The end of Lotus F1? Proton terminates contract with the 1 Malaysia Racing Team

[Evolution_tme]

I support Mercedes Petronas anyway!!! :P I think Petronas did the country proud WAY more than Lotus! lucky Petronas didn't sponsor lotus if not they will be stuck in the problem now between Proton and Tune Group.

go schumi!! hahaha!

 

[teamsleepnine]

In short, Lotus in F1 is making Malaysia known in the World map.....so proton should NOT try to terminate it unless they have someone more capable to run the Lotus F1 team than Tony, which i seriously doubt it as it seems in their track record the Proton management is better at playing politics (easy job), SO PROTON Please keep your politics out by *Negotiation to solve any Problems* so that we can continue to have our own Malaysia Lotus F1 Team which Malaysian are Proud of rather that let "Politics" Destroy any Good things for Malaysia !!!!!

Please Wake Up PROTON !!! Cheers

Wake up proton?...why lah?? tony the one that playing dirty politics by quietly buying the name team lotus from a company that have been holding ransom to proton,proton at the first place gave him the licence to use the name lotus racing.

 

[Trinityblood]

both parties driven by self interest, TF side was fine since thier business man. Proton? seem all the top management sleeping and went holiday a lot.

 

[C_Fu]

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

 

[avubaker]

proton should just concentrate on making more reliable car domestically. usher the proton name by quality rather than spend millions on sponsorship. my proton car broke down many times and spend thousands on repair. pledge to myself never buy a proton again. :saint:

 

[hksp]

proton phailed