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.

 

[RasputinLives]

Millionaire announces one of his company is going to sponsor the other

http://www.planetf1.com/driver/3213/7409444/Caterham-get-AirAsia-boost

everyone tries to look surprised.

 

[Galahad]

There does seem to be dearth of proper sponsorship in F1 at the moment. If you took all the names of owners or shareholders off the cars, some of them would be looking very bare indeed. Force India, Caterham and Marussia to name but three.

 

[Albies Dog]

I for one am hoping that, not only will Caterham really get to annoy the back of the midfield properly this year, but also hope that stars align and rains fall to help them get their first points. Whether attracting sponsors, talented workforce etc points on the board go along way to showing the world you are pointing in the right direction.

Out of the 3 new guys, they have only ever been the serious contender. I hope that by season 5 they can be fully entrenched in mid-field with further sights.

I would have also liked to see Trulli get the chop and let one of the swathe of younger guys have a chance.

Good luck Caterham!

 

[Jos the Boss]

I would have also liked to see Trulli get the chop and let one of the swathe of younger guys have a chance

Trulli is experienced in developing a car, which is why I presume they keep him! And I would rather have Trulli than a youngster who makes mistakes

 

[RasputinLives]

Trulli is experienced in developing a car, which is why I presume they keep him! And I would rather have Trulli than a youngster who makes mistakes

I can understand wanting expereince in your team but if thats what you want then why not go for Rubens now he's on the market? More experience than Trulli, better developer of the car than Trulli and lets face it has far more passion for F1 left in him for F1 than Jarno appears to have.

Plus he'd prob complain less about power steering!

 

[Galahad]

Not forgetting RB is quicker than Trulli!

I think Caterham will end up with a young driver in that seat.

 

[RasputinLives]

I think Caterham will end up with a young driver in that seat.

Yeah Razia and Rossi have been touted for it but by 'end up in that seat' do you mean for 2012 or 2013?

 

[Galahad]

I meant for this year.

 

[RasputinLives]

hmmm - brave prediction. Well it won't be either of the guys I named I don't think so I guess we'll see

 

[RasputinLives]

This seems like big news for Caterham

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/97073

seems they're linking up with car maker which means its not just a name. At least they've put their move during the Mid-Season F1 break and not pre-season and therefore risking the car design like HRT have done. You have to say though that moving to a new big facility like that it'll take some time to get it up and running to maximum effeciency so you have to conclude that the development of the F1 car might slow down considerably around that time.

 

[Greenlantern101]

They are moving everything, EVERYTHING. F1, GP2 and Caterham Road cars all to the old Arrows & Super Aguri factory. Shows they have commitment to racing. Great news, one of the last British owned car manufacturers in F1 for the long term. Off to look at how much a '7' would cost me.

http://www.caterham.co.uk/assets/html/showroom.html

 

[RasputinLives]

They are moving everything, EVERYTHING. F1, GP2 and Caterham Road cars all to the old Arrows & Super Aguri factory. Shows they have commitment to racing. Great news, one of the last British owned car manufacturers in F1 for the long term. Off to look at how much a '7' would cost me.

http://www.caterham.co.uk/assets/html/showroom.html

Unfourtunatly the team is still running in F1 under the Malaysian flag!

 

[FB]

Where does Tony Fernandez get his money from?

 

[RasputinLives]

I don't know where does Tony Fernandez get his money?

(this is a joke right?)

 

[FB]

You take it as joke if you want I know he owns Air Asia but most airlines in the World are struggling at the moment. What do Tune group do and do Caterham make any money? There are no major sponsors on his F1 cars beyond the brands he owns so where is the cash coming from to run an F1 team, a Premier league football club, teams in lower formulae racing.

According to Wiki (via Forbes) he has a personal wealth of $330 million but a football club and F1 team will eat through that pretty fast and, doubtless, much of that is made up of share holdings, physical assets such a property etc.. I doubt it's on deposit in his current account.

 

[canis]

The tune group are into telecommunications, mobile data providers and business telecom solutions. It is probably what is propping up most of his other business ventures right now as turns a fairly large profit. Air Asia turned a profit last year as well, they are expanding faily rapidly in the far eastern routes, which has it's costs but he is not stupid and is doing the expansion on minimum budget until each route turns a profit. Caterham I think makes a loss, but then that was why he bought them as he wanted to turn it round and 12 months to do that is not really enough for anyone to make a huge profit.

He has not been stupid with the money he makes and is actually a fairly good business man, he did learn his trade initially with Branson so some of that magic may have rubbed off on him

 

[sportsman]

Thats nothing.F1 GP2 Football teams are petty cash to Fernandes.This is serious money.

http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/6/21/business/8940043&sec=business
SEPANG: AirAsia Bhd is aiming to set up three more joint ventures to grow its ancillary income and is also in the midst of finalising a deal which it will announce on Thursday to buy nearly 200 aircraft costing US$18bil that it needs to fuel growth from 2015 onwards.
“We are looking at three more joint ventures to grow our ancillary income,'' AirAsia group chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes said without elaborating.
The low cost airline's ancillary income grew to RM50 per passenger in the first three months of 2011 versus RM38 in the previous corresponding year. Fernandes wants to increase it to RM60 per passenger in 2012.

 

[Bill Boddy]

....The low cost airline's ancillary income grew to RM50 per passenger in the first three months of 2011 g.F1 GP2 Football teams are petty cash to Fernandes.This is serious money....

With the exchange rate being about 5 Malaysian Ringgits to the UK Pound he's going to need an awful lot of passengers to finance a year in F1.

 

[sportsman]

Taken out of context hah very clever.Then how the hell will he pay $18 billion yes look again $18 billion for his new planes.

http://www.airasia.com/iwov-resources/my/common/pdf/AirAsia/IR/AirAsia_AR10.pdf

 

[FB]

I think the clue here is the phrase ancillary income which is not the profit per passenger:

ancillary income.​

Any earnings generated by sales or activities that are not part of a business's main sources of income. In the airline industry, that means such things as fees charged for checking baggage, in-flight meals, priority seating, and so forth​

You learn something new every day.