With only a few days until the F1 circus fires up in the troubled state of Bahrain we sympathise with Nico Rosberg that he’s not really had the chance to celebrate in his maiden grand prix win in the manner it deserves. Maybe, in a moment of down time, he can check in to AUSmotive and share a smile as he relives that win in our picture gallery. There’s 84 pictures in all for you Nico, enjoy!
Rumours of troubles for Lotus since DRB-Hicom lobbed in at Proton are not new. A couple of months back we were being told to keep calm and carry on. However, a recent article by Joe Saward questioning the future of Group Lotus has inspired the car maker to respond with one of the world’s best dummy spits.
According to Saward: “It is fairly clear now that Group Lotus’ current recovery plan is finished, at least in its current form. There is major due diligence going on at Hethel and the word is that Proton’s new owner DRB-Hicom is not happy with the news that is filtering back to Malaysia.”
Tony Fernandes, former suitor of sorts to Group Lotus and the person who brought the Lotus name back into F1, didn’t help matters by tweeting Dany Bahar, Group Lotus CEO, and the Proton Chairman had been sacked.
Sniffpetrol has also chimed in with its observations.
Read below for the official reply from Group Lotus.
The seemingly ongoing saga of the Lotus name in Formula One has been sent down a new path following news the Genii Capital-owned F1 team has terminated its sponsorship agreement with Group Lotus.
Back in January owner of Group Lotus, Proton, underwent a significant change in structure after the Malaysian Government sold its 42.7% stake to DRB-Hicom. Financial uncertainty has surrounded Group Lotus since the Proton sale and this was a contributing reason for Genii cancelling its sponsorship agreement.
Under the previous sponsorship deal Group Lotus held an option to buy the F1 team from Genii. However, Gerard Lopez, owner of Genii Capital, says that deal no longer exists. “The sponsorship agreement and the obligations of Lotus have been terminated. There is no option from Group Lotus to buy into F1 now—that option was taken over by us,” he confirmed with Autosport. “There was one, but we have taken it over now.”
Lopez also confirmed his team wants to keep the Lotus name in F1, “We are happy to carry the Lotus name as we believe it is a good name for F1. We funded the team last year and the year before for whatever delta was missing. We would prefer to have sponsors up to the full amount—but if we have to fund it then we will fund it.”
From a daily operations point of view it seems the F1 team is not under any financial strain, “When we changed the name from Lotus Renault to Lotus [for this year], it opened up the door for a title sponsor. So if you take into account the fact we signed Unilever, probably the biggest sponsorship agreement this year in F1, and we signed Microsoft, which is huge news as it is a brand that has never been in F1 before, we have a wide space for sponsorship,” added Lopez.
“If we sign a title sponsor now, we will end up with a better cash flow situation than this team ever had before.”
In a twist perfectly suited for the sometimes bizarre world of F1, Genii had previously shown interest in buying Group Lotus. Lopez hasn’t ruled out such a move but is unsure if the possibility would present itself, “We don’t know yet, because we really do not know what the new owner wants to do with it.”
[Source: Autosport | Pic: Lotus F1/LAT Photographic]
Here’s your fix of F1 pics from the watery depths experienced at the Malaysian Grand Prix. It was a shock result to see Fernando Alonso on the podium, never mind Sergio Perez joining him there. We’re still upset that Perez fluffed his best chance at a maiden GP win and think a Sauber victory would have been the story of the year… so far!
If you didn’t make it to Melbourne on the weekend, or even if you did, here’s your chance to relive the 2012 Australian Grand Prix. With thanks to the F1 teams we bring you almost 100 photos from Albert Park as our F1 in pictures series returns. Remember to click on the pics to open a 2000px super image.
So we have two McLarens on the front row for the 2012 Australian Grand Prix. That’s probably not such a big surprise, certainly not as much as seeing the Red Bulls two rows further back. The real surprise, of course, is seeing 25-year-old Romain Grosjean in P3 in just his eighth race and his first visit to Australia.
Grosjean has shown the Lotus is no flash in the pan, too; he has been near the top of the timesheets more than once this weekend. Could he win it? Well anything can happen in Formula One…
After the break you can read what the first three men had to say after qualifying.
We might have seen 12 days of F1 pre-season testing already this year, but today is the eve of the 2012 Formula One season proper. When tomorrow’s free practice sessions go green that will be the first chance we get to see who is fast and who was mucking around during those pre-season tests.
To help prepare you for another mammoth year in F1 we bring you this quick reference guide. We have the full entry list and numbers for all drivers, plus links to our launch articles for all 11 teams. Very useful will be the coloured boxes which indicate which drivers will have a red camera atop their car and who will have yellow.
We’ve also included an introductory video from Pirelli explaining some of the changes they have made to the tyres for the season ahead. And, finally, there’s a handy calendar with the start times for all 20 races converted to Australian Eastern time.
If you still want more information you can learn more about the rule changes introduced this year in the Charlie Whiting Q&A article and The Guardian also has a good team-by-team preview, that is well worth a read.
All that’s left now are questions on what the season will bring: will this be Mark’s year; can Ricciardo edge himself ahead of Jean-Eric Vergne; and, more importantly, can anyone stop Sebastian Vettel?
For easy reference save this link: ausm.tv/f1guide2012
Red Bull Racing, Williams, Caterham and Lotus will all be running Renault engines in 2012. And just in case you had forgotten, they have prepped these four Megane RS models to act as a reminder.
As these cars are left hand drive we imagine they’ll be touring around the globe with the F1 circus so fans the world over will get a chance to see them up close.
The promotional cars are designed to help demonstrate to buyers there is a direct link from F1 car to road car. So, are you convinced?
Here’s the second and final part of our 2012 Geneva Motor Show photo gallery, featuring manufacturers from L–Z (well V actually). Highlights include the Aventador J pictured above along with a reappearance of the stylish Mazda Takeri concept. The awesome Pagani Huayra is also on show, check the raw carbon fibre model, it looks sublime. Oh, we’d love to hear what you think of the Valmet Automotive Dawn, if it was a person it would no doubt be referred to as one weird cat.
Kimi Raikkonen showed that with his steering sorted he’s as quick as anyone in F1 today. Actually, his time at pre-season testing in Barcelona overnight is the quickest of any driver on any of the eight days testing at the Circuit de Catalunya.
Further impressing was Raikkonen’s afternoon race simulation which showed the Lotus E20 can minimise the drop off in tyre performance across a long stint as well as any team out there.
Fernando Alonso’s best lap time was two tenths behind Raikkonen, while Bruno Senna made the most of his morning run to lock in the third fastest time of the day before handing over to Pastor Maldonado.
There’ll be some furrowed brows in the Red Bull camp with the update package of the RB8 proving less than spectacular. Webber had dramas yesterday and so did Vettel today, with gearbox problems the root cause. He won’t like being at the bottom of the timesheets.
The usual caveat applies that it can be folly to read too much into pre-season testing form, but you get the sense that Red Bull’s boffins will be earning their pay cheques between now and the Australian Grand Prix which is on in less than two weeks.
[table "7" seems to be empty /][Source: Autosport | Pic: Lotus F1 Team/LAT Photographic]
The Lotus E20 has once again shown the F1 field a clean pair of heels with Romain Grosjean improving on yesterday’s effort to post a best time of 1:22.614. Jean-Eric Vergne was next best over half a second behind, with Sebastian Vettel three quarters of a second back.
Unusual for the pre-season testing so far Grosjean’s best lap was recorded late in the day. He was third fastest in the morning session, but he threw on a set of softs for a few late laps to claim top spot on the timesheets.
The day went mostly without drama, save for a minor fire to Vergne’s Toro Rosso at the end of the morning session and a driveline issue with Hulkenberg’s Force India just after the interval. Both drivers were unable to resume.
Kimi Raikkonen will get his chance to show us what he can do in the E20 for the two final days of testing before the Australian Grand Prix.
[table "5" seems to be empty /][Source: Autosport | Pic: Pic: Lotus F1 Team/LAT Photographic]
Romain Grosjean and Lotus have bounced back from their first pre-season visit to Barcelona by setting the fastest time in testing overnight. Grosjean sent the Lotus E20 around the Circuit de Catalunya in 1:25.252. That’s around one second slower than Kamui Kobayashi’s best lap from the first round of testing in Barcelona.
Jenson Button was a quarter of a second behind Grosjean last night, with Sergio Perez third fastest, almost six tenths back.
[table "4" seems to be empty /][Source: Autosport | Pic: Lotus F1 Team/LAT Photographic]