Tony Fernandes, owner and team principal of Team Lotus, has admitted his outfit could start the 2012 season under a different title, most likely that of Team Caterham.
Despite recent success in the London High Court after legal action over the Lotus naming rights’ between himself and Lotus Cars, Fernandes conceded the teams identity could change.
“I always had a problem with ‘Am I really Team Lotus?’ because there’s a big question mark on that,” he told Reuters on Saturday.
Fernandes recently purchased Caterham Cars, a small sportscar manufacturer based in Kent. He admitted it was silly owning the Caterham name without utilising Formula 1 as a marketing tool – something he has done with his GP2 team which was renamed Caterham Team Air Asia.
“You can’t have a name and not monetise it. So we will have to wait and see … I don’t think this is healthy for anyone, having Lotus Renault and Team Lotus.
“I’ve always had the door open [to change the name] and there could be a win-win for everybody.”
He also hinted that the team was likely to relocate from its Norfolk base, most likely to Silverstone where Force India are based.
“The perfect scenario would be for the cars to leave for Australia [for the first race of 2012] and come back to a new home,” he said. “There’s no two ways about it.”
