Caterham, Lotus and Marussia name changes approved

The three chassis name changes proposed to the F1 Commission in Geneva today have all been approved, according to a source connected to one of the teams involved.

That means Team Lotus and Lotus Renault GP have finally resolved their dispute.

From 2012 the former’s car will be known as a Caterham, and the latter – still officially a Renault this year – will be a Lotus.

Meanwhile Virgin’s constructor name will be formally changed to  that of its key investor, Marussia.

The F1 Commission decisions still have to be formally ratified by the World Motor Sport Council, which meets next month.

There had been opposition to the Caterham name usurping that of Lotus.

Speaking to this blog recently, Tony Fernandes said: “Lotus is staying in F1 isn’t it? And how different is it from Sauber, or HRT, or even Virgin? What if I called it Air Asia? Caterham has racing pedigree, it races.

“What the brand is now and what the brand is in 10 years time are completely different things. What was Air Asia 10 years ago? Now it’s a huge brand. My forte is building brands, and we’ve done a very good job with Team Lotus. For a team that’s 10^th I think we’ve done pretty well in terms of getting the coverage.”