Mercedes team principal Ross Brawn has called on the three teams which blocked a recent name change request by the Renault outfit and Team Lotus, to rethink their decision.
Brawn believes their rivals may be demanding favours in return for agreement, something he believes is wrong.
“I guarantee those teams [Renault and Team Lotus] that are trying to change their name will have had approaches from other teams who want different favours paid in order to agree to the name change, and that’s not correct,” he is quoted as saying by Reuters.
“I know that happened to us when we wanted to change our name. People sought to get favours from that decision. That’s what we mustn’t have.
“If there’s a genuine reason why a team shouldn’t change its name, because it’s not in the interests of Formula One, that’s correct, there should be a proper debate. It needs to be done in an adult way and not used in a divisive way.”
McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh is in agreement and recalls similar issues when Mercedes bought the Brawn GP team and requested it be renamed Mercedes-Benz.
“I recall, within the last couple of years, when there was a desire to change the team name (Brawn GP) to Mercedes Benz, how a number of people conspired against that, which was a ridiculous position to take and very damaging to the sport.”
He added that if the change was going to help a smaller team to remain in the sport, then it’s worth pushing through.
“I think if it was a small team and it’s going to help them commercially… I think we should encourage them to remain in the sport.”
Christian Horner, Red Bull team principal, says the switch, in which Team Lotus would become Caterham and Renault would become Team Lotus, ‘makes sense’.
“It doesn’t make any sense for a team to be called Renault when it isn’t Renault,” he said. “Therefore a name change in a situation like that makes sense.”
