Lotus F1 Team 2013

[slimfitcasual]

Lotus investor Quantum wants Hulkenberg
http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/lotus ... ulkenberg/

...the Enstone based team is running out of time as it waits for the deal to be completed, and has set a mid-November deadline, the German trade magazine said.

If the deadline passes, Lotus will surely resort to signing Pastor Maldonado, whose PDVSA backing is estimated at up to a staggering EUR 41 million per year.

An insider is quoted as saying: "When will Pastor realise that everyone is only after his money, not him?"

Ouch. I've gone from desperately wanting Hulk to drive for Lotus to thinking they're not good enough for him in less than a week.

[munudeges]

Kimi talks to Adam Cooper: I have been paid 0 euros this year!

Well, the team haven't denied it nor has Raikkonen even made a big thing about it until late on in the year. I thought there were late payments, but not that he had been racing for free.

[munudeges]

Ouch. I've gone from desperately wanting Hulk to drive for Lotus to thinking they're not good enough for him in less than a week.

Myself included. This Quantum thing sounds like a right scam. They haven't concluded any deal of any description, initially called themselves Infinity which obviously clashes with Infiniti cars, and they're now talking about what drivers they want? Sounds like a really credible outfit.

[Jonnycraig]

Kimi talks to Adam Cooper: I have been paid 0 euros this year!

Got ya, did I?
That's the journalistic style of grabbing attention with stupid headlines. The whole interview is here - http://adamcooperf1.com/2013/11/01/kimi ... somewhere/

He's not suggesting it straight, but again, honest as hell, from his perspective. If I'm Maldonado or Hulk, I'll think twice before signing Lotus, if the financial state is still the same.

As suggested by Sky today, due to Lotus' cashflow issues, Raikonnen has had to defer his wages until Lotus get their prize money at the end of the season. Whilst I'm sure some will say its a matter of principle, only in the sheltered world of F1 could we feel sorry for a Multi-Multi-millionaire being asked to defer his next Multi million instalment of money for 7 months.

[Pup]

He may be a millionaire, but Lux and Lopez are far richer than he is; and since they're funding the team, it's fair to ask why they don't fund it a bit more or make driver pay more of a priority with what funding they have.

The timing of payments, especially of the sums they're taking, is pretty important. There's a lot of interest in that money that right now is being earned by Genii and therefore being lost by Kimi. With those figures, we're talking probably a million in interest over a year which isn't something you just let slide.

[Jonnycraig]

He may be a millionaire, but Lux and Lopez are far richer than he is; and since they're funding the team, it's fair to ask why they don't fund it a bit more or make driver pay more of a priority with what funding they have.

The fact that Lotus are living hand to mouth and openly pleading for new funding implies that they aren't funding the team. I'm sure they would want to be paying their drivers at the same time as everyone else, but ultimately if you have a choice of paying the millionaire driver, or the ordinary guys & girls at the factory, it's obvious who has to come first.

As said above, there are billions of people around the world who can only dream of suffering Multi-millionaire F1 driver Raikonnens hardship.

[Pup]

The fact that Lotus are living hand to mouth and openly pleading for new funding

Citation needed.

[ecapox]

When did this mentality of "it's ok if rich people get screwed out of money because...well...their rich" gain foothold? He's owed money, lots of it, because there are only a handful of people in the world that can do what he does, but that doesn't make it ok for some other super rich guy to screw him over.

I have money saved and if my job stopped paying me, I'd be ok for a while. That doesn't mean that they can because I can afford to miss a paycheck.

The inclusions of a few extra zeros to a salary does not mean that contracts can be ignored.

[slimfitcasual]

When did this mentality of "it's ok if rich people get screwed out of money because...well...their rich" gain foothold? He's owed money, lots of it, because there are only a handful of people in the world that can do what he does, but that doesn't make it ok for some other super rich guy to screw him over.

I have money saved and if my job stopped paying me, I'd be ok for a while. That doesn't mean that they can because I can afford to miss a paycheck.

The inclusions of a few extra zeros to a salary does not mean that contracts can be ignored.

Agreed. However the childish sniping from BOTH sides, more often from Kimi is tiresome. It's just odd that if he's not being paid, he's still driving for them. Kimi: handle your business.

[ecapox]

It's a bad situation. The fact that he is still driving, while already being hired for next year, and not being paid, shows that he is a stand up guy. He's just pissed off.

[langwadt]

When did this mentality of "it's ok if rich people get screwed out of money because...well...their rich" gain foothold? He's owed money, lots of it, because there are only a handful of people in the world that can do what he does, but that doesn't make it ok for some other super rich guy to screw him over.

I have money saved and if my job stopped paying me, I'd be ok for a while. That doesn't mean that they can because I can afford to miss a paycheck.

The inclusions of a few extra zeros to a salary does not mean that contracts can be ignored.

I think the point is that Kimi has enough money that won't be missing anything by not being paid until the end of the season
the average worker at the factory would be in trouble if they didn't get paid regularly

I'm sure Kimi will get paid eventually if not before the it will probably be taken straight out of the wcc price money

[Richard]

I recall that's how it ended up last year.

I can understand why Kimi's annoyed because the team is taking advantage of his goodwill to subsidise the team's cash flow. He tolerated it once, but twice is annoying.

Its also annoying because Genii appear to have leveraged the deal in a classic VC move that lands the team with debt. So Kimi's deferred payments are subsiding Genii's debt. They must have been delighted to find Kimi underpinning their debt while hiding behind the figleaf of "think of the poor workers".

[munudeges]

The fact is that Formula 1 is a serious business and contracts have to be observed. You're not going to find a driver on the grid who wouldn't make some noise about this, and many who would make a great deal more than Raikkonen has. It's only just slipped out that he hasn't been paid at all and this isn't just a few missed payments. Raikkonen is also not the simpleton he sometimes appears in interviews and he's got very business-like head on his shoulders. He knows the Quantum/whatever money isn't turning up.

[marcush.]

that´s my impression as well.
Kimi lost confidence in lotus landing the necessary deal satisfy Genii and decided to go elsewhere .Obviously he also has no confidence of lotus sticking to their contractual obligations after seasons end...maybe lotus would even sell to somebody else and kimi had noone to sue ....I could imagine someone hinted at such possibility to make him nervous....

[stefan_]

Quantum says its Lotus Formula 1 investment deal is done

Autosport Link: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/111124