The thing with Sauber was a by-product of the 2009 political crisis. When the FOTA teams declared their intention to split, Max Mosley proposed a solution that involved reverting back to an earlier version of the Concorde Agreement. The teams agreed, but the problem was that thsi earlier version of the Concorde made it harder for them to change their anmes if they wanted to. Paired with BMW’s late withdrawal and Sauber’s last-ditch plan to save the team after the QADBAK debacle, the team was in a position where they had to carry the BMW name in order to retain their earnings under the TV rights pay-out.
The exact situation with Lotus depends on what Bernie does with the new Concorde Agreement. I believe he is trying to reset the historical multiplier so that it is applied from the year 2000, and not 1950 as it currently is, in order to reward recent success more than past performance. If Lotus change their name again, they would be ineligible for what they would otherwise earn at the end of this season, but since they changed their name for 2011, it is unliely to affect things too much.
