quoteLotus to replace reserve Valsecchi with youngster Sorensen
Lotus team looks to have made its choice of official reserve driver for the 2014 Formula 1 season. It appears unlikely the Enstone based team will keep Davide Valsecchi on board, particularly after the Italian admitted that he was “angry” when bosses overlooked him as the surgery-bound Kimi Raikkonen’s replacement late last season. “Perhaps I lack experience but what chance do you have to gain any?” he said at the time. According to the Italiaracing publication, Lotus looks set to turn to the similarly Eric Boullier-managed, 23-year-old Danish driver Marco Sorensen for 2014. He raced in Lotus’ black and gold colours in the Formula Renault 3.5 series last year, finishing seventh, and in September made his Formula 1 test debut in a two-year-old car at the Paul Ricard track. (GMM)
quoteLotus to miss first Formula 1 test of 2014 in Jerez
Lotus technical director Nick Chester has revealed that the team’s 2014 challenger will not be in action at the first test of the year at Jerez. Chester, who was promoted last year after the departure of James Allison to Ferrari, has overseen the development of Lotus’s E22 for the past two years. The E22 is likely to be unveiled prior to the second of the three tests in Bahrain, which takes place next month. Lotus finished in fourth place in the 2013 championship and will field Romain Grosjean alongside Pastor Maldonado this year. “We’re going to keep our car under wraps a little longer than some other teams. We’ve decided that attending the Jerez test isn’t ideal for our build and development programme,” said Chester. “We are likely to unveil the car before attending the Bahrain tests, and in Bahrain we should really be able to put the car through its paces in representative conditions.” Chester added that the team is making good progress with the E22 and now only needs to undergo a front nose crash test. “We’ve made very good progress with the various homologation tests which took place before Christmas including chassis squeeze and side impact loading tests as well as the rear crash structure, meaning we just have the nose test to complete the car’s homologation,” said Chester. “We’ve undertaken chassis fits for Romain and Pastor. Certainly, our partners who have seen the car have reported themselves to be very impressed with the layout and various solutions to the new technical challenges.” Chester believes that the Lotus E22 initially looks like a promising contender. “From our perspective the figures look promising and development has been positive. That said, we are very much working with very little idea of what the other teams are doing.” “This is the first year of radically different regulations which means that all teams are developing their cars along potentially quite different avenues. It’s fascinating for us engineers and I hope it is fascinating for the fans too. We think we have a very good solution to the challenge and hopefully this will be seen when the E22 turns its wheels in anger.” The second test of the pre-season programme will take place in Bahrain between February 19th and 22nd. The first test begins at Jerez on January 28th and will last for four days. The E22 will therefore have a maximum of eight days of track running prior to the opening event of the season in Australia in March.
quoteLotus: Some vendors do not deliver the pieces? The new car Enstone is long overdue. Too bad because it looks good aerodynamically born
We must keep an eye on the Lotus rumors Brits say that the new car will be very interesting to Enstone from aerodynamic point of view. Rumors speak of a car with a good downforce, without sacrificing efficiency. The problem is that the installation of the first unit is going very slow because suppliers are not delivering the pieces: some companies have decided to boycott the provision before they will pay at least a portion of the outstanding debt.
LOTUS LATE IN JEREZ? And Nick Chester, technical director of Lotus, it makes life difficult because there is the risk of missing the first day of the Jerez test that from January 28, will officially open the 2014 season with the V6 Turbo with of hybrid systems. Gerard Lopez is trying to reorganize the team according to the resources that are available, aware that it is no longer possible to carry on a team in due course.
THE DEBT IS BORN FROM LOTUS CARS should be recognized to Genii Capital, the company that controls the majority package of shares of Lotus F1, having suffered from the change in strategy that is derived from the sale of Lotus Cars group that controls the Malaysian Proton . In the plans, in fact, the British automaker would have to support the team with Estonian support of about 20 million per year, generating the heaviest part of the hole that would come around 100 million Euros.
PERSONNEL ON THE RUN At Christmas there was a stampede of technicians and mechanics: several have gone to McLaren, but this staff is very outgoing Enstone area and there are many teams looking to ensure that those figures have not never had the media spotlight, but they are some of the key points within the factory, especially in the CFD department considered the most efficient of the entire Circus along with that of Red Bull Racing.
RESTRUCTURING WITH 300 EMPLOYEES The delay with which they are paid wages (beyond what officials say continually, that of November was paid in mid-December, and one in December was never implemented) allows employees to leave the team and move on to another team without adhering to the "gardening". Gerard Lopez is trying to "manage" the exit out of the resources in the knowledge that the team needs to "dry" 300 units per stand.
SALVATION WILL BE 'BY RENAULT? Rich sponsorship of Pastor Maldonado at this stage serves to guarantee part of the debt, but the hope is to convince Renault to recover a portion of the shares: the French company is negotiating the delivery of the V6 Turbo Energy. The transalpine could provide engines for free, maybe adding a sponsorship. It is only in this way that Gerard Lopez can hope to give continuity to the structure, then tried a buyer who is willing to take over the team.
Quote: WHATEVER wrote in post #625And it also makes you wonder what this team could have achieved if they have landed a big name sponsor a couple of years ago.
quoteThe future of historic British motor marque Lotus has been called into question after the company made a £167.8m net loss in 2013 writes Christian Sylt in the Daily Telegraph.
The Norfolk-based manufacturer is an official partner of the eponymous Formula One team but it does not own a stake in it. Being a partner is not the only connection between the two as Proton, the Malaysian company which owns Group Lotus, is understood to have given the team a £35m loan in 2012 so the health of the manufacturer could have consequences for F1. There is a long-standing joke in the motor industry that Lotus stands for 'Lots Of Trouble Usually Serious' and that couldn't be a better description of its financial predicament. In the year to 31 March 2013 its car sales crashed by 40% to just 1,177. Engineering revenue reversed 37.5% to £22m giving Lotus total turnover of £89.9m whilst costs accelerated 4.6% to £250.6m. It left the company with a shareholders' deficit of £111.4m and led to it breaking its banking agreements. During the year Lotus secured a £270m bank loan and one of its key conditions was that the company had to maintain positive shareholders' funds. Breaching this forced the management of Proton into negotiation with its bankers and the lead lender agreed to waive the condition until 31 March 2014. Proton is planning to re-finance Lotus' debt to smooth the road ahead but its deputy chief executive Lukman bin Ibrahim says that until this has been completed, "there is a material uncertainty which may cast significant doubt over the group and the company's ability to continue to operate as a going concern." He adds that 2013 "was a challenging year for the group. Whilst it continued its plans for the development of new exciting future products, the performance of the group was restricted by the continuing weak market conditions, fragile consumer confidence, increased competition and cost pressures leading to increased operational cost." The finances of the Lotus F1 team have also been going downhill and in the year to 31 December 2012 alone it made a £56.8m net loss. However, ironically, the car company isn't paying the team, it is being paid by it. Despite being named after Group Lotus the team has never been owned by the British marque and instead its majority shareholder is private equity firm Genii Capital. In 2011 it was revealed that Group Lotus had an option to buy a 50% stake in the team but this didn't last for long. In April 2012 Genii's founding partner Gerard Lopez announced that the "option was taken over by us. There was one, but we have taken it over now." Crucially, he added that "the sponsorship agreement and the obligations of Lotus have been terminated... We are happy to carry the Lotus name as we believe it is a good name for F1." Group Lotus seems to have got an extremely good deal as last year its logo was displayed prominently on the rear wing and nose of the F1 cars. It is still even listed on the team's website as being an 'Official Team Partner'. Although Group Lotus' sponsorship of the team was terminated, Proton entered into a new agreement with it. In March 2012 it was revealed that Proton had given the team an estimated £35m loan which is secured on "all plant, machinery, show cars, computers, office and other equipment... and... Whiteways Technical Centre [Lotus F1's headquarters]." So, to recap, Group Lotus got logos on the cars and status as an official partner whilst the team lost the space on the cars, lost the revenue under the sponsorship agreement and also has to pay back a loan to the manufacturer's owner. It still wasn't anywhere near enough to propel the car company into profit. In 2013 it laid off 201 staff and burned through £2.6m of its cash reserves leaving it with £15m. Some of the most badly hit were its suppliers which include tool manufacturers, haulage firms and raw material providers. Last year the company's creditors were paid an average of 155 days late up from 154 in 2012. Despite its financial predicament, the car company has been investing in the future and last year its research and development costs came to £96.2m which alone was more than its entire revenue. "Lotus Cars will focus on maximising sales of its current Evora, Exige and Elise offerings which will be further enhanced by future variants," says bin Ibrahim adding that "the substantial investment needed to implement the strategies will impact the financial position of the group in the short term but once the transformation has taken shape, the group will be on a much stronger footing operationally and financially." Time will tell whether that happens.
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Tue Dec 24, 2013 10:01 am (Last edited: Tue Dec 24, 2013 10:05 am)
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I hope he will find a nother team 
