The announcement of Group Lotus' plans for 2011 comes despite Tony Fernandes pushing on with his plans to race as Team Lotus next year - with his outfit now also having Renault engines and set to run in black and gold colours.

Group Lotus CEO Dany Bahar, who has been pushing aggressively for his company's return to motorsport, added: "I can think of no better platform for automotive brand communications than motorsport and F1 is the very pinnacle of open-wheel racing.

"We're well aware that there has been a lot of controversy around the usage of our brand in F1 and I'm delighted to be able to formally clarify our position once and for all: we are Lotus and we are back."

Group Lotus says its Formula 1 ambitions extend beyond being a title sponsor and shareholder of the re-branded Lotus Renault team - as it hints about taking full control of the outfit in the next few years.

The Malaysian-owned car maker has taken a 50 per cent stake in Lotus Renault, with the other half of the company remaining under the control of Genii Capital.

And although nothing has been decided yet about future ownership plans, Lotus CEO Dany Bahar has hinted about a full-on takeover in the next few years.

"Our way of doing things means that at the end of the project we would like to control it ourselves," he told this week's AUTOSPORT in an exclusive interview.

There seems to be quite a discussion on the JA website on whether the black and gold livery would be against EU law as it's supposedly blatantly representative of JPS and therefore advertising cigarettes just as Ferrari's barcode on the car did.

There are some more pictures of the black and gold livery via these two links:
T128 “EF”
T129 “AS”

They have a smoking area in my college, and to be honest I have no idea why people smoke cigarettes. And I have no idea what effect advertising has. I hardly but anything off the basis of an advert... I only don't buy things on the basis of an advert!

After lots of thought. The shareholders riad and mike have decided we will stay with green and yellow for next season. Silly to have 4 black and gold cars. With formula one going green what better to have green. Also to many negative comments on cigarettes

I hate how fans are siding with Fernandes on this matter of who is Lotus. To me, Proton have more right to describe themselves as Lotus, even though I wouldn't describe them as Chapman Lotus.

... what concerns me is will this affect Team Lotus ability to run with the Renault power plant or are Group Lotus now soley an engine customer and have no say on who else Renault (as an engine supplier) supply?

If Proton want to call themselves Lotus in F1, they should have bought the naming rights when it was offered to them. Lotus computers couldn't turn up in F1 expecting to name their team Lotus!

Lotus CEO Danny Bahar hosted a small group of media at the RAC Club in London today, of which I was one, to lay out his vision for Lotus in F1 and road cars. He didn’t say much about his rival Tony Fernandes, who has been using the Lotus name in F1 this season. However he did say that he tried to do a deal with him, but the Malaysian wanted too much money,

“We tried, but when the counter proposals are so ridiculous, there is no point to continue to talk. ” said Bahar. “(The Renault deal) was one third of the cost.”

But Tony Fernandes has denied this, “Complete rubbish,” he said. ” We never ever talked about numbers. Proton paid us US$ 1 million in sponsorship. I offered him to be joint venture partners, I offered share swap, we did everything. if he gave use $20 million (believed to be the level of the Lotus sponsorship of Renault) he could have got so much out of it. He would be in Norfolk, sponsoring a team that own Team Lotus. He would have Clive Chapman down the road and together we could all have worked together to bring Lotus to greater heights in three years.”

Yes but that doesn't make them the real "Team Lotus" does it if its some Malaysian businessman? Neither is Proton defined as the real Lotus. Its just a case of businessmen thinking they can fool fans by taking them back to the days of Chapman Lotus.

Bahar claims Fernandes wanted too much money for Lotus peace deal
http://goo.gl/fb/FxUdF

Dany Bahar is now talking about Proton building their own engines - how very un-Lotus of him!
http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/2494 ... 1-engines/

Which might come as news to Renault who were only just talking about making a profit from F1 by selling engines and looking to supply a fourth team in a few years time.

I think we've found a replacement for Briatore's ego.

Why can't Malaysia F1 call themselves Malaysia F1 and Lotus call themselves Lotus Proton?