Intriguingly, a new technical and manufacturing base is to be built at the Sepang circuit in Malaysia, clearly one of the reasons why the government got involved. More recently, it was the base of the successful Bentley Le Mans project. The team will be based at a facility in Norfolk-not far from the Lotus road-car factory, which was originally built for the aborted Toyota F1 program in the early 1990s. Its technical director will be former Renault and Toyota man Mike Gascoyne, who left Force India at the end of last year. The new Lotus team is backed by the Malaysian government and a consortium of Malaysian businessmen, and the official company name is the rather unhandy 1Malaysia F1 Team. This would be a logical path to follow since it would allow Sauber to press ahead and actually work on a new car knowing that it will race, and if another team goes away, the field would just shrink to a more manageable number. In addition, the FIA says the grid could be opened up to 14 teams. However, the FIA has given Sauber a reserve slot on the basis that other teams-a manufacturer such as Renault or Toyota or perhaps one of the four newcomers-fails to make it. Meanwhile, the proposed entry from the Spanish Epsilon Euskadi team has been overlooked. In effect, the new outfit replaces BMW Sauber on the team roster, as the Lotus name returns to Formula One for the first time since 1994. ![]() Team Lotus has been awarded the 13th slot by the FIA for next year's Formula One World Championship.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |