Lopez: There won't be two Lotus teams
Renault team owner Gerard Lopez is adamant there will not be two Lotus teams on next year's Formula One grid.
On Wednesday, Renault confirmed that Malaysian-owned sportscar maker Group Lotus had upped their involvement in F1 by joining forces with Renault to form the 'Lotus Renault GP' team.
The team also announced that they would race under the famous black-and-gold livery.
However, 'Lotus Renault GP' is not the only team using the 'Lotus' name in Formula One as Malaysian entrepreneur Tony Fernandes's outfit is set to run under the 'Team Lotus' name in their second season in the sport. Fernandes also planned to race under the black-and-gold livery.
The dispute between the two parties over who has the rights to the 'Lotus' name may only be resolved next year when it reaches the London High Court.
Lopez, though, is hoping for a solution before the new season kicks off in March.
"As far as having four (Lotus) cars next year on the grid, I don't think it's going to happen," he told Reuters.
"I tend to be a positive person, so I would say that nobody has anything to win from this - except maybe Group Lotus as having four cars running for the same brand and only being involved financially in two of them.
"The natural course of things should be that whoever is the Lotus brand should race as Lotus and whoever isn't, and actually had asked for a licence to do so, should race as something else.
"I'm certainly not going to be the one standing and making that decision because I have no power to do so... (but) I don't think there are going to be two teams of the same name and four cars of the same colour."
Fernandes, though, has already revealed that his team will drop the black-and-gold livery, although he's not backing down in the fight to use the 'Lotus' name.
"Whether they copied us or we copied them that's beside the point now," he said. "The point is what makes sense.
"Having two Lotus brands on the grid I think is no issue. having four black cars looking the same I think is silly and one has to relent.
"We're not childish and emotional and saying 'Oh no, we've got to be black and gold'. We're pragmatic."
According to Reuters, Fernandes is likely to adopt a green with a dash of yellow that reflects the Lotus colours and is also a 'scheme that the boss said also accorded with the sport's attempts to take on a more environmentally friendly or 'greener' image.'
Credit: PlanetF1.com (www.planetf1.com)
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