I think I know what Tony is trying to do, and it's pretty ingenius from a business perspective if you think about it.
It's like Rolls Royce. The RR brand is used by two different companies, FYI.
One company makes RR jet engines.
One company makes RR cars (now owned by BMW).
When the RR company splits, it also split the business into two, but both retain the branding - just as long as either one tak kacau the other business. Like if BMW starts to make jet engines under the brand RR, the jet engine RR will sue them till kingdom come.
Same case here when Lotus got split into two by none other than Mr Chapman due to mismanagement.
Group Lotus owns the car side of the business - Elise, etc.
Team Lotus owns the F1 side of the business - the one till 94 before the team ended.
Group Lotus was never given the F1 business, but when proton, owners of Group Lotus, decided to use the Lotus name for F1, as predicted by many, all hell breaks lose. That's why the name wasn't confirmed till the very last minute if you guys remember (from 1Malaysia team to Proton F1 to now). And when Proton tries to sideline Tony on his Tune/AirAsia importance, his best bet is to nail Proton back where it hurts.
Why was it allowed to enter F1 if Proton can't use the Lotus branding? My best guess would be F1 needed the teams and money last year, so cincai lah :D