The High Court in London has given Lotus 10 days more to sort out its financial situation. But the judge has also warned that there will be no further extensions and if the team does not have a workable long-term plan by September 28, the team will be placed in administration.
There has been talk in recent hours of a letter of intent signed with Renault last night by Gerard Lopez, but it is clear that this does not amount to much as the other shareholders – particularly Andrew Ruhan – have not signed.
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joeblogsf1 
Is Renault expecting Bernie to step in to help avoid administration and get the deal done? With Manor still running, Bernie isn’t near his minimum level of teams he has to show up at F1 events to, so other than the goodwill and promotional value of having Renault as a full works team again, there’s little to be gained by Renault letting the Enstone operation – largely their creation – go into administration. If Gohsn has signed Renault part of the LoI then that’s the decision made, the rest is expensive window dressing and a lot of people working at Enstone and track-side for Lotus will be seeking other employment. Renault will end up with a good deal picking up the pieces but spend twice as much trying to selotape a team together again after administration.
I hope the Enstone team get thrown a lifeline. I’d also like to see Renault back as a works team.
Is it Lopez trying to save face and keep a seat somewhere that is holding up the job?
So what about reoccuring rumours about Renault taking over Red Bull? Would that make any sence? I get the feeling the Mateschitz isn’t the man for half-owning a team or just be a sponsor anymore in F1, but, hey, I never spoke to the man, so what would I know…
With what money?
What’s Red Bull worth, if hypothetically :-
a) no-one will sell them a competitive engine, because they’ve burned too many relationships in the paddock; and
b) they aren’t willing to stay in the business without such an engine?
Not saying those things are so, but I’m curious what the market value of the Red Bull team is right now.
More fundamentally, if Renault are that short of cash, how are they going to run Enstone and expect to be competitive? They’re not going to get -that- good a deal from Bernie…
Just seen Skysports reporting that Helmut Marko says Red Bull will quit F1 if they don’t get a competitive engine.
It’s looking like that’s Ferrari or nobody.
Ferrari’s historic attitude to customer teams, and the relationship between works and customer engine performance are a matter of record. What if history repeats itself?
Ferrari is the choice available. Red Bull would need to pay F1 $500 million if it walked away from the sport. There is a contract.
A team is worth what someone will pay for it.
Indeed.
I’m simply suggesting that Red Bull have done a masterful job of destroying their own negotiating power.
If Red Bull fail to reach agreement with Ferrari – always assuming their apparent tactic of negotiation via media reflects reality – is the team worth more than the component parts?
Ferrari and Red Bull need to find a solution. However things are easier because Carlos Ghosn has said that Renault is not supplying customers in 2016, which would appear to fly in the face of the contracts in place. If this is construed as a breach of contract then Red Bull may not need to settle with Renault.
I thought Mr Ghosn said that although Renault wouldn’t be an engine supplier anymore, Renault would see out the contracts. It was after that announcement, Mr Dietrich Mateschitz then said, Red Bull wouldn’t be running Renault engines next year.
Seems to me Renault may have got some money out of it, and Red Bull were happy to pay it, just to get out of it.
Could be wrong, but just cant see Renault walking away with absolutely nothing from Red Bull.
I have read though that Red Bull will indeed lose the Total, and Infiniti branding’s.
Eddie Jordan is saying that VW is close to taking over the Red Bull team. Is there any credence to his claims?
See my reply elsewhere
I’m really starting to get the feeling that Renault wants out. I think I was naively optimistic that they were low-balling to get a works team as cheaply as possible but now I think they’ve decided that having a potentially front running team is so expensive now that the ROI simply will not be there even if they succeed. I think F1 is in a bad way. F1 has been top heavy as long as I can remember, but I think it is approaching the tipping point. Two words: COST CAP! But I’m not optimistic about that happening.
An engine price cap is looking like happening…
…which wouldn’t help Renault much with Lotus, no? (unless they use rebranded Merc engines, which seems a bit of a stretch)
I hope so but the way things are structured in F1 are so warped, so aimed at keeping those on top on top and the rest in their lesser places, that it seems anything done to give the less than mega-rich teams equal opportunity will be vetoed at some point in the process. There will always be haves and have-nots in F1 but at the moment it seems too structural…and that structure plays to the more selfish aspects of human nature. Besides a COST CAP I’d also like to see a regulatory freeze after the next round of changes, something to keep teams an mfrs from constantly having to invest huge sums in reinventing the wheel or engine.
The BBC is reporting more details.
The judge has given Lotus a stay of 7 days, not 10, and the sum involved is £900,000 owing in income tax and national insurance from June 2015. Whilst negotiations have been underway a similar sum has accrued for July and another similar sum will soon become due for August. Lotus said that if the administration order was given the company would cease trading and 400 jobs would be lost.
September 28 is the hearing. Yesterday was September 18. 18 plus seven = 25. 18 plus 10 = ?
I would have thought that both figures are compatible – the BBC could be referring to seven working days, inclusive of the 18th and 28th itself, whilst your figure is correct if you include the weekends between the initial announcement and the deadline of the 28th.
The inconsistency between what the BBC claim and Joe’s own reports may have arisen due to interpreting the date of the hearing in working versus actual days – if that is the case then both reports are correct. BBC = 7 working days, Joe = 10 actual days. Given the imperative nature of the situation, I doubt the folks involved will mind working weekends if it saves the team so Joe’s number is what matters in reality.
Of course
What are your thoughts about the BBC report that VW are buying Red Bull???
If Renault were to by the Enstone team, they could do worse than let the team keep the Merc power units for 2016 whilst they develop their own to competitive levels for 2017. If they don’t supply any engines next year (and it seems confirmed they won’t supply Red Bull or Torro Rosso), they would be free to develop their power unit without the token restrictions, no?
I cannot see Mercedes letting another engine manufacturer run a team with Mercedes engines and IP involved, wouldn’t make any kind of commercial sense?
+1.
Joe, what do you make (if you’ve seen it) of the rather weird story the BBC are running, apparently from Eddie Jordan, that VW are close to buying Red Bull?
Strikes me as unlikely, and EJ’s hit-rate on accurate stories only reinforces that, but any light you can shed on it?
See my answer elsewhere in this thread
Joe, whats your take on Jordans rumours about Audi buying Red Bull with Ferrari engines for 3 years and then Audi’s own engine after that?
Sounds unlikely to me.
I agree. The question is whether there is a possibility or whether F1 is using EJ to fly a kite, hoping that Audi will seize the day.
Exactly. The headline sounds nice (if a bit deja vu: how many times have we heard this) “VW to join F1!”, but the details are so hazy and the deadlines so far in the future that it’s basically fluff. The same fluff we’ve been hearing for the past few years, evidently designed to draw some favourable reaction from the VW board and failing dismally. Then again, not all is what it was at VW, with Piech being forced out, so who knows?
Any formal announcement would probably be no sooner than the tail end of the 2017 season anyway, so my vote is that this is F1 flying a kite. VW has no reason that I can see to announce or even leak anything right now. Especially given Honda’s dismal experience this season.
messy
We try not to join the vultures being negative about F1, and we hear that F1 has always had “dominators” in the past, that the power of an engine has always been one of the most significant factors at times in history, but with teams dropping out, increasing costs, manufacturers on the precipice of withdrawing, one team dominating by such an extent and an ineffective governance system and body, is the current state of F1 the worst that it has been in recent times? Joe you are one of the few people qualified to answer this given your experience in the sport.
Fundamentally there is nothing wrong with the sport. The problem is that the deals that have been fashioned and the paucity of regulatory forcefulness means that the sport is drifting. They are trying to fix it… The key is to find better owners.
+1,000.
“The key is to find better owners”. I agree, but how, who, and where?
I know, off-topic for Renault/Lotus, but
Unless racers own F1, it will simply not change IMHO. IMHO it is too expensive, is having too many problems morphing from a sport that grew during the Industrial age, to one that can thrive in the IT age, and is frankly too boring,for reasons I’ve outlined more than once in these pages.
Watch/listen to Senna in the clips of him karting as a kid… “pure racing” he says; it’s what turned him on to it. It’s all gone now, thanks to technology, greed, regulation, money & politics.
I want to watch racing drivers MOTOR racing in racing cars, not celebrities TECHNOLOGY racing in computers.
Cars, motors – it’s kinda technology.
As a big F1 Fan – but apart from that – not an insider with more knowledge as most common folks, it baffles me, the ridiculous amounts mentioned in connection with the possible / or not so, Lotus team going into administration.
I mean: In a business, where the general speak is about budgets in the 100 Mill+ GBP range, and staffs 500+, how can a team, supposedly owned by hyper millio/ billonaires, be in serios economic trouble – owning an amount of 900 thousand!! This sum must be petty Money in this game…
Where is the idea….? if any…
The owners aren’t putting money into the team. They don’t have basic consumables to run the team, they don’t have material to make development parts for this year’s car or start next year’s car. They are waiting for a blank cheque to arrive from Renault to clear debts with suppliers and then start playing catch up ready for next year.
Nice,24 hs le mans part 1 [Link removed because I don’t allow links]
Hi Joe
Do you think the manufacturers are the right long term owners for the teams? The GFC highlighted that they can come and go, whereas the “racers” continue to battle on.
They come and go