The 2011 Formula 1 season may have been a very exciting one as far as the racing was concerned, thanks to the new rules that resulted in lots of overtaking and wheel-to-wheel battles between drivers, but in one aspect, it has also been confusing.
Outside the tracks there was a bitter legal battle between two teams over the right to use the Lotus name since the end of last season.
The first team was Malaysian-owned Team Lotus that had obtained the rights to use the name from Proton, which owns the Lotus car company and raced in the traditional British Racing Green colors.
The other is Lotus Renault GP, the Enstone-based former Renault F1 team that is owned by Genii Capital and raced in the gold-and-black livery reminiscent of the John Players Special Lotus F1 cars of the ‘80s.
Eventually, Team Lotus won the legal battle, and Genii Capital had to race under the Lotus-Renault name, even though the French carmaker was only supplying the engines.
The confusion of having two Lotus teams on the grid has finally been resolved, according to a report from ESPN.
Team Lotus will switch its name to Caterham, in order to promote the carmaker it recently purchased, leaving Lotus-Renault as the only Lotus-branded Formula 1 team.
But there’s also another team that will change its name for the 2012 season: Virgin will no longer bear Sir Richard Branson’s brand name, but that of key investor Marussia.
All name changes were approved during an F1 Commission meeting in Geneva, but they must also be ratified by the FIA World Motor Sport Council, which will meet on December 7.
