Lotus will return to F1 in 2010 as 13th team

• Lotus will return to Formula One in 2010 after being handed the 13th team slot
• Backed by a Malaysian consortium, it beat BMW Sauber and Epsilon Euskadi
• Sauber may yet race after its departing owners BMW agreed to sell the team
• FIA is now trying persuade the other teams to expand the grid to 28 cars

The name was as hip as the Beatles and as charismatic as Carnaby Street and now Lotus is back on the grid. The company says it will compete in Formula One next year, a team revived after 15 years away from the glitz and glamour of grand prix racing it once dominated to become one of the iconic names in motor racing history.




In spite of the indomitable history of the familiar green and yellow badge, it is a sign of the times that the new Lotus team will be British-based but backed entirely by money from Malaysia. Tony Fernandes, the entrepreneurial founder of the Tune Group, which also runs Air Asia, will be the team principal with Mike Gascoyne, the former technical head at the now defunct Jordan and Toyota teams, running the construction operation.
The FIA, the governing body, gave the green light to the Lotus project as it became clear that Formula One could field a bumper grid of 28 cars next season, the most since 1992. As the ink dried on Lotus’s successful application, BMW announced it has sold its team to a Middle Eastern investment group. Although the team has officially slipped out of the sport, the FIA will look for agreement to allow the new operation to continue in 2010 as one of 14 teams in the sport.





But the attention of motor racing fans will be on Lotus, a name that stirs memories of great names and great victories at a time when Formula One was an epic contest between drivers with images that were a blend of gladiator and fighter pilot.

Lotus return to Formula One is a blast from the past - Times Online

Lotus was British, I doubt this group has anything to do with the carmaker