[Team] Team Lotus to confirm name and Renault bits but Grp Lotus start Norfolk Civil War?

[duke_toaster]

http://en.espnf1.com/lotus/motorspor...ml?CMP=OTC-RSS

What we already knew. Tony Fernandes and the team in Hingham have purchased the Team Lotus trademark (plus a Renault powertrain). Things surely look like they're on the up for them, with access to a reliable gearbox and KERS ...

http://formula-one.speedtv.com/artic...er-lotus-name/

but Group Lotus appear to be unhappy and want to try a lawsuit to stop the team calling themselves anything to do with Lotus. Tony Fernandes had been granted a GP2 franchise for 2011 under the Team AirAsia name, but Group Lotus have struck a deal with ART. According to SPEED, Group Lotus have ex-Ferrari people including Danny Bahar, Gianni Rosato (SPEED claim he's a former Montreal hotel man spotted acting as heavy protecting Schumacher) and Miodrag Kotur, supposedly Jean Todt's former right hand man. Joe Saward claims that Group Lotus have little chance of succeeding, as they tried to wrangle the Team Lotus trademark from David Hunt over twelve years ago. ART obviously want to get in to F1, and there are rumours of a Group Lotus/ART/Toyota base in Cologne tieup. Surely Tony Fernandes has the money to get his hands on Group Lotus and get rid of the problem? Group Lotus are owned by Proton, who are owned by the Malaysian government - bear in mind that Tony Fernandes bought a floundering airline from the Malaysian government for a token sum of one ringgit and turned it in to what we now know as AirAsia ...