Lotus F1 Team 2015

[RAF]

I completely regret the idea of Renault needing a French GP in order to be a constructor.

Renault are the second biggest selling car brand in Spain, which there is already a GP.
Africa/Middle east/India and China regions are really important to these car manufacturers and combines they sell more cars in these countries than they do in Europe.

[iotar__]

"Renault poised to complete Lotus deal and revive works F1 team"
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/120532

- Renault takeover next week
- Renault 65% Lopez 25% Prost 10%.
- facilities were crucial - well obviously, that's why Force India was a weird option (probably as a backup)
- "The up-to-date facilities at Lotus's Enstone factory - well known to Renault from its previous ownership of the team - are crucial to the deal." This sentence does not make sense, facilities - wind tunnel, simulator, CFD - were upgraded after Renault left. Before messing everything up Lopez made the right moves.

Prost and Lopez running it and wasting Renault's money is the worst possible combination . When was the last time Prost managed something? So Lopez will be Wolff and Prost less annoying version of Lauda, what happened to Bell BTW? On top of that they are not sure if they want to start with 2016 or waste another season. Good luck with that.

[n_anirudh]

Prost himself has admitted that managing a team was the worst thing he did. That was nearly 15 years ago. I am sure he has learnt a lot, so have others.I hope they can contribute positively to the team and hoping for a manufacturer to step and do well from 2017 onwards.

[dren]

A change of livery, perhaps back to the main yellow of Renault with black and whatever sponsor's colors are as stripes.

[AnthonyG]

Lopez is by no means without mistakes, but on the other hand:
Lopez is so bad at managing a team it made a car that is often envied by many other teams with better financials.
Lopez is a smart man to invest in infrastructure, R&D always gets carried over.

Investing in F1 teams is a horrible business and very complex, it's easy to point the finger at one man.

[iotar__]

Lopez is by no means without mistakes, but on the other hand:
Lopez is so bad at managing a team it made a car that is often envied by many other teams with better financials.
Lopez is a smart man to invest in infrastructure, R&D always gets carried over.

Investing in F1 teams is a horrible business and very complex, it's easy to point the finger at one man.

These were not some minor mistakes, these were huge mistakes in terms of
- driver choices including financial side with consequences, running F1 team is about choices where and when to spend your money, they were losing engineers left, right and center and pretended it wasn't a problem, look at Williams as an example of not making those mistakes and benefiting from it. Plus driver policies, including ridiculous amount of team orders and unprecedented "one driver exists" approach - whole 2013 wasted. Team was run in an unhealthy manner and it transfers to other areas.

- not finding replacement for technical and managerial staff they lost, you may lose Allison or Boullier but you need hire someone instead and have a plan for the future doing that. Overlapping period when you prepare the replacement not improvisation mid-season. That's what Force India used to do - they lost big names and got better. Alternatively hire someone from outside: Symonds was available - look where Williams is now. Key was available - now look at Toro Rosso.

All of it resulted in sporting and financial loses, bad preparation for huge changes of '14, sponsors leaving, many engineers leaving and current state of this team, these are the real world consequences. We're talking about a team that:
- didn't want to win a GP on merit in Germany just because of idiotic policy
- in this very season sold a dozen of FP sessions almost getting rid of one of the last remaining competitive advantages and claimed it was not a problem affecting performance. On top of that knowing it costs them they tried to divide these sessions between two drivers and when Maldonado refused they turned publicly against him. They blamed the other driver instead of themselves. One podium doesn't change stupidity of this approach which they were planning to repeat next season.
- got rid off of a large amount of engineers 5 minutes before the season of the biggest technical changes in decades later to admit it was a mistake,
- sacrificed reliability for performance in 2015 and achieved neither (starting with gearboxes) on top of all kinds of operational mistakes.
- to summarize: in 2012 didn't need money, 2013 - results, 2014 - engineers, 2015 - drivers

As for Renault supposedly buying part of the team and letting the current owner manage it it's their money and problem but it looks like it was done for financial reasons (amounts mentioned are not big) - F1 on the cheap - which I guess didn't work that great on the engine side. Currently Lopez is a part time TP with four others: Carter, Chester, Permane, Gastaldi running their bits and pieces and the whole team is a mess.

[Juzh]

ECCLESTONE COVERED LOTUS STAFF WAGES IN AUGUST
http://www.f1today.net/en/news/204545/e ... -in-august

[bill shoe]

This article claims Lotus gets $50 million per year to let Madonado drive. Given the current large losses by F1 teams such as Lotus I think it's a no-brainer that you let anyone drive for $50 million per year.

EDIT: Unless Lotus has already sold its two 2016 race seats to Charles Pic, Maldonado, and Van der Garde

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/120576

[iotar__]

ECCLESTONE COVERED LOTUS STAFF WAGES IN AUGUST
http://www.f1today.net/en/news/204545/e ... -in-august

Looks like Lopez is milking the situation and trying to lower losses to the extreme. I love it, not because I dislike Ecclestone more but because it makes sense and it's funny to see that Bernie suddenly "cares" about Lotus. I thought it was normal that teams go bankrupt and it was a good laugh. Why?

- he needs an engine manufacturer, Honda will not supply teams next season, his beloved Red Bull might need a backup plan and it doesn't look like anyone new (Audi) wants to join this circus with high entry barriers and predetermined results he himself created. He created problems for new engine manufacturer and now back-paddles and invites them?
- it's not a charity and he's not saving anyone, he's the one that partly put them in this position through the way F1 profits are shared. he wanted to get rid of independent teams and put three cars or stooge teams to get more money for the owners and himself.
- the last thing Ecclestone needs is another team scandal, F1 is on a thin ice marketing wise

This article claims Lotus gets $50 million per year to let Madonado drive. Given the current large losses by F1 teams such as Lotus I think it's a no-brainer that you let anyone drive for $50 million per year.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/120576

Lotus' incompetent management blaming someone else for their own mistakes, they're getting arrogant with Renault deal in sight. I'm sure PDVSA was responsible for:
- breaking a contract with Pic (Palmer) and running like a headless chicken in Spa after facing consequences
- selling free practice and losing results because of that
- gearboxes situation. They didn't have spare one in Spa and it almost cost them before a driver they disadvantaged for 4 seasons in a row bailed them out.
As for Maldo he'd be outpacing two Toro Rosso media superstars all season. It's expected to have lows with him, the trick is to get highs. It could have been Monaco (gearbox), Australia (Raikkonen) or Bahrain (engine in Q). There were plenty of lows but it's a slow, unreliable car (and badly managed team) not Mercedes when after Hungary and 0/10 performance you need to beat one driver with no further competition to get 10/10 scores from pseudo-journalists. Funny how there's suddenly interest in Lotus seat and everyone cares about their lost results.

[pob]

I have a feeling if Renault's takeover of Lotus is completed they will be given a permanent seat on the Strategy Group.

[Jolle]

Thinking money wise, Renault might be waiting until RedBull breaches contract. The cheapest way for Renault would be:
- RedBull sells off the Renault 2016 contracts for RBR and STR
- Team Lotus goed bankrupt, Renault would be one of the bigger creditors from payments from the breach in contract for 2015 (rumored that they payed renault out of the contract to be able to run Mercs this year). If Lotus goes belly up, the deal with Mercedes is a no-brainer to get out of and they loose the huge debt to Lopez

And who knows... Alonso might be interested?

[iotar__]

Thinking money wise, Renault might be waiting until RedBull breaches contract. The cheapest way for Renault would be:
- RedBull sells off the Renault 2016 contracts for RBR and STR
- Team Lotus goed bankrupt, Renault would be one of the bigger creditors from payments from the breach in contract for 2015 (rumored that they payed renault out of the contract to be able to run Mercs this year). If Lotus goes belly up, the deal with Mercedes is a no-brainer to get out of and they loose the huge debt to Lopez

Red Bull and Renault have already split, whatever was behind the scenes does not matter: RB can get a Ferrari engine, Renault can buy Lotus or leave, no need for theories. Second part, on the contrary, "for now" and it may change but: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/motors ... ation.html

It appears Lotus were saved for now by representatives of Renault at the hearing.

Renault either buys Lotus or leaves - simplicity, mess is costly and not the cheapest - time and other factors like brand. It was always wishful thinking of people like Saward with rather negative obsession with Lotus (and bias about many teams) and not based on reality. Short-lived drama for clicks and attention many people are buying because they like it - normality in F1 reporting . This one is as bad as it gets too:

The Enstone-based team went straight from a disastrous Italian Grand Prix on Sunday – neither car made it beyond lap two - to a potentially catastrophic hearing in London yesterday morning.

Nothing happens so let's shout "potentially catastrophic" and mix it with one GP just to have a chance for "disastrous" when one driver retired through no fault of his own (Nasr) and the other was unlucky too. Pseudo journalism in F1 thread with hard examples is needed.

[johnny99]

I heard news from a good source that the cars have been seized today, i hope it's not true,

John

[McG]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/120825


Will Renault be using Mercedes engines next year or have I got the wrong idea from the article? Or does it jus mean that Renault won't be supplying any other teams with an engine? Would be a real shame if they pulled out. It would suck to see a Renault Mercedes or if they carried on as lotus Mercedes with Renault money. But Renault and Mercedes are in business together aren't they?

[adrianjordan]

So let's just say that Renault buys into Lotus F1 but retains the Mercedes PU for the 216 season. Would that mean that they would be free to redevelop their PU without worrying about tokens etc since it wouldn't be in use in F1 at the time?