Lotus

**Lotus F1 Team** was a British Formula One racing team. The team competed under the Lotus name from 2014 until the end of 2015.

following the renaming of the former Renault team based at Enstone in Oxfordshire. The Lotus F1 Team was majority owned by Genii Capital. Lotus F1 was named after its branding partner Group Lotus. The team was sold back to Renault for the 2016 Season.

## History

### 2014 Season

The team undertook a management and ownership change ahead of the 2014 season. Andrew Ruhan, a British property developer who had become co-chairman the previous year, had loaned money to the team, and at the start of the year turned his loans into equity to take effective control of the company from Genii Capital. In addition, Genii sold a 10% stake to Yotaphone, whose logos would appear on the car in 2014. The team's CEO left the team, as did team principal Eric Boullier, who joined McLaren. Ruhan installed Matthew Carter as the new chief executive, who would run the team despite having no previous F1 experience. Gérard Lopez became the titular team principal, and long-term employee Federico Gastaldi became deputy team principal.

Lotus kept Romain Grosjean for 2014, and Pastor Maldonado would join bringing sponsorship from PDVSA. The team struggled throughout the season, finishing 5th with only 2 podium's.

### 2015 Season

On 5 July 2014, Lotus announced that they would be switching to Mercedes engines from the 2015 season, ending the team's 20-year association with Renault. Grosjean and Maldonado remained at the team, with Jolyon Palmer and Carmen Jordá being signed as test and development drivers respectively.

The early part of the season saw driver error and poor reliability cost the team important race results:

The Australian Grand Prix was disappointing start for the Lotus team; by lap 2 both cars had retired. Maldonado retired on lap 1 after a three-car wide tussle resulted in him crashing out at turn two and Grosjean lost power on lap 2. In Malaysia, Grosjean finished 7th but Maldonado retired due to brake problems. Grosjean would go on to finish third at the next two grand prix. Lotus did win a race at Belgium with Romain Grosjean. However, the Lotus cars were temporarily seized post-race due to a legal dispute with former test driver, Charles Pic.

During the 2015 Japanese Grand Prix, Lotus were locked out of their hospitality unit, stemming from unpaid bills from the race organizers in Japan from the previous year. On 30 September, it was announced that Renault had signed a letter of intent to buy a controlling stake of Lotus F1 from Genii Capital. This came after Lotus were bailed out by Renault after falling behind in income tax and insurance payments to the British Government.

### Purchase by Groupe Renault

On 21 December 2015 it was officially confirmed on the Lotus F1 Team website that Groupe Renault had re-purchased the Enstone-based team and plans on entering the 2016 season as the official Renault factory team. Renault appointed Jérôme Stoll as chairman and Cyril Abiteboul as managing director.

## Results

**Bold** indicates Drivers' Champion

 2015 |  Mercedes |  Romain Grosjean   Pastor Maldonado | All  All