Court set to rule on ‘Lotus vs Lotus’ case

F1 Fanatic round-up

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In the round-up: A verdict in the dispute over the use of the name ‘Lotus‘ is expected today.

Links

Top F1 links from the past 24 hours:

Chancery Division

“At 2 o’clock – For Judgment: TLC 223/11 Group Lotus PLC & anr v 1Malaysia Racing Team SDN BHD & ors Pt Hd”

Ecclestone hopes FIA reinstates Bahrain (Autosport)

“They are all nice people there. We would not have any problem, but if someone wants to get attention that would be a good way to do it. From a safety point of view I don’t think there is anything to worry about.”

McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton angered by Toro Rosso drivers

“They [Toro Rosso] let Vettel past and then they held me up.”

GP2 2011 Monaco Qualifying Highlights (YouTube)

Giedo van der Garde, Marcus Ericsson and Romain Grosjean all received five-place penalties for causing collisions in qualifying.

Renault via Twitter

“Vitaly was 11th fastest after 35 laps with 1:17.337. Vitaly completed the front wing / Armco interaction evaluation test late in the session”

Via the F1 Fanatic live Twitter app

Toro Rosso shares sold (Joe Saward)

“The word on the harbour front in Monte Carlo is that the Abu Dhabi investment company Aabar Investments has bought shares in Scuderia Toro Rosso. The team is saying nothing at the moment, but multiple well-placed sources say that a deal is done.”

Byron Young on Twitter

[Adrian] Sutil got an arm-waving bollocking from Bernie in Spain. There’s not many things more frightening than that.”

Via the F1 Fanatic live Twitter app

Monaco GP – Conference 2 (FIA)

Adrian Newey: “We suspected that Ferrari were able to judge when we were going to stop before we went on the radio to the drivers to say stop, so we made a small change based on what we thought they were spotting. Whether that was correct or not who knows?”

Bookmaker pays out on Vettel winning F1 title… with 14 races still to go (Daily Mail)

Irish bookmaker Paddy Power, who are known for their attention-grabbing publicity stunts, have decided to reward punters already, despite the fact that there are still 14 races remaining this season, which ends in Brazil at the end of November.

Follow F1 news as it breaks using the F1 Fanatic live Twitter app.

Comment of the day

So m,uch for the super-softs lasting ten laps: Marcusbreeze wonders if the Saubers might one-stop?

Check out Perez managing 24 laps, and posting a quick lap before his pit stop. I think Sauber must be looking at a one stop strategy here. If they can qualify around P12 or better, and keep one set of super-softs fresh then they must be looking at some decent points.
Marcusbreeze

From the forum

Dan Thorn asks what’s happened to Jarno Trulli?

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Graigchq!

On this day in F1

Michael Schumacher was sent to the back of the grid after a controversial qualifying session at Monaco.

Schumacher came to a halt at Rascasse during his last qualifying lap in an attempt to prevent Fernando Alonso from bettering his time.

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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92 comments on “Court set to rule on ‘Lotus vs Lotus’ case”

  1. I suspect that there will be a lot of “Hamilton moaning” comments today, but I reckon that if it was a different sport, let’s say football and the complainant was someone else, let’s say Sir Alex Ferguson; it would be called “Mind-Games” ;-)

    1. tbf, most people think Fergerson’s mind games mostly vary between the tedious and the disgraceful. Cracking manager, awful bloke.

      I didn’t see it, an in the past I’ve always thought Torro Rosso were pretty fair, cept in Abu Dhabi last year, however, Hamilton might be doing precisely what Fergie does, which is preassure the official pre and post event in an attempt to gain an advantage.

      If Torro Rosso are becoming more of a satellite team then I suppose it’s fair for Hamilton to seek a leveler, although I find these kind of things a little bit distasteful.

      1. ALG quite clearly let WEB past in abu dhabi.

        1. dude, you see were I said they’ve been fair,cept in Abu Dhabi… thats what i ment.

          1. just read that, tis a bit harsh, sorry

          2. oh sorry my fault! no probs :D

      2. The fun part are other drivers reacting to questions about this. Vettel is easy enough, but Button knows of no problem with these two.

        I guess the point is rather, that the STR drivers are a bit more reluctant to let cars lap them than say a HRT, Virgin or Lotus who have enormous experience of letting cars past by now :-D

        1. That certainly seems to be what Vettel implies, yes. And Button might also be avoiding saying that.

      3. Cracking manager, awful bloke

        Absolutely right. I hope they lose on Saturday

    2. It probably would be called mind-games in competing football teams but STR are hardly competing with McLaren. It’s just frustration I believe.

      1. I think it’s mind games.

        Most lapped cars try and give up the place without losing too much, and this is putting extra pressure on the officials and STR to get out of the way the second they see a blue flag, taking a lot out of their own pace.

  2. “At 2 o’clock – For Judgment: TLC 223/11 Group Lotus PLC & anr v 1Malaysia Racing Team SDN BHD & ors Pt Hd”

    My head says Fernandes will win (I’m expecting to be woken up by his crowing about it). My heart says Group Lotus will.

    Vitaly completed the front wing / Armco interaction evaluation test late in the session.

    Well, that’s always important.

    1. Really? My heart says zombie outbreak, all involved killed and the engineers and racing people who actually matter funded through the various wills of the various suits fallen to the outbreak.

      I don’t have any time for Fernandes any more, reckon Group Lotus are equally if not more of a bunch of self interested leeches. Deeply malevolent to all involved.

      1. Really? My heart says zombie outbreak, all involved killed and the engineers and racing people who actually matter funded through the various wills of the various suits fallen to the outbreak.

        After last week’s no-so, are you saying we should regularly schedule an apocalypse?

        And if so, what is the plural of “apocalypse”?

        1. Apocalypses, Apocalyie.. Ummm, yeah.

          I would like Team Lotus (Fernandes) to ‘Win’ as they brought the lotus name back first, I know that’s not how courts work.. but oh well :P

        2. The answer is A disapointment

        3. I think the point of an apocalypse is that is by definition singular.

          1. COTD!!

    2. I’m gonna go with everything remains the same.
      Fernandes can use the Lotus name because he’s ‘Team’ Lotus and Group can use it because they’re Lotus automobiles.

      1. But Group Lotus are arguing that because Fernandes violated the contract, they no longer want anything to do with him. By racing under the Team Lotus name, there is an implied connection to Lotus Renault GP, even if Fernandes owns the rights to the name. Most casual fans don’t want to sift through the intricacies of team ownership and name-calling just to understand who is who.

        1. But it was Fernandes who brought the case of GL unlawfully terminating.

          And Fernandes also added the case of having a judge decide about the merits of his rights (aquired from Hunt, when buying the remains of the Team Lotus of old) to be the sole user of the brand in F1.

          Certainly him winning would have repercussions for both GL and Renault GP (livery of ART in GP2 and Renault hitchhike on the fame of the old Team Lotus).

          Lets see what the courts make of it.

          1. martin bell
            27th May 2011, 7:37

            I just feel like ‘who cares who wins?’. I’d rather they spent the money on making the cars go faster, and as I posted elsewhere, I think we’ve all coped ok with having two ersatz Lotus teams on the grid. No one will emerge from this looking honourable.

          2. But it was Fernandes who brought the case of GL unlawfully terminating.

            I’m pretty sure a court case is not settled by a race to the court house. Fernandes might have brought the lawsuit against Group Lotus, but that doesn’t automatically make him right. Group Lotus terminated the contract because they felt Fernandes had violated it. They didn’t need to take him to court – they felt the case was clear-cut.

            And Fernandes also added the case of having a judge decide about the merits of his rights (aquired from Hunt, when buying the remains of the Team Lotus of old) to be the sole user of the brand in F1.

            If the judge says he owns the Team Lotus name, that doesn’t entitle him to use it. Like I said, Group Lotus no longer want to be associated with Fernandes. Yet, he is racing under a name that is very similar to theirs. In fact, it’s almost identical. To the hardcore fans, it’s easy to tell them apart, but to the casual viewer or total newcomer, there is an implied connection. Group Lotus feel that connection is damaging to them because they believe Fernandes misused the Lotus name last time around. Even if they’re separate entities.

            Certainly him winning would have repercussions for both GL and Renault GP (livery of ART in GP2 and Renault hitchhike on the fame of the old Team Lotus).

            Of course, but Fernandes has a lot more to lose. If the courts rule in favour of Group Lotus, Fernandes will likely be forced to change everything about his team, from the name to the livery. But if the courts rule in favour of him, then they will likely say that Group Lotus is entitled to run the Lotus name, provided that they make it clear that the Lotus in question is Lotus Cars.

        2. Correct, they don’t. However 9 out of 10 people i’ve come across still refer to the Group Lotus outfit as Renault. Perhaps if the two teams were realistically competing we may have more of a headache on our hands.

      2. That’s what I believe will happen.

    3. Why barrack for Group Lotus?

      1. That’s what I don’t get,

        Tony, for all his problems has brought a brand NEW team into F1.

        Bahar has taken Renault, a great team, and named it after his group.
        It’s Renault. If sponsorship changes the name then I’ll be calling the Marlboro to beat the Vodafone this weekend…

        1. Mike, that is exactly how I feel. You’ve put it into words perfectly.

  3. Schumacher’s best driving moment, that was.

    I remember watching qualy that day with my grandpa at a bar. We laughted so hard that the waiter had to “shush” us… it was great!

    1. I was on my feet laughing and cheering, as was the room full of people I was with!

    2. That little stunt of Schumacher really sums up his sportsmanship and character.

      1. Schumacher ain’t a saint I grant you, but I don’t think that’s as big a deal as people make out.

      2. Also sums up how boring it is to read whiny comments about the guy.

  4. Funny, I was asking about the Lotus case on the live blog!

    Hamilton’s no stranger to these remarks, he insinuated Kubica held him up in Abu Dhabi so Vettel could win the world championship. Well if he feels it, even if he’s wrong, he might as well say it. Or should we have the boring PR Hamilton back?

    1. And no, I don’t agree with what he said!

    2. He has a definate penchant for putting his foot in it, sad thing is, the media attention on him sends these remarks up for all to see and judge. Then when you actually want to here what he thinks, or get an interesting interveiw you get; just like to thank the guys at the factory, doing a fantastic amazing superb awesome superlative job!

      uuugh PR Hamilton. It’s the most auto-pilot I’ve ever seen presant in any human being

    3. I don’t mind a driver speaking his mind, as long as he has something intelligent to say.

    4. We shouldn’t forget that it was Kubica, unlapping himself, and appearing to brake test Hamilton, that almost made Hamilton lose the championship in 2008. Kubica has recently been making unflattering remarks about he Hamilton. So I don’t expect Kubica will make it too easy for him.

      1. They are not known to be friends. Kubica is friends with Alonso…*plot thickens*

    5. That wouldn’t actually surprise me, Kubica blocking Hamilton in Abu Dhabi I mean, as he did pretty much the same thing in Brazil 08 by unlapping himself and forcing Hamilton wide

  5. Snow Donkey
    27th May 2011, 0:20

    I quite like the tongue in cheek comments from renault this year. First heidfeld’s unscheduled fire, now Vitaly’s scheduled front wing/Armco interaction. Refreshing.

    Also, I would imagine Bernie claiming “they are all nice people there” translates to “They’re stinking rich and we bloody well better go.”

    1. Yeah that Renault twit has just made my day, absolutely hilarious. Catchy.

      :D

  6. wow that GP2 qualifying was insane!

    1. I don’t understand what happened at all! It’s confusing enough that I don’t know who is who, but then I have no idea which driver got the penalty! And the two DAMS cars coming together was scary… Reminded me of the Trulli – Chandhok crash last year.

    2. Looks like every driver and his dog slowed at the Rascasse/Antony Noghes zone in order to build some clean air ahead for a qualifying lap. Unfortunately, some of them got a little too hot-headed and decided to pull off some crazy dives to try and get ahead of the slowing car in front. Some moves bone-headed enough that you could tell a crash was gonna happen before the move even started.

      It’s astonishing to see the number of crashes they managed to fit into a 30-minute session. Even touring/sports car drivers would be hard-pressed to keep up with yesterday’s GP2 wreckfest.

      1. It really looked pretty embarrassing for GP2. When you see all the crashes strung together like that it’s pretty astounding.

    3. Dreadful stuff from iSport and DAMS. I understand what the drivers were doing but organise yourselves. Warming your tyres may also help.

    4. Man, I only read on the news yesterday that Giedo van der Garde had pole. To find out today in here that he got punished.

      That’s karma there, he asked for Bianchi to be punished for colliding into him at Barcelona.

    5. I believed GP2 drivers were the second best in the world, now they look like children trying moves where there isn’t space.

  7. Don’t Aabar already own shares in Merc Gp? well if they don’t they certainly have a corporate partnership, their logo is on the MGP W02 car.

    Lotus V Lotus? Somebody might win but the loser will appeal as soon as, so it wot be resolved today. However,I think both will get to use he name though. ;)

    Is it true the Black and Gold livery of Renault is scrapped for Canada?

    1. Yeah, they do own 40% of Mercedes GP.

      Would be right in time for Renault then. They could just go back to last years livery, that was classic.

      1. I miss the bumble bee livery. One of the best in years.

        1. +1

          It was fantastic.

          @Calum – There were rumours due to the alleged cigarette advert that is the R31. Don’t know what came of it.

        2. Yep the Renault was by far my favourite looking car last year.

  8. Mark Hitchcock
    27th May 2011, 1:28

    Some (most) of that driving in GP2 was terrible! (But hilarious to watch).

  9. Dear God I hope none of those GP2 drivers ever make it to F1….

    1. The Last Pope
      27th May 2011, 2:27

      lol bit too late now (Grosjean)

      1. Well, he made it back out of F1!

        To be honest, I reckon his moment of madness was borne from being stuck at the bottom of the timesheets due to his earlier laps being screwed up by traffic. That frustration probably boiled over and made him try that pass on Varhaug.

  10. How did the driving skill in World Series by Renault compare to GP2?

    A few Canadians are looking forward to Robert Wickens joining Virgin, if the rumors are true.

    1. … and a few Americans are looking forward to Alexander Rossi beating said Canadian in the championship. ;-) Of course the Aussies will probably rejoice when Daniel Ricciardo beats them both.

      1. I think a few North Americans are looking forward to having both of them in F1.

      2. I believe Ricciardo is too busy testdriving for Toro Rosso to win the FR 3.5 series. He already missed some of the race events because of that. I hope for him that (at least) he will have a seat for Toro Rosso/Red Bull soon enough…

        My bet is on Jean-Eric Vergne for the Formula Renault Series. Some French are looking forward to JEV beating all of them. :)

      3. Oh god no, I hope Ricciardo fails, dont like him. I am hoping he gets stuck out of a drive until its to late and he has to go off to V8 Supercars or something.

    2. Boullier and Lopez have said that they will ensure D’Ambrosio’s place at MVR until the end of 2011 and MVR have said that the only reason they’d cut him off the team would be money-issues, so it seems highly unlikely at the moment.

      1. My understanding was that Wickens would just be driver at Friday practice, perhaps starting at the Canadian Grand Prix.

  11. What was that in GP2 Qualifying? I know the rear view mirror are rubbish but at least you have the feeling that there is someone behind you.Good to see that the guy who had the car flying over him at 2:55 is OK.

  12. jeebus, that looks like a hellish qualifying session D:

  13. HRT must be doing alright money-wise if they’re providing the chassis design for GP2…. or is it the other way around?

  14. The New Hope
    27th May 2011, 4:36

    So…will they become Caterham F1?

  15. From a safety point of view I don’t think there is anything to worry about.”

    Unless you’re Shia.

    1. China is not famous for upholding human rights. And yet the debate about whether or not we should be racing there is practically non-existant. (contrast that with Bahrain)

      Its easy to say that we should not go to Bahrain because of the nature of the government and their actions against their own people, when its all over the news at the moment. It seems people have very short memories and are picking the low hanging fruit that the world’s media is handing to them.

      Nobody is talking about Turkey in light of the Kurdish oppresion in the north or women’s rights in the UAE, or the exploitation of Indian workers.

      If people want to go beyond F1 and take a moral stance in determining where a race should or should not happen, they should use the same ruler everywhere and not just regarding the latest news.

      As you probably noticed by now, Bernie and the FIA – when talking about the Bahrain GP – are talking about safety for the fans, mechanics, drivers, etc, and the money. They have been doing for decades now regardless of the political situation in the country or whether it is a democracy a totalitarian regime. It is nothing new and it surprises me how people are all of a sudden surpirsed in light of the Bahrain situation.

      On a personal note: When F1 one first penetrated the iron curtain by introducing the race in Budapest, I was happy. Eventhough at that time my country was recently invaded by the red army. If Formula 1 decided not to go to a communist countries because of all the atrocities that they have commited on their people, I dont think that would actually resolve anything, or be in any way positive towards the average F1 fan living in souch a country. Those early races at the Hungaroring were amazing and i am grateful F1 decided to race there.

      Maybe the Bahrainis (including Shiats) will want to have this race in their country. How about asking them dirrectly instead of condeming the FIA’s decision as is the popular thing to do as it is the “politically correct” thing to do.

      1. You seem to forget the article posted on this very site only one day ago; 25% of the staff at the Bahrain circuit arrested. All of them Shia.

        Are you OK with that? OK with facility staff being arrested for opposing the government?

        Do NOT accuse me of being politically correct or doing “the popular thing.”

        1. Forgot the link.

  16. The link to the Trulli page on the forum is not working for me, it gives me a 404 error with the lovely graphic:P.

    1. Sorry about that – it’s working now.

  17. It can’t just be the impetuousness of youth, there has to be a more detailed reason for the apparent gulf of skill (and sense) between GP2 and F1 drivers.
    Do the GP cars have less sideways and rear visibility?
    Do they have steel brakes?
    Or does this just demonstrate that Monaco is totally unsuited to cars of this scale and performance?

    1. I think the difference is mental: the skill gap is probably smaller then that clip suggests. Or, to give two other examples: Grosjean and Kobayashi, who both in their own way pointed out how different GP2 is from F1.

      A lot of those crashes were the result of overcourage and bravoure, I would say.

  18. What happens to Team Lotus if they aren’t allowed to use the name lotus?

    Do they have to pay the FIA to have a name change? And what will they be called this weekend?

    Cheers

  19. Nice to see some clips in Finnish here.

  20. Watching the GP2 qualifying, it appears most of the drivers ere trying to create a gap from half way through the lap.
    This is so wrong. Those are the higher speed sections. Drivers are coming in fully committed then suddenly the driver ahead suddenly comes to a stand still. It is very hard for the trailing driver to realise that the car ahead is going to come to a stand still, when he is expecting him to disappear round the corner.

    Grosjean’s accident was almost 50 – 50, but to hear the commentator blaming the driver behind for the last accident was jusr ridiculous.

  21. Just watching that GP2 qualifying makes me cringe. The level of sportsmanship, skill and ability (or perhaps lack of) is appauling. It’s amazing that any of this year’s grid will get a look in at an F1 set for 2012. Grosjean should know better as well, having competed in GP2 before and been an F1 driver himself.

    If that footage was race highlights it would be more exciting, but as it’s only qualifying all the drivers need to give each other a bit of breathing space.

    Very poor indeed

  22. Ha, it really sounds like the commentator calls Grosjean a moron @ 3.07 :D

  23. I had the nice suprise of that paddy power thing last night. I did a put in £10 get £10 cashback deal back before the season started so with my “free bet” I put it on the only thing open at the time which was the DWC, so had an email last night telling me I had won already, woop!

  24. Hey guys, just thought I’d share this:

    http://www.pjtierney.net/2011/05/work-featured-in-sport-magazine.html

    Sport Magazine featured my Formula 1 posters :)
    If you’re around the Tube/Train stations or various sports places (Gyms etc.) in the UK feel free to pick up the magazine (it’s free) :)

    Chances are that they might not have known about the posters were it not for Keith’s awesomeness in posing them up on F1F to kudos to you good sir! :)

    1. Great stuff PJ, nice one!

      1. Thanks Keith :)

        Reading through they’re doing a Senna feature in next week’s issue as well.

  25. Watching that GP2 clip with Arabic commentary gives all of you a taste of what I have to go through to watch F1 here in the UAE! Give me Legard any day!

  26. Still waiting…………

  27. This seasons GP2 drivers are on terrible form

Comments are closed.