Ruling favours Team Lotus

July 7th 2014

Team Lotus came out on top when Justice Peter Smith issued his judgement on the fight for the use of the Lotus name in Grand Prix racing.

While Group Lotus won on several lesser counts in the complex High Court case, Tony Fernandes took the big prize — the right to retain the Team Lotus name. Group Lotus can still use ‘Lotus’ in relation to its sponsorship of the Renault Fl team. Despite claiming overall victory, the car company announced its intention to appeal on the name issue. Smith’s lengthy judgement included some fascinating documentation from the 1980s relating to the split

between racing and road car use of the name, not to mention an unexpected conclusion in which he said Fl fans would enjoy a fight between two Lotus teams. He added that “they would be interested to see which of the two Lotus cars was more successful, and which then might possibly be better placed to claim to be successors to the Colin Chapman mantle”. The news has allowed Team Lotus to push ahead with commercial plans. It has announced an expanded deal with Dell and a prestigious new partnership with US corporation General Electric. See Doug Nye, p134