Caterham (formerly Lotus)

Team Lotus

FIA Entry: Team Lotus
Car 20: Heikki Kovaleinen
Car 21: Jarno Trulli
Engine: Renault V8
Team Principal: Tony Fernandes
Technical Director: Mike Gascoyne
Race Engineer Car 20: Juan Pablo Ramirez
Race Engineer Car 21: Gianluca Pisanello

Stats as of end 2010

First Entered 2010
Races Entered 20
Race Wins 0
Pole Positions 0
Fastest Laps 0
Driver World Championships 0
Constructor World Championships 0

Team Lotus

Tony Fernandes' 1Malaysia F1 team lay claim to one of the most iconic names in F1, Team Lotus. Team Lotus, under the guidance of one of the greatest innovators in F1 Colin Chapman, was in F1 from 1958 to 1994. They took part in 491 Grands Prix, winning 73 races, 7 Constructors Titles, 6 Drivers Championships, 102 poles and 65 fastest laps. During this time some of the greatest F1 drivers drove for Team Lotus including Jim Clark, Stirling Moss, Ayrton Senna, Graham Hill, Emerson Fittipaldi, Jochen Rindt and Nigel Mansell.

2010 Team Lotus

With the support of the Malaysian government via Proton cars and two Malaysian Companies, Tune and Naza Groups, Tony Fernandes entered F1 under the Team Lotus name. Using Cosworth engines and Xtrac gearboxes Lotus signed up experienced drivers for their first season in F1 with Heikki Kovaleinen and Jarno Trulli.

The cars proved reasonably reliable although not quick enough to threaten the mid-field teams. Kovaleinen managed Lotus’ best finish with a 12th place in Japan and the team, based on count back of non-points scoring finishes, were placed 10th in the Constructors Championship – the best of the new teams for 2010.

2011

Lotus announced during 2010 that they would switch to Renault engines for 2011 along with Red Bull gearbox and hydraulic technology. The same driver line up is retained and they will use the T128 chassis.

Whether the team continue to use the Lotus name will be decided in the British High Court. Proton, owners of the Group Lotus name, have moved their allegiance to the former Renault team although ownership of the Team Lotus name is in dispute as this was owned by David Hunt, brother of 1976 World Champion James and sold to Fernandes.
 
Fenderman

The key is the amount of investment involved Red Bull or I should say Mateschitz was willing to back the team to get the right people behind

Fernandes as soon as he saw a ticket to the Premier League he bought the first club that was available to him - QPR from Bernie and Flavio no less and devoted more time to that than his F1 team. They've had to rely on other finance sources as well

If Red Bull is not the yardstick to aim for then maybe Force India should be at least a good benchmark
 
NSS, but of course it depends on where your starting point is ...

"As of February 2013, Forbes Asia valued Fernandes' net worth at $625 million, ranking him at number 21 on the Forbes list of Malaysia's Richest." http://www.forbes.com/profile/anthony-fernandes/

"Dietrich Mateschitz is an Austrian entrepreneur who has a net worth of $8.1 billion dollars. Dietrich Mateschitz is the richest person in Austria thanks to his wildly successful drink Red Bull." http://www.celebritynetworth.com/ri...t-billionaires/dietrich-mateschitz-net-worth/

Edit: I can't be arsed to find out how rich these folks were before they stuck their toes into F1, suffice it to say that Red Bull had a head start in more ways than one and simply slagging off one or two individuals is ignoring the complexities of the edifice that is F1 and the inevitable barriers to anyone trying to break into it and get anywhere.
 
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then maybe Fernandes should be compared to VJ Mallaya - Force India seeing both are rich for aviation industry but one is doing a marginally better job than the other
 
I bet Adrian Newey has to go and have a lie down every time he catches a glimpse of the Caterham. It's about as aerodynamic as a brick and not as nice to look at.
 
Caterham have had a nose paint job:
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They mentioned this in P3 - he's been replaced by a "Technical Committee". The expression about a horse designed by a committee being a camel springs to mind.
 
A thoroughbred is the best possible horse for racing, and I believe Caterham to be a racing team. Well... they're supposed to be one at least.
 
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