Friday, September 24, 2010

Muddying the GP2 waters

GP2, the “Preferred” Feeder series into Formula 1 has just announced its next 3yr allotment of Competitors for the 2011-13 GP2/GP2 Asia series, with 13 entrants for its upcoming Trimester.

And perhaps its just me, but where I got confused was when I read the announcement that ART Grand Prix has just merged with Lotus to form Lotus-ART to compete in both GP2 and GP3, whilst current Lotus Racing F1 boss tony Fernandes has gained entrance as one of the two new entries with his Team Air Asia entry; Huh? Of which speculation suggests that Fernandes & Co. will become Team Lotus in 2011, having bought the name from the Hunt family.

Carmaker Lotus entering GP2 with ART team
Thus, as I first discovered from Grizzled “Journo” Joe Saward, ART Grand Prix, partially controlled by Nicolas Todt, and winner’s of the 2005-06 and 2009 GP2 Drivers crowns, has decided to collaborate with Lotus Motorsport, the Car making entity, currently owned by Malaysian Auto manufacturer Proton, while Fernandes’s Lotus Racing is a completely separate Operation. And although it would be ludicrous to presume that there would be two Lotuses, Err “Loti” ever on the Formula 1 grid... Is the Lotus-ART alignment a possible suitor for an existing F1 Constructor in the future? As recall that ART pulled its application for the still vacant 13th F1 Entrant earlier this year after being unable to find the necessary funding...

Battle over use of Lotus name