This world is not big enough for two Lotuses on the grid – Gerard Lopez
Group Lotus and Team Lotus have been fighting against each other over the copyrights of the name Lotus since the past couple of weeks and it seems that things are getting a bit out of hand now since they are not willing to negotiate with each other in any
way and both of them just want things their way.
Initially, Group Lotus had the rights to the name “Lotus” but after the company’s joint venture with Team Lotus, Tony Fernandes claims that he bought the rights for the name and as a result, claims that his team will keep the name Lotus in 2011.
However, after a lot of controversies and conflicts, Group Lotus decided to join RenaultF1 team and as a result, the team has changed its name to Lotus Renault GP for the 2011 season. Group Lotus claims that Renault and the team is not hoping for anything
less than a win and the team is hoping for a strong finish after 2011.
Recently, Gerard Lopez stated that there will be only one “Lotus” on the Formula 1 grid in 2011 as he is aware that if there are 2 teams, there will be four Lotus cars lining up on the grip next season. Lopez is confident that the decision of the court will
go in Group Lotus’s favour before the season begins in March.
“As far as having four [Lotus] cars next year on the grid, I don't think it's going to happen. I tend to be a positive person, so I would say that nobody has anything to win from this - except maybe Group Lotus as having four cars running for the same brand
and only being involved financially in two of them,” he told the Media.
He believes that his team is much stronger than Team Lotus and they are not doing justice to the legendary name in any way.
“The natural course of things should be that whoever is the Lotus brand should race as Lotus and whoever isn't, and actually had asked for a license to do so, should race as something else,” he added.
It would be interesting to see what the two companies decide before the season and it wouldn’t hurt to have two Lotus teams on the grid either.
“I'm certainly not going to be the one standing and making that decision because I have no power to do so... [but] I don't think there are going to be two teams of the same name and four cars of the same colour,” said Gerard.
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