Proton acquires stake in Renault, Lotus set to be main sponsor

[Dinesh]

Proton is set to buy over Renault’s remaining 25 per cent stake in the Renault Formula One Team with a signing ceremony due this Wednesday to formalise the deal, according to French newspaper Le Figaro.

Furthermore, the report goes on to claim that Proton’s Group Lotus will be moving in as the title sponsor in a 30 million Euro (RM128 million) a year deal over the next five years.

“We’ll be there next year and in future seasons,” said Carlos Ghosn, in reply to requests for comments on the matter.

It has been reported before that Renault will be limiting its role in Formula One next season to just that of an engine supplier and will be providing engines for the soon-to-be renamed Lotus-Renault, Red Bull and the current Lotus Racing team.

While the report does shed some light on the Proton and Group Lotus side of things, the question remains on the plight of the current Lotus Racing team and their use of the Lotus name. Will the team still insists that it has the rights to the Lotus name even following this update from Proton and Group Lotus?

Regardless, it’s highly likely that there won’t be two Lotus teams lining up on the grid come next season as Lotus Racing will probably have to drop the Lotus moniker from its name. Nonetheless, we’ll just have to see how this one plays out.

Source: Le Figaro

 

[har1th7]

can't wait for next year.... go LOTUS (real ones)....

 

[alantan]

kekekekekke......so funny these proton guys

 

[^pomen_GTR^]

tony have lotus racing....


now proton turning lotus engineering into another lotus racing team???

:hmmmm:

 

[freeman1314]

Let's see who will have better result next year.

p.s: For being patriotic just ditch the lotus name and use Bunga Raya Racing Team la proton..

 

[^pomen_GTR^]

+1 for

bunga raya...

 

[kevindass]

p.s: For being patriotic just ditch the lotus name and use Bunga Raya Racing Team la proton..

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA, kelasik!

 

[Munmax]

p.s: For being patriotic just ditch the lotus name and use Bunga Raya Racing Team la proton..

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA, kelasik!

Ya laar... every Malaysian now to be patriotic must change their name too; into Malay name.... haha

Bole ka???

---------- Post added at 09:13 PM ---------- 6 hour anti-bump limit - Previous post was at 09:01 PM ----------

We are everywhere now .

Petronas - Mercedes GP & Yamaha MotoGP
Naza/Airasia
and now Proton with Renault

And Neo not doing too bad in rally.

I think LOTUS will be competitive with renault engine,
who knows, with knowledge from Petronas at Merc GP with merc engine, and,
Lotus with renault engine, some future grand design in the making.
Also not to forget Mitsu and VW. Hope Proton is absorbing what it should.

 

[hafidz_moro]

PROTON just need to lift up their brand name..with lotus on their side it will be much beneficial..
to me personally, spend money to makes money..they are not employing monkeys in their marketing & corporate communication department..

PROTON by the way have some collaboration with Renault previously and still right until now..where they sign a deal to test run WAJA 1.8 or 2.0 (cant remember) Renault engine previously which lead to the use of that technology for PROTON NEO s2000 for IRC Rally (even the model was not successful in terms of sales but it was fruitful by the end ..Nowadays everything seems to be expensive, to create a new engineering to create new gearbox and engine will cost much more higher cost and waste for such a small company and for such a small market to fit in..so,its better to buy over and collaborate to gain new technology within time..

As for LOTUS as well, they have been using tweaked Toyota VVTi engines and Rover engines for Elise & Exige and other previous model..so its about time when they launch the new 5 super cars with high specs, they then need a new engine which provides whats written on paper..and most of Renault engine specs partly ticks all the required specs for their said performance for that concepts..so by using Proton as a platform which they owned Lotus..they really required as much technology transfer (on engine and gearbox) for their new car..

To be in F1, you dont really need to become a car manufacturer..and dats a fact (ie: Redbull, Williams, Hispania, Virgin and so on..), to be part of the sponsorship as well there were tonnes of agreements and understandings in terms of brand and technology transfer..

This stories are its almost the same stories like Citroen owned Nissan (cross platform on chasis and CVT technologies) , Volvo shared technology with Mitsubishi for all GDi engines (s40, s80 and so on..infact Volvo only makes engines for trucks) , Mercedes with Mitsubishi collaboration as well for all C-class engines (infact with all those kompressors) so then Mitsu got the technology to create their own smart car..its all about give and share..gain here loss there..the rules to survive in this motoring industry..