Multiple sources are reporting that there are redundancies at Lotus F1 Team in Enstone, with around 30 staff being laid off as the team tightens its belt. Lotus did remarkably well on the race track last year, finishing fourth in the Constructors’ Championship, thanks to the efforts of Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean. The team started the 2013 season with a staff of around 500, but there was disenchantment early on with the departure of James Allison, who was unhappy when a number of senior management figures were laid off by the owners, Genii Capital, which was trying to cut back on costs. Although the team did pick up some sponsorship last year, the owners took on more loans in order to pay for the season, and in the summer the team missed the pay-roll. This is a disastrous thing for any racing team as it undermines the confidence of the staff, many of whom need their salaries to be paid on time and do not have financial reserves available if this does not happen. The result of that was that more staff began to look for jobs elsewhere.
It seems that the team has lost around 70 people in the last six months and this means that plans to take the payroll down to 400 people requires only 30 lay-offs. Having said that a 20 percent reduction in highly-skilled staff is a major hit for any competitive organisation and it will be interesting to see where Lotus is in the F1 pecking order when the new car finally appears. Morale in the team is not good with the failure of the Quantum takeover bid, the hiring of Pastor Maldonado, who is seen by most in F1 as a pay-driver, and the departure of team principal Eric Boullier. The fear is that without racers in charge the team will never get anywhere and people will continue to depart when other jobs become available elsewhere. While it is often a strength to be in the motorsport cluster in Britain, it can also be a disadvantage as staff can find new jobs rapidly if things start going wrong, which means that a team in that is in trouble loses staff rapidly. Enstone is just 10 miles from Caterham’s base at Leafield, 12 miles from Marussia in Banbury, 15 miles from the Toro Rosso wind tunnel in Bicester and 20 miles from Mercedes AMG Petronas in Brackley. All of these organisations have been recruiting of late, as has Williams F1, which is 25 miles away. To add to the problem Wirth Research in Bicester is also providing job opportunities. The firm, run by former Benetton technical director (an ex-Enstone man) Nick Wirth, designs and develops the ARX sports car chassis for Honda Performance Development in the US, and also works with Honda in IndyCar racing.
If Lotus F1 is going to reverse the current slide there needs to be an injection of considerable money, plus a restructuring to put in place managers who are trusted and who understand what is required to be successful in F1. The current people in charge may understand business, but that is not enough.
joeblogsf1 
Ugh, the Enstone news keeps going from bad to worse.
Joe, how long before Maldonado and PDVSA decide this ‘up in flames’ proposition is not what they signed up for, and what are Pastor’s options this late in the day? I guess there are those who need cash no matter what names they have already confirmed ….
If he signed a deal he is stuck there.
we don’t know what the deal is, if it says if Lotus misses a race, he might be free to go somewhere else.
Personally I’m not a fan of Maldonado. Apart from his exceptional win at Barca he has made loads of mistakes and basically done bugger all to be proud of. If the Williams turns out to be a good car this year, and the early signs are good, then he’ll only have himself to blame. Good riddance to Pastor & his cash and good luck to Massa, Bottas & Williams!
Interesting stuff, many thanks for the info.
The Lotus Composites factory in Park Farm, Wellingborough remains up for sale, that has been shut now for 3+ years, but the sign is still outside.
Mercedes-AMG must be bursting at the seams, they are parking in the road outside the factory these days, we go past their place to go to our shot-blasters a bit further south.
500 guys for only two cars .. too much ..
F1 is walking on the head ..
Lotus is not a big F1 team.
I have a very bad feeling about this. I have followed this team since the Toleman days with Derek Warwick in F2 !! There have been some great highs as a fan of an underdog. Senna at Monaco, Fabi getting the first pole, Berger the first win Schumacher the first championship. I still have some photos from a tour of the Station Lane facility in 88 I think ? I really hope there is some positive news soon. These are real people with real lives and real mortgages we are talking about …. 😦
It’s not Lotus, it’s just called Lotus.
The team we’re talking about was originally Toleman, then Benetton, then Renault then, well, Lotus.
Referring to the team as Lotus and becoming misty eyed about it is silly.
Wish I had a spare for hundred million to bail the thing out, return the name to Toleman and start again as a back marker.
To the extent that Martin was being misty-eyed he was was being misty-eyed about ‘The Enstone Team’ not Lotus: Senna in a Toleman in Monaco in 84, Fabi in a Toleman on pole in Germany 1985, Berger with the first win for Benetton at the 86 Mexican GP etc
+1.
1980, Easter weekend, F2, Thruxton. Henton and Warwick. And Pat Symonds and Rory Byrne. I thought F2 was pretty much a spec series. I didn’t expect all but the first 4 cars to get lapped. Or the winner’s team mate to be 40 seconds ahead of the guy in 3rd.
I wasn’t prepared for quite such a long wait before the team came good in F1, though, come to that.
In some ways nothing much has changed since Grand Prix International published their ’84 pre-season preview, saying that Toleman just needed more money to really shake up the F1 hierarchy…
Benetton to Renault, Renault to Lotus. I was so confident that they would have the resources and money to follow in the previous incarnation’s title-winning footsteps. They lost not the finest driver on the grid but clearly the most-loved in the fanbase, and just as the second driver starts to relax and mature into one of the best, the funds disappear, as do the people.
Joe, this may be too broad a question and sorry if so, but what would be their options of obtaining and injecting money, fast? Sponsors like PDVSA are good but what would they require, a complete buy-out?
There is always money out there…
Maybe an interesting challenge for Ross Brawn to take over? He would certainly have the confidence of the staff.
I don’t see it happening, but he had a pretty good time at Enstone last time he was there…
I am thinking along the lines that he could provide an interesting exit strategy for Genii to cut their losses and run. He could get it cheap and could attempt to repeat the success of Brawn GP. But this is just wishful thinking.
What I still don’t understand is why Lotus Auto Group don’t step in. Either help them out or don’t let Lotus F! abuse the Lotus name with all this nagtive info of lately.
It is very simple. Lotus as no money.
I think any harm that Lotus F1 is doing is nothing compared to the damage already done by Mr Bahar.
A friend of mine works there (won’t say which dept to protect his identity), but reckons that over half his department have applied for, or are looking for new jobs so they can jump before they’re pushed, or it all falls down.
Sad times.
I know what you mean Ian – I have family that work there and the news that comes from there is not good at all. Feel so sorry for all the guys who work there as they have been through tough times before – but this time I think its a lot worse.
Wither Lotus. It seems the hard-fought battle for the name has come back to bite them in the end.
It’s cursed! Cursed, I tells ‘ee! Lotus be the Name o’ Doom! First it claimed Collins an’ Wright, then ‘Unt and Pacific, then Tony F’rnandes escaped by the skin of ‘is oriental choppers, an’ now ol’ Colin Chapman is a-reachin’ out from beyond the grave to reclaim ‘is legacy from these ‘ere young whippersnappers from Luxemexembur… forn parts. Aye, don’t ‘ee be goin’ near the name “Lotus”, if ‘ee knows what’s good for ‘ee!
Or something. Weirder yarns have been spun in sport (Google the Chicago Cubs’ “curse of the billy goat” for proof of that).
Sad for Enstone, though, and what was once a great team.
Lotus withers!!! Seems fairly obvious.
All that money they wasted to use the Lotus name and now they’re on the way to disappearing into history, as the orginal Lotus F1 team has.
If proof were needed that Bernie & CVC are taking far too much money out of F1, this is it.
“If proof were needed that Bernie & CVC are taking far too much money out of F1, this is it.”
I think it’s more a case of very bad (monetary) management on the F1 teams side more than anything else.
I think you’re right to some degree, David – Lotus could have chosen to spend on the car very strictly in line with their known budget. But then they (probably) wouldn’t have been in any way competitive against the better-funded teams ahead of them (RB, Merc, Mac and Ferrari).
Is this any way for F1 to continue – only those with the most money can compete and the rest can never catch up without risking bankruptcy?
Just curious, as I don’t recall, but did the announcement of the Infinity/Quantum deal coincide with the missing of payroll? Strange timing if I may say so…
Has Raikkonen been paid the money owed from last year? If so, was it the full original amount, or was it a smaller settlement?
Have suppliers been paid monies owed?
I still haven’t heard if they have a confirmed engine deal for this year, so someone clue me in please.
On a related note, if Lotus self funded into huge debt, how much is it costing the rest of the field to self fund cars nekkid of sponsorship and will they soon be in similar dire financial straits?
I suggest you ring Lotus. They are sure to answer all your questions…
I’m pretty sure I know the answers already…
On a related note, if Lotus self funded into huge debt, how much is it costing the rest of the field to self fund cars nekkid of sponsorship and will they soon be in similar dire financial straits?
15,361,264.87 pounds and no they will not be in similar financial straits.
Do you think that Haas might view it as an opportunity to buy out an existing team rather than building a team from scratch in the states?
It depends what he wants to spend.
Sounds like a plan – if there is likely to be anything left to buy by the time it eventually happens. This, coupled with Joe’s reference to a 10% buyout by one of the richest men in Russia (which looks like a it might go up in smoke if something is not done i.e. more money added by the same gentleman) might see a Russian American joint-venture with muscle that eventually works who knows?
I wouldn’t write them off just yet, as Joe say, there is money out there, economies are picking up, so you may see someone with a long-term plan step in.
Economies are picking up?! Erm, not really…..
If you mean economies are printing fiat money like it’s going out of fashion, backed by thin air (No physical gold in UK, Germany, France, US etc to speak of, just the promise that it will ‘All be fine’ a few years down the line) then sure, that is the illusion.
I’ve been flamed before, in fact told I was boring to bring up the fact that the fiat illusion, run by criminals in the ‘banking sector’, is exactly that, an illusion; a fraud.
Take HSBC, them of the drug cartel money laundering scheme. Turns out they are technically insolvent. ie, they have NO money. $80 billion in debt as a conservative estimate. They call it a liquidity crisis. Forensic Asia call it a ‘mirage’. I call that flat out skint.
If one was to skip their mortgage payments for a year, citing a ‘liquidity crisis’, do you think the bank would say, “no problem, you have no money and are in debt, so just pay us when you can” “We can see that you are printing fake bank statements that shows you have ‘money’, so that will be fine”
They are in debt, trading at a loss, and technically insolvent. When will people realise that printing bits of paper and telling everyone ‘we’re good for it’ is going to end in tears.
There is nothing there in the banking sector, cash-wise. Just a lot of paper twisted and turned to maintain the illusion, and to make some people wealthy on the back of others’ hard work.
HSBC c’est fini in my opinion, and in the short term, too. I can add RBS, Lloyds et al along with that, but they are able to kick the can slightly further down the road.
It just remains to be seen how much ordinary depositors will lose out in the next couple of months, when HSBC will, in my and many others’ opinion, fail. The ‘capital limits’ for withdrawls were nicely tested last week, with cries of ‘no, no, no problem here; you can have your money any time; this is standard money-laundering stuff’. But we know really the purpose of said experiment. Even ‘Fat Fingered’ traders can’t help!
And how does this relate to F1? Well it must be one of the biggest swallowers of capital, sorry re-packaged debt, in sporting circles. Predominantly frequented by the financial classes. I leave it to the astute reader to figure out what might happen in that scenario….
This is not an advertising forum. I have explained many times that I don’t want links.
Ooh err, advertising forum? I wasn’t advertising a thing. I posted the various links in order to illustrate my various points.
They were articles, I dont think you could buy them if you wanted to, all freely available on google (sorry, I’m not advertising google!)
I always like to quote a source, I thought it would be of interest.
Never mind, noted.
I’m surprised you let that diatribe about banks get posted…
And why Chris? It’s true, and it’s relevant to the vast sums swishing around F1. If you don’t like the truth…..
A diatribe tends to be an unqualified rant. Here, I post the facts in relation to comments about ‘economies picking up’ and ‘plenty of money around F1’. I even posted a few links, although I didn’t realise this wasn’t allowed in fairness.
I believe Joe does a good job of keeping abreast of F1 business; the dire straits the banks are in can’t have escaped his notice. The banks control the capital; F1 relies on that capital. I don’t think there is a great deal of advertising money any more (real money) so the majority of capital is sourced through financial instruments, which is rapidly imploding.
And apologies to the other ‘Jim’ just below me, I’m not nicking your moniker
I always had the impression that Lotus/Renault/Bennetton/Toleman were a crack racing team, that most of the time punched above its weight and got results.. the kind of team that if you were a great driver (not just thought you were one) with something to prove you could really gel with and get results. They were quite likeable… (perhaps not so much in 94/95). Its really sad to see this happening to them now. Hopefully Williams can take up the mantle this year…
It’s definitely a shame, I always viewed the core race team of Enstone as very resilient. It’s changed ownership and management on many occasion. But if they’re losing personnel hand over fist throughout all departments then that core strength in depth will simply evaporate.
” The current people in charge may understand business,”
Are you sure they really do, Joe? They claim they do, but I guess they do not have a clue of what it is. They just play with other’s money, anybody can do that.
Regarding F1, they were supposed to revolutionize the business, create some kind of synergies, plateforms, new ways of marketing things… I always laughed at this unbelievable blablabla. Lopez is no better than Bahar.
Carl Haas is looking for an F1 team.
when genii took over they went to marketing and asked how many potential sponsors they were talking to, they were told 20….the genii marketing crew laughed and said they were talking to 200 potential sponsors!!!! Most stickers on that car were Genii companies NOT new sponsors. I should know i was there!
Very much expected but nonetheless very sad news. As I see it, timing is key now. Investment is needed quickly whether it’s to stem the decline of Lopez & Lux-owned Enstone or to allow a takeover by A.N. Other before the whole team becomes virtually worthless and/or doomed to the kind of ignominy suffered by Jordan for some years post-sale.
I suppose personally I’d like to see a takeover. Somehow, Williams keeps its finances together but having seen BRM, Lotus, Tyrrell, Ligier, Jordan and others suffer prolonged death throes, a fresh start may be preferable. Arrows sunk so low they had to lower the bottom. Mind you, the Middlebridge purchase of Brabham supports the other view.
Why would anyone want to put new money into a black hole while the people that created it is still in charge?
Stable mangement,established structure solid hand on the tiller, technically focussed leadership. If I was putting cash into this these would be some of the attriubutes I would look for. I can only imaging F! feels unfinished business for Dave Richards and the ProDrive team. They would just need bankrolling but Im sure they could pull this out of the hat…………………..
Haas – Richards / Prodrive ?
No
Given what happened to HRT and is happening to the other ‘new’ teams I wouldn’t be surprised if Dave Richards gives daily thanks to whatever gods he believes in that his application was rejected!
Dave RICHARDS knows how to blow the cash – would he really make a difference..?
Cool your guns. This is not going to happen.
And yet they have a “We’re hiring” link on their webpage.
Maybe they need to hire someone to arrange the deck chairs… I hope I’m wrong.
I dont know whats demotivating, losing all the staff or an owner who says he will dispose of the team at the end of the season if results dont pick up.
I’d say one was highly motivating.
Carlos Ghosn CEO of Renault said a few years back that whilst the F1 team is performing well it’s a benefit to the business, when it’s not performing well it becomes a cost and a liability…..two yrs later Renault stepped out of F1 as a manufacturer.
It goes back to the Q&A….., how do you make a small fortune out of F1?…………start with a large fortune!
They stepped out because they were banged to rights cheating in Singapore in 2008.
The top brass of lotus are off skiing in chamonix. I don’t think they’re too concerned.
It was announced today that they’ve paid their entry for 2014, which they wouldn’t do if they thought they were going to fold. Remember that Brawn went through something similar at the start of 2009 and they went on to win the constructors championship, so its a bit premature to be writing Enstone’s obituary imho.
No one said they would fold.
The factory is a scene of chaos and paranoia – Not a happy bunch.
It’s so sad to see a much loved, small “all-star” team crumble. It was a short burst of the perfect storm, and based on the fans wearing black around the world, they were hugely popular!
Even if they recover financially, they will have to start over to build a fan base, as I’m sure Kimi and Boullier fans have moved on.
No interest at Renault in becoming a constructor again I suppose? Or perhaps Tony Fernandes feels like burnishing his credentials as a preux chavalier by rescuing his old nemesis?
Bloody Flav… it’s taken six years, but the decay he injected into Enstone has finally reached the stage of bringing the whole house down…
Flav’s fault???
I call shenanigans. 🙄
One feels sorry for Romain Grosjean in all this… maturing into a strong contender and now, perhaps, hampered by the team’s demise…
….I was worried that Hulkenberg would miss out on a Lotus drive – and he did, but now it looks like he might be in a better place.
A lot of these redundancies will surely be non essential staff will they not? They aren’t going to leave themselves without enough manufacturing staff to build the actual cars are they?
One would hope not.
The guy I know who was made redundant and told to leave now as they couldn’t afford to pay his garden leave was a model maker working on the new car so hardly non essential staff. I guess you’re just hoping against hope.
On another note Joe did you not remain quietly confident against all the others the quantum deal would go through is this still the case?
I gave Quantum the benefit of the doubt.
The Lotus team has been run so badly by the owners. The marketing message just does not add up and is confusing. Why have a team called Lotus, when you have no connection to Lotus cars or the group. No one would want to sponsor that as a business. You are effectivley sponsoring a company name you have nothing to do with, for free. They should change the team name to make sense. Even if it is not an historic racing name.
The guys who run this deserve everything they get. Alas the people who work there don’t deserve this.
After the year they have had they should have sponsors biting their hands off. Why not?
Do not agree Lotus is a perfect name for a f1 team. All sponsors are sponsoring a team name which they have nothing to do with. As for Lotus group connection everything that has the official trademark from Lotus on it is officially connected simple as that. You have the official Mercedes team but they have just as much to do with Mercedes cars as Lotus f1 with Lotus cars maybe even less
but still I hear no one saying thats not a real Mercedes team but what is the difference ?
The difference is that Merc owns the F1 race team and pays the bills. The Lotus car company has nothing to do with the race team and isn’t providing any cash either.
cash was provided 3 years ago although it was a loan and think it still is. If they have nothing to do with it how come you can buy the merchandise directly from Lotus and how it is possible that they can carry the Lotus roundel on their cars ?
As a fan I’m happy that the people with a public profile that I like are have already moved onto more secure and hopefully better teams, but I feel for the people who work (or worked) there. News like this makes me hope that a meaningful and effective budget cap is imposed soon.
Keep Calm
Ruhan knows what he is doing
I work at Mercedes AMG and in my department we have just had a new guy start who has come from Lotus. Told me all about the salary problems with Lotus. No wonder they missed the first test, everyone who is building the car is leaving!
I think that it would be interesting if you communicated what you have heard with Joe.
He could “filter” it and let us know the juicy bits… LOL
It used to be said that racing in the America’s Cup was like standing in a cold shower ripping up £100 notes. Owning an F1 team seems to be the same, except you miss out on the cold shower.
I wonder how long some other owners / investors will hang around in F1’s financial and political shambles once Formula E really gets going?
Career hint, Joe. Cover the Formula E races / become the go-to site on Formula E. F1 has already started its long decline into irrelevance.
I don’t agree.
That’s OK. I still love you.
Didn’t you recently write about how RBR set a record for advertising value?
No, Infiniti
such a lot of rubbish spouted on here by the bobble hats who know nothing
They wont make the first grid of the year at this rate. The owners are clueless. Frankly, the clever people seen it coming and left. There are plenty of unpleasant people who are difficult to work with still left there, from my memory anyway. What goes around comes around in F1. Not a nice team.
I can see this being the beginning of a dream. Lotus miss the first test and can’t afford to pay their staff.
Grosjean wins the first GP.
…and the second…and takes the championship.
Unlikely but boy could F1 do with an underdog story.
Could be an opportunity for a new player to enter F1 maybe a Chinese company.
What you have here is the new generation opportunistic entremanure unloading a team from a desperate manufacturer spinning debt and flying off the seat of their pants trying to play beat the clock. Oops having difficulty making the pitched ‘vlsion’ happen, sorry there you go, a very resolute sorry we’ll figure something out.
Seriously Keep Calm
Ruhan and Carter know what they are doing. A Racer and businessmen.
They have lent enough of money to keep it going but never overspend it.
If Quantum happens Ruhan gets his money back and let’s Lopez carry on
If not Ruhan takes over and then his problem starts lol
Finding the sponsorship to move back up to winning ways without spending your own money is the GREAT F1 challenge.
Only McLaren know how do do it right. Learn lessons F1 instead of whining Bernie does give enough.
“Morale in the team is not good with the failure of the Quantum takeover bid, the hiring of Pastor Maldonado, who is seen by most in F1 as a pay-driver…”
“Seen by most [who or What] as a pay-driver…”?
* ‘most’ English-speaking F1 journalists and/or bloggers?
* ‘most’ English-speaking F1 journalists and/or bloggers named “Joe”?
* ‘most’ current and former team principals who headed teams that won at least one race?
* ‘most’ current and former team principals who headed teams that NEVER won a race?
* ‘most’ current and former GP-drivers who never won a race?
* ‘most’ current and former GP-drivers who never scored a point?
* ‘most’ current and former GP-drivers who never earned a pole position?
* ‘most’ current and former GP-drivers who were also GP2 champion?
* ‘most’ current and former GP-drivers who were NOT GP2 champion?
* ‘most’ current and former GP-drivers who brought, facilitated or enabled some sponsorship of their team(s)?
* ‘most’ current and former GP-drivers who NEVER brought, facilitated or enabled some sponsorship of their team(s)?
* ‘most’ English-speaking F1 fans?
* ‘most’ English-speaking F1 fans with conservative political viewpoints and reactionary worldviews such that they are conditioned to malign anything associated w/ Chavez’s Venezuela (even if they might not be able to find Venezuela on a map)?
* etc…
1) What, exactly, are the criteria to be identified as a “pay-driver”?
2) Is it negative to be a pay-driver? If so, Why?
3) Is Felipe Massa a ‘pay-driver’ b/c Williams realized revenue (via sponsorship, “partnering”, investment, or some other transaction) upon his joining the team?
4) If Pastor Maldonado is a ‘pay-driver’, who did he ‘pay’ to win the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix?
5) Why, if Nico Hulkenberg is so much better and more talented a driver than Pastor Maldonado, has he not won a single race? Why doesn’t he buy a race, as you imply Maldonado must’ve?
All of the above.
The only reason Maldonado has made it this far is because of his funding, not raw talent. Without that backing he wouldn’t have been hired into F1. Take away the backing and he’s left without a seat.