The Lotus F1 Team has terminated its title sponsorship deal with Group Lotus, but remains committed to keeping the Lotus name in F1, despite no longer having ties with the company behind it.
Genii Capital, which owns the F1 team, took the decision to end the deal after Proton, which owns Group Lotus, was sold to Malaysian automotive conglomerate DRB-Hicom, leaving the Lotus brand in financial uncertainty.
Proton, which previously owned the sportscar manufacturer, had an option to buy 50% of the F1 team, but this option along with other agreements have all been annulled by Gerard Lopez, co-owner of Genii Capital.
“The sponsorship agreement and the obligations of Lotus have been terminated,” Lopez told Autosport. “There is no option from Group Lotus to buy into F1 now – that option was taken over by us. There was one, but we have taken it over now.”
Despite no longer having ties to the Lotus brand, Lopez is committed to retaining the name for his team, possibly alongside a new title sponsor.
“We are happy to carry the Lotus name as we believe it is a good name for F1,” he said. “When we changed the name from Lotus Renault to Lotus [in 2012], 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.
“If we sign a title sponsor now, we will end up with a better cash flow situation than this team ever had before.”
Lopez also remains open to buying the Lotus Group from DRB-Hicom, but said the matter had been confused by the recent takeover of Proton.
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