Group Lotus has attacked the Caterham F1 Team with a bizarre press release which claims to set the record straight on a number of rumours circulating in the media.
The sports car manufacturer, which last week had its title sponsorship of the Lotus F1 Team terminated following a take over of its parent company, Proton, claims that lurid rumours about it’s CEO Dany Bahar and managing director of Proton, Dato’ Sri Syed, have been fabricated by Caterham team owner, Tony Fernandes.
“You can thank good old Tony Fernandes for these two [rumours],” it read, before lambasting the Caterham outfit and it’s CTO, Mike Gascoyne.
“Don’t take everything he tweets too seriously – perhaps he’s still frustrated about owning Caterham instead of Lotus and the fact that he fights HRT and Marussia instead of Mercedes and Ferrari in F1.
“And whilst we’re on the subject of jokes – do you know the latest F1 joke? Mike Gascoyne, Caterham Group’s Chief Technical Officer, has gone missing. Why? He’s looking for the 30 to 40 points he predicted for the last F1 season. Funny.”
The statement continued in a more serious fashion, claiming the company remains committed to Formula 1 and the Lotus team, of which it has “reshaped its commercial relationship” with.
“The new governance agreement signifies the continued commitment of Group Lotus to the team and the sport.
“Group Lotus’ branding and marketing rights and subsequent activities remain unaffected by the new agreement until at least 2017. Alongside continued branding and title partnership status, Group Lotus is also the exclusive master licensee for all Lotus F1 Team merchandise.”
The statement also revealed that Proton has provided the outfit with a £30 million loan, secured against the teams assets, and still has the option to acquire 10% of the team if they so wish.
“The new agreement was reached following Group Lotus owners Proton providing team owners Genii with a £30m loan which is repayable within three years. In order to secure the loan Genii used 100% of the F1 team’s assets as collateral meaning that under the conditions of the loan agreement Proton have been given full title guarantee to all plant, machinery, show cars, computers, office and the Lotus F1 Team headquarters.
“In addition Proton retains the rights to purchase 10% of the F1 team. Another 10% share option will be activated if the team default on their loan obligations with Proton.”
You can read the full statement here.
