Team Lotus claims victory in legal case

Mr Justice Peter Smith has this afternoon delivered his judgement in the case of Gorup Lotus plc v 1Malaysia Racing Team in the High Court in London and has found in favour of Team Lotus, who can continue to use the name in F1.

However, Group Lotus can continue to use the ‘Lotus’ name and black and gold livery.

Tony Fernandes announced the news on Twitter as follows:

“We won. I’m over the moon. Team Lotus belongs to us. Our chasis name stays Lotus. No one can use the chasis name. We are the only Lotus. Team Lotus”

He added: “Well done to everyone at team lotus and thank you to all our fans for supporting us. The good do always win. Judgement was just given by Justice Smith a few mins ago.”

The team then followed up with more from Tony: “We are all pleased that it has been clarified that we are the rightful owners of Team Lotus. We have always been confident that the factual evidence we presented would lead to this decision and today’s judgment confirms that belief. We are of course disappointed about the decision that Group Lotus was entitled to end the our licence agreement in 2010.

“We entered into that contract on the basis that we were beginning a long-term partnership with Group Lotus but unfortunately they then used technical breaches of the merchandising pre-notification process to bring the licence and our partnership to an end. However, my fellow shareholders and I are firm believers that when one door closes another door opens.

“In the early days of our agreement we realised its termination was inevitable and as events have unfolded the end of the licence has proved positive for us, with many new avenues being opened up as a result.

“We wanted to develop a long-term relationship with Group Lotus and help them sell more cars around the world but that door closed and now we are delighted that we can turn our attention to ensuring success for Caterham Cars on the road and Team Lotus on track.

“These are two very exciting brands and their future development, bringing these two iconic brands together under the Caterham Team Lotus umbrella, will see us introduce new Caterham cars and a range of new Team Lotus brands into the global marketplace.

“Now our main aim is to build on the solid foundations that has made Caterham Cars the model for how to run a profitable contemporary car company and add more history to the incredible story of Team Lotus over the coming months and years and with the people, spirit, passion and determination we have in both businesses we know that marks the next stage in our incredible story.”