Team Lotus look set to announce a new title sponsor in the form of the Sonangol Group, as well as the possible rebranding of its outfit as Sonangol Caterham F1.
Team Lotus, as they are currently known, are holding a media announcement at Duxford Aerodrome on Wednesday to reveal such news.
The F1 Times along with Peter Allen can reveal that several domain names including the Sonangol name, as well as the Caterham brand have been registered using the same company behind the teams current domain, teamlotus.co.uk.
Net Names, a company which specialises in acquiring domain names for clients, was hired by Team Lotus in 2010 to gain control of teamlotus.co.uk – they also acquired several names, listed below, on April 19th of this year, just days after Tony Fernandes was named as director of Caterham Cars, according to documents from Companies House.
Sonangolcaterham.com; Sonangolcaterhamf1.com and Sonangolcaterhamteamlotus.com, among others, were registered by Net Names, likely confirming news that Team Lotus will rebrand to include the new title sponsor and the Caterham cars brand in some form or another.
Dependent on the outcome of the Lotus vs. Lotus court case, of which a verdict is just weeks away, Fernandes’ may opt to keep Team Lotus in the name if it is legal to do so.
Diving deeper into the Sonangol Group will reveal that the Angolan petroleum company has been a sponsor of Team Lotus’ current reserve driver, Ricardo Teixeira, financially backing him for much of his racing career.
The news is set to be confirmed tomorrow at a Team Lotus announcement.
