Lotus and Cosworth end agreement

The Lotus F1 team and its engine partner, Cosworth has mutually agreed to end their engine supply deal at the end of the current season. Lotus is now looking for a new supplier, with the team reportedly close to securing Renault engines for 2011.

As a new team in F1, Lotus had a contract with Cosworth to supply its engines for 3 years, along with a gearbox from XTrac. It is particularly this gearbox that has brought many reliability problems to Lotus this year.

At last weekend's Italian GP, when Jarno Trulli came to a halt due to another gearbox failure, team principal Tony Fernandes tweeted "I hate this gearbox", and moments later "Oh well, it just makes decisions easier".

Since the team were looking for a new gearbox, it had to look within F1 teams as they all provide their gearboxes for a fixed price. Renault however is believed to be willing to supply the gearbox and differential if it also included an engine deal.

With the Cosworth deal now ended in principle, all there is needed is a signature to end the contract, and another one under the Renault one to bring Renault and Lotus together, again.