorship depends on getting an entry, which has left it in a classic chicken-and-egg situation. The team does however have a spectacular new factory in Vittoria, complete with its own wind tunnel.
All these goings-on are very interesting. Regarding Petronas/Proton/Lotus Cars, Sauber and Team Lotus/Litespeed,
There is of course only one proper solution, and that’s a tripartite agreement:
1. Petronas and Proton buys BMW’s share in the former BMW Sauber F1 Team, and thus link Lotus Cars/Lotus Group to the team.
2. P.P. Sauber retains his 20% share, and stays on as consultant.
3. Litespeed, as their part of the deal, supply the Team Lotus naming deal, as well as M. Gascoyne becomes their technical director.
Otherwise, an Epsilon Euskadi entry running Renault engines would work just fine for me, too.
Joe,
Surely they don’t ‘need’ to involve lightspeed. They could involve them, they could also attempt to sue them or simply ignore them, and just brand as Lotus F1, rather than team lotus.
It would be interesting to see what the relevant trademark filings say.
Why not open it up to more that 13 teams – have pre-qualifying like they did before (so much fun), maybe on the Thursday and make it a test day also to solve that problem as well without the need for stand alone test teams. Extra revenue for the circuits, more fun for the fans (a FOTA initiative) and longer working hours for the press corps, maybe not them.
[...] A fight for Malaysian sponsorship? – Joe Saward’s Grand Prix Blog "Peter Sauber is in Malaysia at the moment with his longtime sponsor Petronas, trying to mend the damage that was created by BMW’s decision to quit Formula 1 only a few weeks after the oil company agreed a three-year extension to its sponsorship. Sauber his still hoping to save his team but it seems that some within the Malaysian government are backing the rival Team Lotus concept. The sponsorship is believed to be worth as much as $70m a year. The logic is to go with Sauber which has a F1 team already in place, but there are clearly people in Kuala Lumpur who want to use the opportunity to put the Lotus name back into F1 and if that is the case they need to involve Litespeed, which has some kind of agreement with David Hunt to the Team Lotus name." (tags: PeterSauber Sauber BMW Malaysia Petronas government Lotus sponsorship business money Proton DavidHunt Litespeed) [...]
[...] Peter Sauber in Malaysia- Pretty much a sign that all is not well with prospects for his team to be around next year. I wasn’t aware that PETRONAS had signed up for three years so close to the withdrawal of BMW. They are clearly unhappy and I would be surprised if they had an exit clause to cover such an eventuality. If PETRONAS do throw their weight behind a lotus team, then I cant see Sauber continuing. Interesting also to note that the car company does not own the rights to the name Team Lotus. It will be interesting to see how this develops if they do not wish to cooperate with litespeed. Could they run the team calling it lotus grand prix for example? [...]
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