Lotus Racing is in the news again today after the team finalised its termination arrangements with Cosworth.
It was announced just after the Italian GP that the two parties were splitting at the end of the first season of what should have been a three-year deal, and it has taken until now to formalise the paperwork.
The agreement should also allow Tony Fernandes to announce his future Renault deal sooner rather than later. Cosworth has made it clear that Lotus is leaving for pastures new for reasons related to the reliability of the transmission, and the team obviously expects the fully integrated Renault package to be an improvement.
A statement from Cosworth said: “Cosworth and Lotus have today signed the termination of Lotus Racing’s engine supply agreement following completion of the deal which was established in principle and announced after the Italian Grand Prix on 12th September 2010. Cosworth’s support for Lotus Racing will cease at midnight on 30th November 2010.
“Lotus Racing has enjoyed a successful season with Cosworth and has enjoyed excellent performance, reliability and support from their engine supply. The decision to bring the partnership to an early termination has been driven by the team’s desire to solve reliability and performance issues unrelated to the Cosworth engine. Lotus Racing and Cosworth have agreed settlement terms satisfactory to both parties to secure an early termination of the agreement.
“Cosworth wishes Lotus Racing success in the future, and will continue to supply engines to AT&T Williams, Virgin Racing and HRT in 2011, thereby supporting 25% of the teams in Formula One.”
Clearly at one stage Cosworth expected to have Lotus and a 13th team in 2011, so it remains to be seen how that change affects the company’s business model.
Adam Cooper F1 
Did I not hear Williams were also looking into moving away from Cosworth?
“Clearly at one stage Cosworth expected to have Lotus and a 13th team in 2011, so it remains to be seen how that change affects the company’s business model.”
Grrr it just makes you think what might have been with a potential 13th team in F1 2011. It would have been fascinating to see how Epsilon Euskadi or Durango would have compared to the 2010 new teams. We would also have had more drivers and racing to watch!
If Cosworth could have also supplied 5 teams their feedback in testing, doing far more km’s with more teams, could have made the ‘independents’ a force to be reckoned with!
I still maintain Todt simply did not have the ambition or interest in bringing a 13th team to F1. Epsilon Euskadi’s entry must surely have been at least more credible than HRT?
I feel somewhat sorry for Cosworth – effectively induced to provide engines for Max’s blackleg teams to insure him against the manufacturer teams jumping ship into their own championship. Now both Max, that threat (and most of the manufacturers) have gone they’re all dressed up with nowhere to go.
The Cosworth doesn’t seem to be a bad engine actually — just too bad about the papier-mache gearboxes and hydraulics run together out of old garden hoses…
I am rather curious to see how Lotus Racing does with a new engine builder.
That should prove, or disprove, all the speculation.
Why the lack of performance from the Teams running the Cosworth engine, and what ever else was a part of the engine package.
There seems to be a pattern here.
We will see the results of the different engine, and power package, that the new manufacture has with these existing Teams, when they run.
Taking nothing away from Cosworth…
Time will tell…