Here is a small portion of an interview with Tony Fernandes. LotusF1 team principle: This interview is from Autosport.com
Q. What about the business opportunities that you see in Formula 1?
TF. I'm not so sure that the traditional form of just sticking the name on car just for branding purposes will be enough going forward. I think Formula 1 teams have to look at other revenue streams as well and over the next three or four years we have many ideas.
Q. Can you explain the ownership structure of your team and how the Lotus brand fits in?
TF: Lotus is a complicated brand. Obviously Proton in Malaysia owns Lotus, and we have a licensing agreement with them. I think over time that relationship will solidify more and more, and Group Lotus will probably buy into the team at some stage. More and more technology from our side will go into Lotus cars, we will promote Lotus Cars closely, and I see it in time being no different from how Ferrari works.
Group Lotus and Lotus F1 were always seperate. They used to both come under Colin Chapman.
Perhaps Tony has a bit more of Colin's DNA than the recent Group Lotus management team.
It will be interesting to see how this relationship develops...
I know for a fact that several senior members of Tony's team are well aware of my proposal.
Due to the fact that SepangF1 circuit was not interested in partnering my proposal, I shifted focus to Johor. Should Tony make a similar proposal to the SepangF1 management he may get a more welcoming response.
In fairness to SepangF1 they were keen to participate when I represented Lotus. It was only when (Group) Lotus showed absolutely no interest that the negativity set in.
I still feel that Johor has a lot to gain from this project.
Once again I have embedded the TV interview I had when SepangF1 was still my main focus.
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