IT looks like the fight over the use of the Lotus name in Formula One (F1) next year will take place on two fronts the British legal system and race tracks.
That scenario will unfold once Proton Holdings Bhd buys a 25% stake in the Renault F1 team and changes the name of the team to Lotus Renault.
Lotus Racing, which is led by Datuk Seri Tony Fernandes, intends to change the name of the team to Team Lotus next season after buying the rights from David Hunt a few months ago.
Fernandes, the team principal of Lotus Racing, has filed a suit in the UK to sort out the ownership rights to use Team Lotus against Proton which owns Group Lotus and insists it too can use the racing tradition of Lotus in F1.
The unfolding of events will make an already confusing matter for some even more baffling once fans of F1 start to decipher just which team in on the track when the next season starts.
Proton would emerge as the title sponsor of the Renault F1 team, a role that would carry immense branding and marketing benefits but also at a huge cost.
A title sponsor generally pays tens of million of euros a season for that right and it's no different to the amount Petroliam Nasional Bhd (Petronas) paid to have its name mentioned alongside Mercedes GP.
The difference here is what that cost means to each company. For Petronas, it's literally a drop in a bucket for the Fortune 500 company.
The cost some say would be offset by the value it derives in marketing and branding, especially for its engine oil business.
For Proton, the cost as a title sponsor could translate to over RM100mil a year, which some would suggest the money could be better spent on developing its own range of passenger cars to compete more effectively in its bread-and-butter segment.
But Proton sees it differently. The company is now obliged to make something more of Group Lotus and that ambition was displayed when it revealed five new cars at the Paris Motor Show.
That in a nutshell was a flexing of intent and whether it's the right decision or a costly bet would be known in the coming years. But the use of F1 as a means to build the perception and image of a sports car company is also debatable.
Yes, the success Ferrari enjoys in F1 has boosted the pedigree of the Italian car company immensely but Porsche, which has no direct involvement in the expensive F1 business, has not suffered one bit for excluding itself from the glamourous world of F1.
Reading the comments of Fernandes prior to reports of Proton's direct involvement in F1 raised the question whether there might have been a change of heart to the use of Team Lotus for the next season.
Relinquishing the name Lotus for the upcoming season would have meant a financial penalty to his team as by qualifying 10th, Lotus Racing moved into the Tier 2 ranking of F1 teams and would get a slice of the sponsorship money.
If it again finishes as a Tier 2 team next season, Lotus Racing would be ranked a Tier 1 team and that means even more sponsorship money.
For small teams on a tight budget, such money is essential and to give up the use of the chassis name for the upcoming season would mean forgoing that cash.
That option is now gone and that would mean Lotus Renault, which retains the Renault chassis name for now to capitalise on the team's fifth placing and larger share of the sponsorship money, would go head to head against Team Lotus, which would also be powered by Renault engines next season.
With so much in common, the fight between both camps would surely eclipse the bet Fernandes made and won with Richard Branson.-thestar.com.my
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