Time for some realism on Lotus
Lotus-Renault's official livery
Pictures released last week of a Renault bedecked in black and gold and wearing a Lotus badge on the nose amply demonstrate that Dany Bahar and the Group Lotus crew have landed a stinging blow against the ‘other’ Lotus. The pictures, accompanied by an exclusive in AUTOSPORT magazine, set in motion a host of sulky Tweets from bigwigs in the ‘other’ Lotus (hereafter referred to by the business’s formal title, 1Malaysia Racing) and a spasm of irk from members of various fan forums on the internet.
I’ve written before, with tongue firmly in cheek, that watching a pair of opportunist businessmen handbag each other over a moribund (if potentially lucrative) historic enterprise has echoes of the hilarious late-1990s high court spat between Bobby Gee and David Van Day over who had the right to tour under the name of 1982 Eurovision winners Bucks Fizz. The fans, however, seem to take it rather more seriously, and spent the past weekend hauling AUTOSPORT over the coals because of its perceived stance on the issue.
It’s a well-worn maxim that the easiest way to make a small fortune in motor racing is to start off with a large one. To succeed in F1 requires business sense and a certain agility, not to say more than a little ruthlessness. Only in the reductionist world of internet forums, where one is either a hero or a villain and nothing in between, do we find these saintly figures who arrive in the sport for purely altruistic reasons.
I say this because Tony Fernandes, whom I have every respect for, came to Formula 1 to make a profit, not to spend large sums of his own money breathing life into a dead name. The motive for this Lazarus routine with Team Lotus was pure entrepreneurship: he saw an opportunity in the orphan asset, set about obtaining it for a knock-down price, then added value with the ultimate ambition of selling the enterprise on to someone else.
This is not news in the Formula 1 world. The obvious ‘someone else’ was Proton, from whom he obtained the original licence to use the Lotus name when David Hunt, notional owner of the ‘Team Lotus’ rights, did not jump in straight away.
Trouble is, according to one of my snouts, Fernandes assured Proton that his team would be among the frontrunners in its first season. Oops.
Whatever configuration of the Lotus name is above the door, the 1Malaysia Racing Team is a remarkable achievement. Tony Fernandes thoroughly deserves to turn a profit from it: he put the right people together, resourced it adequately, and generated considerable goodwill by marketing the team vigorously. Having a Colin Chapman-style hat under glass on the pitwall was a stroke of PR genius. I hate to puncture any illusions held by fans, but this is a marketing exercise par excellence as well as a team with undisputed soul.
David Hunt may come to regret not getting on board sooner, for now there is another opportunist entrepreneur on the scene: Dany Bahar. He has grandiose plans for Group Lotus and a stipend from the Malaysian government, via Proton, to put them into action. Whether this self-confessed ‘non-car guy’ genuinely understands what he’s doing is neither here nor there for now. It is a fundamental axiom of the luxury and performance car market that execution and perceived quality are at least as important as style, and shortcomings in the former areas are the chief cause of Lotus’s failings over the past three or four decades.
If Bahar fails to deliver then he will not personally suffer, because he is playing with other people’s money: it is the Malaysian taxpayer who will take a bath, in much the same way as Ireland is now in penury because its banks lent injudiciously to ludicrous enterprises such as the Donington renovation.
Where does the team formerly known as Renault F1 fit into this? I don’t suppose they care so long as the cheque from Proton doesn’t bounce. The ‘reveal’ of their car in ersatz John Player Special colours was an inspired piece of mischief: 1Malaysia Racing had signalled their intention to move to that colour scheme some weeks ago, and had even invited fans to submit ideas. Crucially, though, Enstone’s graphic designers beat them to the crucial stage of getting an image into the public domain.
David Hunt, meanwhile, has been reduced to venting his rage at the state of affairs in various Norfolk-based newspapers, rather in the manner of Alan Partridge. He and Fernandes need to tread carefully. 1Malaysia Racing’s plans for 2011 hinge on a Renault powerplant and Red Bull’s tightly packaged (and aero-friendly) drivetrain, and the use of the Team Lotus name. If they lose the rights to the latter in court then a costly change to the team’s entry beckons, for they will lose their 2010 prize money if forced to do so.
Also, the word on the street is that they are perilously close to triggering a severance clause in the engine supply contract if they don’t lay down their weapons. Ghosn in 60 seconds, you might say…
Surely the issue with Autosport was the cover line saying “The real Lotus is back”?
@antoine
Fair point, but what you have to remember is that a magazine cover is not a manifesto of editorial policy. It’s an eye-grabber to make the magazine leap off the shelf at people who may not otherwise buy it. Its function is to tantalise, intrigue and sell, not to make a qualified argument.
Hey Stuart, great article and very thought-provoking.
Obviously I know little about the stuff that is happening behind the scenes here. While I certainly understand that neither team really can claim to continue the legacy of Colin Chapman’s Lotus – and that both may well be just cynical marketing ploys just to get into the door of F1.
But doesn’t it seem awful that DB has come in and stolen all of TF’s thunder and is ruining all of his hard work over the squabble of the name? What about the damage caused to the Lotus brand itself?
Personally I cannot see how a car company that is supposedly in money trouble can afford to ramp up production five fold on 5 new high tech GT cars in 5 years, while buying into an F1 team, a GP2 team, a GP3 team, an Indycar team and building a Le Mans prototype.
But hey, good luck to the man if he thinks he can do it…
Does it justify the cover though? It definitely worked but it was poor form from Autosport, especially after two notable columnists expressed support for TF and Team Lotus only to switch sides.
As far as I am concerned I am bored of the whole issue and any support TF has gained from me is now lost – I will choose to support neither team…
@Gavin Brown (RubberGoat)
That is, indeed, a lot of pots to stir…
The question of ‘sides’ is an interesting one. Most scribes do their utmost to remain neutral, but in any sport it’s very hard to write about any particular individual or team without being suspected of bias or causing some sort of offence.
Indeed, it must be a tough one. To be honest, the bias issue does not bother me as much. It’s the sudden volte-face that I have noticed from quite a few people since the DB Lotus announcement. It just so happens (unfortunately for them) that the most visible is the AUTOSPORT front cover.
Although I agree with most of the article there are some subtle differences to my point of view.
As I understand it David Hunt was on board when Team Lotus entered the tender for new Formula 1 teams the first time, but didn’t get the entry.
When a second opportunity arose (after BMW didn’t sign the concorde agreement) Nino Judge (of Litespeed Racing, the originator of getting Team Lotus in F1) asked Tony Fernandes for help. Tony went then to the Malaysian Proton for support and got the name Lotus Racing to use (Dany Bahar was not even in the picture then, working his way up in Lotus hierarchy).
Only after Proton withdrew from Lotus Racing (stepping out of a 5 year deal, because of Dany Bahar), David Hunt was asked for usage of the Team Lotus name again, so the Lotus name could still be used.
Dany Bahar wanted to do a deal with a top team, because that is a lot cheaper than spending money on a new entry.
I don’t know about the performance clause. I also heard they split because of Fauzy not getting a race seat. And some more reasons (like a row over a t-shirt).
Also I heard that a new team receives about 10 mln. dollar, which is as much as Lotus would get for it’s 10th place, so that wouldn’t be much of a problem at first. It only will result in getting Chapter 2 status a year later.
It is certainly true that Fernandes is using the Lotus brand because of its commercial value and it puts him in pole position to pick up the car company for a pittance when/if Dany Bahar fails or runs out of finance.
I really don’t understand what Dany Bahar is doing buying an F1 team when Fernandes is providing him with a Lotus F1 team for free and no doubt Bahar could have done any deal he liked on passes, access use of team images etc as part of the licence deal.
The reason the JPS livery has remained in everyone’s mind is because it looked just right. How anyone from a marketing background thinks it is going to work with all that red on it is beyond me. Enstone seems to be the home of ugly liveries.
I hope this was just a stupid stunt to stop Fernandes and co using it. Apart from anything else it looks more like a Wolf that a Lotus.
Love it
@Steven Roy
I wasn’t at the Bahar media briefing yesterday but he is reported to have claimed that he tried to do a deal with Lotus Racing but considered their terms too onerous.
The really important thing is that he hasn’t bought the Renault team; my understanding is that it is just a title sponsorship at the moment. Although he has made statements to the effect that Group Lotus is taking a shareholding, the best information I have is that no such deal has been done yet, and certainly he backpedaled on that claim yesterday.
It seems fair to describe much of what he says as Bahar humbug…
great post chap, however this comment:
is a little dailymail-esque wouldn’t you say?
“we don’t mean what we print, we print what we print to sell copy.”
that’s only a step away from keyword stuffing online articles with references to lady gaga. a magazine cover is very much the window to the content within. if the window is filthy, who’s going to pop in?
as an aside, kudos to team lotus for reacting the way they did on twitter and facebook. more of that please.
@mr. c.
That would be a very big step, though.
To write “The real Lotus is back” in large point text was perhaps an injudicious piece of hyperbole, given the sensitivities of all parties. However, much of the e-fulmination that ensued came from people who hadn’t actually read any of the features within the mag which qualified that statement. How Daily Mail is that?
The suggestion from some quarters that the editorial team had somehow been nobbled, corrupted or paid off is, frankly, absurd. If anyone subscribes to that view, I have a spare bit of tinfoil lying around for them to fashion a new hat from, provided they don’t mind the pizza crumbs…
Whatever the story, Bahar handled Group Lotus’ entry very poorly and is now suffering a serious fan backlash. Regardless of how Tony is looked at (and on the whole, it’s still pretty positive), Dany won’t look any better anytime soon. It’s very easy to promise a lot of things (F1! Indy! Le Mans! Roadcars!) then vanish as the Malaysian taxpayers pay the price.
Tony may be looking at this as a for-profit exercise, but he’s already done a lot more for the Lotus name than anyone has in the past decade. Sell it on or not, he will always be the savior of the Lotus name in my eyes. That said, he could’ve already sold Air Asia on years ago – but he still owns it. So Lotus could very easily go down the same road – if he can outlast Dany.
“Ghosn in 60 seconds” Genius!
I can see this going one of two ways:
1) Fernandes sells the Team Lotus name to Renault for a packet and carries on under some other name, either selling up at the first opportunity he has to make a profit or starting to make his own niche low volume sports cars. I’ve read the suggestion elsewhere that when Lotus Cars stops making the current Elise, we might see a Caterham-esque move for the design of the old Elise.
2) Group Lotus crashes and burns with their grand plans for their 5 new road cars. It’s an awfully big jump from small niche production up to Prestige Supercars to rival current Ferraris and Porsches.
My money is on option 2.
@Pionir
I agree, but how long will it take before that happens? Maybe in 2 years (as I’m sure the government will try pumping in more money first). But I don’t think Dany will fail before Tony loses a potential court case. In which case, both of them fall.
it wasn’t just the text. there was a cheeky shot of a classic lotus car in the pullout too.
i don’t subscribe to that idea either. but i do feel those behind the headline must be remarkably out of touch with reality. i trawled a significant section of the interweb space after seeing the cover, and have yet to find a single person who agrees with the statement.
@Stuart C
But there’s nothing wrong with the Autosport caption. It is the realy Lotus that is now entering F1 albiet in the guise of a Renault chassis.
i stand corrected!
I think the problem with Autosport was not just the headline but Mr van der Burgt’s article. Clearly he has an odd idea about why Chapman went racing. He claimed that he went racing to sell road cars when anyone with a basic grasp of their Lotus history knows the racing came first after a few modified road cars and he started making and modifying race cars for others on the back of his success. Lotus like Ferrari and more recently McLaren were racing businesses that sold cars rather than car manufacturers who went racing to promote the brand like Mr Bahar. Either van der Burgt has an agenda or he was being deliberately obtuse or he has no idea what he was talking about. I have grown to expect far better from someone in his position.
Interesting post and I agree with everything you wrote. In terms of taking sides, I’d rather go with Bahar as he seems like a more educated person without those unfriendly crazy laughs that Tony produces so often, let alone Tony’s naive rhetorics which remind me of typical F1 forum stuff. Fernandes is a successful entrepreneur but it just proves he knows how to bite and step over people’s lives – no successful businessman is a saint. Money and altruism don’t go together.
I feel Lotus vs. Lotus is more important to British motor racing community for obvious reasons; in other countries they prefer to take it easy. Besides, there’s no law against sponsoring one team or the other in Formula 1. Companies are free to choose who they want to go with and in terms of immediate exposure Enstone based outift looks better than 1Malaysia. Despite doing a solid job in 2010, Tony’s cars were barely present on the TV screen, apart from Valencia or when some part would fall off in Trulli’s case and he’d stop on the track.
I know some journalists are claiming that Clive Chapman sort of blessed Tony’s team but the same Clive Chapman appears in Group Lotus videos on YouTube and says he absolutely adores Group Lotus and Bahar’s idea to go racing. Hmm… Fair journalism?
I feel they’ll find a suitable solution in the end and people will look back on their comments and say, “What a bunch of fools we were!” It’s quite common in F1 – you need something to talk about, especially now when there’s no winter testing to cover in December, hence the mighty righteous noise.
The Gospel According to Saint Tony Fernandes
or
“if you say it to 39,778 people on Twitter, it must be true”
“Personal attacks”
St Tony has accused Dany Bahar, Gérard Lopez and Eric Boullier of making personal attacks on him. He’s even successfully mis-quoted Mr Boullier, because he can’t read Italian properly. So let’s take a look at what has really happened over the past month…
5 November, Just before Brazil
tonyfernandes
Time to move here. Away from insects ,thieves and destroyers of postive (sic) things just for their ego. Great week
13 November, Abu Dhabi qualifying
tonyfernandes
Kubica of renault out and petrov just in. Wonder what db has to say. We just keep our heads down and see where we go next season.
19 November, Post Abu Dhabi
tonyfernandes
Proton have a free team in us . Yes we are at the back. But only one year old. Renault team was built by mike Gasgoigne (sic). We are in norfolk.
(Funny that: Gascoyne left in 2003…)
8 December, Lotus Renault GP announcement
tonyfernandes
Dany bahr (sic) has done us a favour. Never felt better about our future and Team Lotus. Looks like the trying to hijak (sic) our black and gold idea.
8 December, Lotus Renault GP announcement
tonyfernandes
In bangkok.Funny first meeting I had was in the lotus room. Wonder if dany is going to try anf sponser (sic) that http://plixi.com/p/61682678
9 December, Day after media announcement
tonyfernandes
Looks like gerard lopez and dany bahr (sic) are on a media roadshow. Being rolled out to the malaysian press tmw. Media lunch wednesday. But why?
9 December, Daily Telegraph
Dany Bahar: “First of all we respect what Mr Fernandes, with his 1Malaysia racing team, has achieved this year. They have done a great job to be the best of the newcomer teams.”
9 December, Autosport
Dany Bahar: “In F1, we have tested the waters with the company that took a licence from us and they gained respect for what they did. But it motor racing, it’s about competing and winning, not just participating… All of the small teams deserve respect, but for me it’s too costly an exercise to build a team from scratch to win. That’s why we wanted to be associated with one of the top five teams.”
And then…
Autosport, 16 December, Fernandes
“Over the last few days I have had attacks from Dany Bahar, Eric Boullier and Gerard Lopez. Personally I think it has got a little bit out of hand and a lot of it is fabricated.”
Isn’t there a well known phrase about pots and kettles?!
Livery
Well, well, well: Team Lotus will be running in green and yellow in 2011. What a surprise. Let’s take a look at the saga…
September 2010: Fernandes registers yellow and green for use in F1; work begins on black and gold livery at Renault F1 Team.
6 November: JL Moncet reports Group Lotus/Renault to use black and gold
http://blog.autoplus.fr/moncet/2010/11/06/quelle-idee-sensationnelle/
11 November: Lotus Racing announces plans to use black and gold livery in fan competition, http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/88127
8 December: Lotus Renault GP announced with black and gold livery
8 December
tonyfernandes
Dany bahr has done us a favour. Never felt better about our future and Team Lotus. Looks like the trying to hijak (sic) our black and gold idea.
8 December
MikeGascoyne
Lots of fans saying we should stick with the green and yellow livery now, let me know what you think
11 December:
tonyfernandes
After lots of thought. The shareholders riad and mike have decided we will stay with green and yellow for next … http://tmi.me/4511z
So Mr Fernandes accuses Dany Bahar (in a personal attack) of trying to hijack an idea that he himself hijacked from Mr Bahar. Then he back-tracks. To his original plan. Surprise!
@Tommy Vance
Very commendable research job there.