The Renault team has been officially renamed "Lotus-Renault" after Group lotus (that's the car company) bought a stake.
The iconic black and gold livery has also returned
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/88616

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"He's a pain in the arse, but he's a quick pain in the arse." - Williams on Mansell

Well they should have had the guts to start a team last year, instead of letting Fernandes break the ground and then ride in hoping to take all the good will he'd built up

Screw both sides trying to ride on Chapman's legacy - Bahar is trying to ride on Fernandes' legacy!

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Yossarian Lives

More on this from Adam Cooper

If the Chapman family didn't want the return of Team Lotus then why on earth didn't they buy the rights to the name before now. I'm sure David Hunt would have sold it if asked.

I don't know... perhaps because Group Lotus are going to buy them a museum?

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Yossarian Lives

It wasn't financially viable for them to setup a team. They are just sponsoring and part own this year too. And they claim they tried to have a tie-up with Lotus Racing but Fernandes the businessman was trying to rip them off. If they had taken half the men from Toyota and made a lot of promises then they would have had the exact same amount of work as Air Asia. Anyway, that's all Gascoyne's work.

Mr Air Asia doesn't have a legacy to steal! And that is why he sponsored another team? Right?

Waste of money Salti. They didn't expect a Twitter account and a few interviews would buy the love of the media...

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"Kimi is one of the greatest" - Martin Whitmarsh 14/05/13

And that would be more than Air Asia has done for Lotus... He stole Colin Chapman's hat too...

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"Kimi is one of the greatest" - Martin Whitmarsh 14/05/13

It still has nothing to do with heritage or protecting the memory does it? Just lots of £ signs

Nobody is covering themselves in glory in this, especially the company claiming they're not after Team Lotus' heritage while building a heritage centre and cybersquatting on teamlotus.com

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Yossarian Lives

At least Group Lotus are doing it rather than the guy who runs Air Asia. He is a PR obsessed opportunist that has no respect for the work Dany Bahar has done. Tries ripping off Group Lotus because they didn't sell him the company. He is very bitter.

Yes, but the centre is being run by Chapman's son at his request!

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"Kimi is one of the greatest" - Martin Whitmarsh 14/05/13

Who does have respect for the work Bahar has done? His business plan is ridiculous!

Hell, he's promising a museum which will do nothing to help sell the cars before he's even sold a car! What sort of sense of priority is that?

He's already doing enough to screw up a classic British car manufacturer, why should I be happy about him doing the same to a classic British racing team?

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Yossarian Lives

What's wrong with his business plan. They are clearly doing something right if they can afford F1 now.

It was already screwed up. Proton saved the situation! Air Asia is now sweeping in taking praise for doing nothing but take credit for other people's success.

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"Kimi is one of the greatest" - Martin Whitmarsh 14/05/13

Proton can, as Fiat could. However, despite what Bahar thinks, Lotus are not Ferrari.

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Yossarian Lives

I wish the FIA would give both Lotus a 151c warning, this is just getting silly now.

Oh yeah ... the twisted wish, must dig that out and dust it off

To me the whole business plan sounds bizarre. Too much too soon.

I don't think that GL are actually investing that much on Renault and they most definitely do not have a 50% stake of shares. It's probably a lot less than people think, because otherwise they would have made the numbers public. And that's fine by me. I mean it isn't as if a tiny car maker has too much money to throw around.

What I'm more concerned of is the way they are planning to expand their production car line-up. Something like five new cars and all of them are supposed to take the fight to the likes of Porsche or Ferrari. In your dreams Mr. Bahar. I just don't think Lotus has the money to compete with them. One car at a time could be possible (like what McLaren are doing), but five is just too much.