Lotus F1

Coordinates: 51°55′12″N 1°23′25″W / 51.92000°N 1.39028°W / 51.92000; -1.39028

Lotus-Mercedes Full name Lotus F1 Team Base Enstone, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom Team principal(s) Gérard Lopez[1] Federico Gastaldi Technical director Nick Chester Website www.lotusf1team.com Previous name Lotus Renault GP 2015 Formula One season Race drivers 8. Romain Grosjean[2] 13. Pastor Maldonado[3] Test drivers Jolyon Palmer Carmen Jordá Adderly Fong Chassis E23 Hybrid Engine Mercedes PU106B Hybrid[4] Tyres Pirelli Formula One World Championship career Debut 2012 Australian Grand Prix Latest race 2015 Bahrain Grand Prix Races competed 62 Constructors' Championships 0 Drivers' Championships 0 Race victories 2 Podiums 24 Pole positions 0 Fastest laps 5 2014 position 8th (10 pts)

Lotus F1 Team is a British Formula One racing team. The team has competed under the Lotus name since 2012, following the renaming of the former Renault team based at Enstone in Oxfordshire. Lotus F1 Team is owned by Luxembourg-based venture capital group Genii Capital.^[5] Lotus F1 Team is named after its branding partner Group Lotus. The team achieved a race victory and fourth position in the Formula One Constructors' World Championship in their first season under the Lotus title.

Background

Origins

The team's Formula One history started in 1981 as the Toleman Motorsport team, based in Witney, Oxfordshire, England. In 1986, the team was renamed to Benetton Formula, following its purchase in 1985 by the Benetton family. In 1992/3, the team moved a few miles to a new base in Enstone. Michael Schumacher won the Drivers' Championship with the team in both 1994 and 1995. In 1995, the team also won the Constructors' Championship, with Johnny Herbert driving alongside Schumacher.

Renault purchased the Benetton team in 2000, and in 2002, they renamed it to Renault F1. In both 2005 and 2006, Fernando Alonso won the Drivers' Championship with the team, and the team won the Constructors' Championship (with Giancarlo Fisichella as their other driver).

Starting with the Lotus E20, the team has recognised these achievements by placing three gold stars in the livery of their car, located just forward of the cockpit. At the end of 2009, Renault sold a majority stake in the team to Genii Capital. Since 2011, Lotus Cars became involved with the team and the team was renamed, first to "Lotus Renault GP" for 2011 season, and then to "Lotus F1 Team" for 2012 season.

Lotus in Formula One

Team Lotus, a sister company of Lotus Cars, competed in Formula One between 1958 and 1994, winning seven constructors' titles and six drivers' titles between 1963 and 1978.

The Lotus name returned to Formula One in 2010 through Tony Fernandes's Lotus Racing team, which used the name on licence from Group Lotus. Group Lotus later terminated the licence for the 2011 season, but Fernandes acquired the privately owned Team Lotus name and used it. For 2012, Team Lotus changed their name to Caterham F1 Team, clearing the way for the Lotus Renault GP team to be renamed as "Lotus F1 Team".

History

2012 season

Romain Grosjean in FP1 of the 2012 Canadian Grand Prix race weekend; he would later claim his second podium.^[6]

On 29 November 2011, the team announced that Kimi Räikkönen would race for them in 2012 as he returned from a two-year stint away from Formula One which he spent competing in the World Rally Championship; Räikkönen signed for two years with a third year option. On 9 December 2011 the team announced that GP2 Series champion and 2009 Renault F1 driver Romain Grosjean would race alongside Räikkönen.

At the start of the season, the team was involved in a protest over the use of a "radical" rear wing concept on Mercedes AMG's Mercedes F1 W03, later dubbed the 'F-Duct rear wing' or 'Double DRS'.^[7] The dispute was not settled until the third race in China when the stewards unanimously rejected their formal protest^[8] and Lotus subsequently confirmed they would not appeal against the decision.^[9]

Lotus started the season strongly with Grosjean qualifying third in Australia but first lap incidents in Australia and Malaysia ruined his chances of his first Formula One points. In China Räikkönen was running in second until his tyres 'fell off the cliff' pushing him out of the points for the only time of the season. In Bahrain, Lotus achieved their first podium of the season with Räikkönen very close to the winner Vettel and Grosjean behind in third. In Monaco Grosjean was involved in another first lap incident but in Canada he worked a one-stop strategy perfectly to take second position, his best Formula One finish. A race later in Valencia Grosjean was running in second until a mechanical problem put him out of the race after a safety car period leaving Räikkönen to take another podium for second.

In Germany, Hungary and Belgium Räikkönen took 3 podiums in a row. In Hungary he and Grosjean had an inter-team battle after a round of pit stops. In the end Räikkönen finished ahead in second with Grosjean scoring his third podium with third.

At the 2012 Belgian Grand Prix, Grosjean was involved in a multiple car pileup at the start of the race, resulting in Grosjean, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and Sergio Pérez all being eliminated from the race and Kamui Kobayashi missing out on a possible podium after starting from the front row for the first time of his career. The incident was started when Grosjean collided with Hamilton on the approach to the La Source corner. After the race, Grosjean was issued with a one race ban covering the next Round at Monza. He was replaced for the race weekend by Lotus reserve driver Jérôme d'Ambrosio.

After a near win in Bahrain, Räikkönen took the team's first victory at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. It was also his first race win after returning to Formula One. After finishing in the points in 19 of the 20 races, and achieving 7 podiums (including the win in Abu Dhabi) Räikkönen finished 3rd in the Drivers' Championship with Lotus 4th in the Constructors' Championship.

2013 season

On 29 October 2012, Lotus F1 team confirmed that Räikkönen would be racing with the team in 2013. The news came after several weeks of speculation that Räikkönen had several other options for 2013 including other forms of motorsport. Romain Grosjean will partner him in the 2013 season. The 2013 Lotus, the E21, was launched on January 28 at the team's headquarters in Enstone, Oxfordshire, UK. The livery was a little bit different from the previous year's; this year Lotus has a black, gold and red livery, with more visible red as the sidepods, air intake, rear wing and front wing have red on them.

In the 2013 Australian Grand Prix, Lotus achieved a first place finish for Räikkönen despite qualifying in 7th place, thus giving Lotus F1 the leading driver in the Drivers' Championship and second place in the Constructors' Championship. Romain Grosjean, who started the race in 8th place, finished the race in 10th and took one point despite having problems with his car.

After Räikkönen was penalised for impeding Nico Hülkenberg in qualifying and Grosjean failed to make Q3, the Malaysian Grand Prix saw Lotus sit only 10th and 11th on the starting grid. They ultimately finished 7th and 6th respectively.

At the Chinese Grand Prix, Räikkönen qualified and finished 2nd, despite having to regain places after losing two at the start and having damaged the front of his car while battling Sergio Pérez for position; Grosjean finished 8th.

The Bahrain Grand Prix saw a bad qualifying result for both Lotus drivers, however as team principal, Eric Boullier had expected, the car had better race pace and both drivers subsequently finished on the podium. The race saw the same top 3 as the previous year.

2014 season

On 29 November 2013, Lotus F1 team confirmed that Romain Grosjean would partner Pastor Maldonado with the team in 2014.^[10] On 24 January 2014, the team announced Eric Boullier's departure with immediate effect, with Gérard Lopez replacing him as Lotus team principal.^[1] The team struggled throughout the season, finishing eighth in the Constructors' Championship compared to the fourth place they achieved in 2013.

2015 season

On 5 July 2014, Lotus announced that they would be switching to Mercedes engines from the 2015 season, ending the team's 20 year association with Renault.^[11] Grosjean and Maldonado remained at the team, with Jolyon Palmer and Carmen Jordá being signed as test and development drivers respectively.

Sponsorship and livery

Lotus F1's current livery is based on the John Player Special livery used by Team Lotus in the 1970s and 1980s.

The Lotus F1 Team competes in a black-and-gold livery inspired by that of Team Lotus – the motorsport sister company of its naming and branding partner Group Lotus – when it was sponsored by tobacco brand John Player Special during the 1970s and 1980s. However, in April 2012 it was announced this sponsorship agreement had been prematurely terminated although the team would continue to use the Lotus name until at least 2017.^[12]

In March 2013, days before the launch of the new Lotus E21, American giant Honeywell pulled out of a reported €50 million sponsorship agreement with the team.^[13]

In 2014, again without a title sponsor, the title sponsor space was instead shared race by race by existing sponsors alongside temporary sponsors Interwetten (Germany and Hungary)^[14] and Hisense (Italy, United States and Abu Dhabi),^[15] as well as paying homage to the El Greco exhibition at the Spanish Grand Prix.^[16]

Its sponsors have included French car brand Renault (though as of 2014 the team has Mercedes power), oil company and Romain Grosjean sponsor Total (though no longer shown on the car as Mercedes engines use Petronas fuel), Chinese solar energy company Trina Solar, Advanced Global Trading, Microsoft Dynamics, French fashion brand Japan Rags, luxury watch brand Richard Mille, Symantec, Avanade and Unilever hygiene products Rexona and Clear. The later two companies switching to Williams F1 for 2014. For the 2013 season Lotus signed a deal with the Coca Cola group brand Burn energy drink and Pastor Maldonado sponsor PDVSA. For 2014, Lotus signed a deal with Saxo Bank.

The team is majority owned by Genii Capital with property investor, Andrew Ruhan having a two percent stake and Russian phone company, Yota Devices having a speculated ten percent share in the company.^[17]

Lotus F1 Junior Team

The Lotus F1 Junior Team is a collaboration of Gravity Sports management and Lotus F1 management and replaces the Renault Driver Development programme created by Renault F1 in 2002. The Lotus F1 Junior Team programme includes development for drivers in lower formulas to get to grips of what the world of Formula One is actually like.

Race drivers Romain Grosjean, Jérôme d'Ambrosio, Heikki Kovalainen and Pastor Maldonado are all former drivers of the programme.

Complete Formula One results

(key) (results in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Chassis	Engine	Tyres	No.	Drivers	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	Points	WCC
2012	E20	Renault RS27-2012 2.4 V8	P			AUS	MAL	CHN	BHR	ESP	MON	CAN	EUR	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	SIN	JPN	KOR	IND	ABU	USA	BRA	303	4th
				9	Kimi Räikkönen	7	5	14	2	3	9	8	2	5	3	2	3	5	6	6	5	7	1	6	10
				10	Romain Grosjean	Ret	Ret	6	3	4	Ret	2	Ret	6	18	3	Ret		7	19	7	9	Ret	7	Ret
					Jérôme d'Ambrosio													13
2013	E21	Renault RS27-2013 2.4 V8	P			AUS	MAL	CHN	BHR	ESP	MON	CAN	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	SIN	KOR	JPN	IND	ABU	USA	BRA		315	4th
				7	Kimi Räikkönen	1	7	2	2	2	10	9	5	2	2	Ret	11	3	2	5	7	Ret
					Heikki Kovalainen																		14	14
				8	Romain Grosjean	10	6	9	3	Ret	Ret	13	19†	3	6	8	8	Ret	3	3	3	4	2	Ret
2014	E22	Renault Energy F1-2014 1.6 V6 t	P			AUS	MAL	BHR	CHN	ESP	MON	CAN	AUT	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	SIN	JPN	RUS	USA	BRA	ABU		10	8th
				8	Romain Grosjean	Ret	11	12	Ret	8	8	Ret	14	12	Ret	Ret	Ret	16	13	15	17	11	17†	13
				13	Pastor Maldonado	Ret	Ret	14	14	15	DNS	Ret	12	17†	12	13	Ret	14	12	16	18	9	12	Ret
2015	E23 Hybrid	Mercedes PU106B Hybrid 1.6 V6 t	P			AUS	MAL	CHN	BHR	ESP	MON	CAN	AUT	GBR	HUN	BEL	ITA	SIN	JPN	RUS	USA	MEX	BRA	ABU		12*	6th*
				8	Romain Grosjean	Ret	11	7	7
				13	Pastor Maldonado	Ret	Ret	Ret	15

* Season in progress.
^† Cars did not finish the Grand Prix, but were classified as they completed over 90% of the race distance.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lotus F1 Team.

• Official website
• Lotus F1 on Twitter

Lotus F1 Team Team Principal Gérard Lopez Personnel Nick Chester Federico Gastaldi Ayao Komatsu Eric Lux Alan Permane Former personnel James Allison Éric Boullier 2015 Race drivers 8. Romain Grosjean 13. Pastor Maldonado 2015 Test and reserve drivers Jolyon Palmer 2015 Development drivers Adderly Fong Carmen Jordá Former drivers Jérôme d'Ambrosio Heikki Kovalainen Kimi Räikkönen Formula One Cars E20 E21 E22 E23 Hybrid Related Genii Capital Group Lotus