Group Lotus buys Renault F1 Team

[marcush.]

you have to do the right thing.
Gascoyne realised that in the timescale available it was not possible to challenge any of the midfiled teams in 2010.With that out of the way you got USF1 ,Campos/Dallara and Virgin/Wirth as potential opponents and it looked like two of them would not even make it to the start...
So it was a very mature and competetn move not to go for the engineering adventure but to play it safe ,no extravaganza just basic stuff ´.I´m sure they had it all in the drawer already ..just did the engine adaption and started producing parts after changing the drawings from FI/Midland/toyota or whatever ..and concentrated on those things they really had to do afresh.Not a bad concept really.I had the idea that Virgin and Dallara had more potential and would disappear in the distanceafter half season but
not so.The Lotus is indeed pointing at the fact that it is less v-crossections and blade type rollhoops that characterise successful designs.

[Richard]

....

Don't mention the war!

[Richard]

Back to topic

This is turning into quite a nice close season story, albeit not as exciting as USF1. I'm enjoying having Ferandes and Gascoyne in F1, it seems the stolen-wind-tunnel-model-gate last year was just a petit aperitif, now we have stolen-name-and-colours-gate.

*grabs some popcorn and sits back to see who will wear the coveted black and gold in 2011*

ps - nice to see Danay Bahar pop up as CEo of Group Lotus. Reminds me of heady teenage days.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/ ... presenters

[gridwalker]

Fernandes has already conceeded the black and gold, saying (essentially) that it would be childish to fight over the livery when there bigger issues at stake.

[xpensive]

If you ask me, the black and gold livery is first of all John Player, secondly Ronnie Peterson and perhaps thirdly Lotus?

But quite obviously, Mike Gascoyne did the right thing playing it safe whaen asked to design a car six months away from the first race, pretty much like Robin Herd did 40 years earlier with the March 701, only to stun us all with the 711.

[segedunum]

I just thought Mike would give himself a fighting chance of flirting with the midfield given his experience and given that they would inevitably come under pressure quickly to move forwards and show progress. With a stable set of regulations into 2011 any work wouldn't be wasted. The Lotus car this season was so safe you could see the cotton wool around it.

However, given the timescales and the fact that Mike had zero infrastructure around him to build and test the car maybe that's all that he felt could be achieved. It's rather like how Adrian Newey turned up at Red Bull, which was just Jaguar, and had to put most of his effort into building facilities and methods first - except it's much worse for MG. I'm sure Mike would love to have the testing and CFD computing facilities they have available at Enstone!

We'll see what he can come up with for next year. Mike is certainly one of those people where, given some time, success usually comes and you can see things moving forward in the meantime. When he doesn't succeed he has no problem telling people exactly why. Renault leapt forwards while he was there, Toyota's management was crap although there were some glimmers and he probably single-handedly kept Force India afloat with the car they had.

[marcush.]

http://www.racer.com/q-a-with-lotus-mik ... le/181158/
"

Here at Lotus it is very different. Although I was always accused of being only a manager and not doing the engineering side, I used to go to all the technical meetings, run all the technical meetings – and at Lotus, people like [the incoming] Mark Smith, Dieter [Gass], Jody [Eggington] – they are freer as I don't really do that as much. I am so busy doing other things, that I would only be dipping in and out and that would not be effective. So they now take that responsibility on.

But the good thing is you know they are people doing it exactly the way you would have done, but bringing a fresher, younger perspective to it. So, I am very confident to let them get on and manage their areas independent to me, and keep me briefed as to what is happening. But then obviously, I am looking far longer distance in terms of drivers, other formulas, driver development programs – strategy moves for the team, like gearbox and engine contracts. I am spending a lot more time doing those sorts of things "

Gascoyne is not someone like Newey that was clear from the beginning .I remember him being called deputy technical director or something like that when at Tyrrell...
he borrowed his style from Exp methinks.

[xpensive]

...
When he doesn't succeed he has no problem telling people exactly why.
...

A recipe for good engineering management could hardly be described in a better fashion, ain't that so marcush,
but what if he already knew that he would have Enstone back within soon when he joined Fernandes?

I can only agree that this years Lotus was belt and suspenders, which is not xactly the Gascoyne way, is it?

[marcush.]

Is there really a merger on the cards?
I do not see that coming swiftly but Fernandes is a surprising guy and he has the passion.

[segedunum]

I can't see anything but a merger happening, possibly sooner rather than later. Bahar has given Proton delusions of grandeur with his own ambitions but there is just nothing to sustain them. I can't see where the money is coming from. All Fernandes has to do is bide his time and eventually he will be able to pick up Group Lotus that Proton will be eager to sell when they see the money disappear and unify them. Even if he loses the naming dispute the endgame is the same. He's probably the man that Lotus cars needs as well.

[GTO]

I just thought Mike would give himself a fighting chance of flirting with the midfield given his experience and given that they would inevitably come under pressure quickly to move forwards and show progress. With a stable set of regulations into 2011 any work wouldn't be wasted. The Lotus car this season was so safe you could see the cotton wool around it.

However, given the timescales and the fact that Mike had zero infrastructure around him to build and test the car maybe that's all that he felt could be achieved. It's rather like how Adrian Newey turned up at Red Bull, which was just Jaguar, and had to put most of his effort into building facilities and methods first - except it's much worse for MG. I'm sure Mike would love to have the testing and CFD computing facilities they have available at Enstone!

We'll see what he can come up with for next year. Mike is certainly one of those people where, given some time, success usually comes and you can see things moving forward in the meantime. When he doesn't succeed he has no problem telling people exactly why. Renault leapt forwards while he was there, Toyota's management was crap although there were some glimmers and he probably single-handedly kept Force India afloat with the car they had.

If he is as good as you say he is, why has he been hopping around like a roo for the past 20 yrs.
1989 McLaren-->1990 Tyrrell-->1991 Sauber-->1993 Tyrrell-->1998 Jordan-->2001 Benetton/Renault-->2003 Toyota-->2006 Spyker/Force India-->2009 Lotus/TeamX?
Some of these cars had success, but he never stayed there long enough to follow up & build on it. Seems like he loses interest or perhaps chasing the $$$.

[marcush.]

I ´d say in a world of constant change 9 jobs in 20 years is not hopping around like a roo....he managed to stay in F1 in commanding positions .so he has something to provide to small and big outfits AND he has seen them all inside ..he´s not the blind guy who has seen the same entity for 20 years .

[747heavy]

maybe he is (just) good at selling other (his co-workers) people ideas.

For a engineering genius, I found it rather disappointing that they could not get on top of their gearbox/hydraulic issues this year.
To me that´s a rather basic function of an F1 car.

I´m maybe wrong but it looked that the other new teams (with the same xtrac g/box) had less issues with it.
But maybe they just did never run long enough to have some g/box issues.

MG has surely a good PR man behind him, compared to the other tier 1 technical guys in F1. He is very vocal and quite often in the news/media. (A bit like Mark Webber)

[marcush.]

true ...that was really a surprise and all seemed completely at sea with the hydraulics.
Wirth had to make do without the Honda guys in F1 but still that looked a bit amateurish or may I say too hands on in the sense...lets try this or lets try that...i heard those stories in all sorts of teams and in the end it was always a matter of people not willing or able to analyse but eager in doing or changing things.
Interestingly the teams were hit by those issues at different times it looked like..Nevertheless Xtrac was supplying crap there.But then a guy from Tilton once told me . when teams,especially big ones start using carbon clutches the first two clutches are wasted usually .The first one by the mechanic who just mounted the thing not even wasting one second to get an idea for what to look or informing himself and the second one by the engineer who as well is not asking the specialist but advising the mechanic now without having a clue himself.. after destroying the thing for the second time only they start asking questions ...

[marcush.]

lopez is really funny..

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/88689

he should look up proton and lotus cars pr and advertising and could clearly see that Lotus cars is indeed claiming the heritage of Chapman and trying to sell cars on exactly this.