Only one team will be called Lotus - Lopez
RenaultF1 has made clear it wants to be known as Lotus in 2011 © Lotus Renault GP
RenaultF1 majority shareholder Gerard Lopez has said there is no danger of four cars lining up on the grid next year all running under the Lotus name.
Lopez recently secured a deal with Group Lotus to take a 30% holding in his team and announced that it will be called Lotus Renault GP in 2011. However, the 2010 Lotus Racing team intends to run under the Team Lotus name in 2011, meaning there could be two separate teams running under very similar names in next year's championship.
But Lopez is confident that the issue - which is set to be decided in court - will be resolved in time for the season-opener 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."
He made clear that he feels as though his team has a stronger claim to the historic name than Team Lotus.
"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," he added.
"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."
In order to officially change its name to Lotus Renault GP on the FIA's entry list, RenaultF1 will have to seek the agreement of its fellow teams and the governing body. Without that agreement the team will likely be referred to as RenaultF1, with Lotus as a sponsor in the same way Vodafone is to McLaren.
Credit: ESPN F1 (espn.com)
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