The Malaysian Revival of Team Lotus

Tony Fernandes brought the Lotus name back to the grid in 2010, raced two seasons from Norfolk, and then rebranded the team as Caterham.

This Team Lotus was a new team carrying an old name. In 2009 the governing body opened the grid to new entrants for 2010, and a group of Malaysian businessmen led by Tony Fernandes, founder of the AirAsia airline, won a place. Proton, the Malaysian company that owned Lotus Cars, licensed the Lotus name, so the team began life as Lotus Racing, operated by the 1Malaysia F1 Team company under a Malaysian license. It was based at Hingham in Norfolk, with Mike Gascoyne as technical director and Fernandes as team principal.

Its debut at the 2010 Bahrain Grand Prix was the first time the Lotus name had appeared as a Formula One constructor since the original Team Lotus stopped racing in 1994. Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli drove nearly every race, with Karun Chandhok making one start. The car used Cosworth engines in 2010 and Renault engines in 2011. Like the other new teams of that year it ran at the back, and its best finish in our records is 12th place, by Kovalainen at the 2010 Japanese Grand Prix. It scored no championship points.

When the license from Proton was ended, Fernandes bought the rights to the historic Team Lotus brand and raced under that name in 2011, while another team entered as Lotus Renault GP, which led to a dispute over the name. Fernandes had also bought the sports car maker Caterham Cars, and at the end of 2011 the team was renamed Caterham F1 Team.

Team Lotus started 38 World Championship races across 2010 and 2011, from Bahrain in 2010 to the 2011 Brazilian Grand Prix, without a win or a podium.

Drivers

• Heikki Kovalainen
• Jarno Trulli