Williams Recruit Aero Guys from Lotus, where next for Lotus?

[Chrisgr31]

http://www.pitpass.com/50627/New-recruits-at-Willi...

Unfortunately the easiest link I could find but 2 of the Aero guys from Lotus have moved to Williams which will hopefully be good for Williams, however no good for Lotus.

With Lotus saying they canot afford to attend this months test session, and no sign of the Quantum deal actually going through what is the future for Lotus F1?

[m0rris]

Lotus are toast I reckon, who is left there... Everyone big except Boullier seems to have left and the only money on the table seems to be Maldonado's. It is a damn shame Romain Grosjean is probably going to be stuck in a failing team.

The old cliche probably best sums team Enstone up at the moment: Lots Of Trouble Usually Serious.

[Teppic]

Chrisgr31 said:

http://www.pitpass.com/50627/New-recruits-at-Willi...

Unfortunately the easiest link I could find but 2 of the Aero guys from Lotus have moved to Williams which will hopefully be good for Williams, however no good for Lotus.

With Lotus saying they canot afford to attend this months test session, and no sign of the Quantum deal actually going through what is the future for Lotus F1?

It's one guy from Lotus (Dave Wheater) and one from Red Bull (Shaun Whitehead), not two from Lotus.

[rubystone]

m0rris said:

Lotus are toast I reckon, who is left there... Everyone big except Boullier seems to have left and the only money on the table seems to be Maldonado's. It is a damn shame Romain Grosjean is probably going to be stuck in a failing team.

The old cliche probably best sums team Enstone up at the moment: Lots Of Trouble Usually Serious.

Really? Don't believe everything you read on the 'net.

[IforB]

Whilst none of us know exactly what the state of Lotus' finances really are, the old phrase, there's no smoke without fire comes to mind.

The quantum deal seems as big a load of rubbish now as it ever did, numerous team personnel have legged it elsewhere, their main driver publicly slagged them off for financial reasons and then decided to walk out citing a medical issue, they've taken a driver who no-one else would touch with a barge pole purely because he's got a large wedge of cash behind him and last of all, they are hardly working hard to dispel the rumours, which I find very odd.

I do hope it all gets sorted out, but I fear they may well be in deep do-do.

Edited by IforB on Monday 9th December 23:42

[m0rris]

rubystone said:

Really? Don't believe everything you read on the 'net.

I really, really hope that Lotus aren't in trouble it is just, as IforB says, there's usually no smoke without fire.. Lotus have struggled to pay Kimi, they've replaced him with a pay driver over Hulkenberg, they won't dismiss this Quantum farce (I'd be very surprised if anything turns up, he has form...) and now there seems to be a constant drip of staff out to other teams. I want team Enstone to survive and thrive... it just doesn't look all that rosey for them ATM.

Edited by m0rris on Tuesday 10th December 00:15

[weyland yutani]

Is Flabio still banned? He must be worth a few bob still, could buy back his old team

[stew-S160]

Other than Pastor's 30million Euro, Lotus are in the st.
I've heard Marussia most likely won't make it to 2014, and at this rate, Lotus will be absent in 2015.

[Cyder]

stew-S160 said:

Other than Pastor's 30million Euro, Lotus are in the st.
I've heard Marussia most likely won't make it to 2014, and at this rate, Lotus will be absent in 2015.

I had lunch with a mate who works in engineering at Marussia at the weekend and he didn't seem concerned with life at the moment, said they were steaming ahead with next years car.
What's your source?

[ukaskew]

I was under the impression that Marrusia and Caterham were fine on their budgets, but it was more the likes of Lotus and Sauber who were at risk of dropping out before next season.

Sad state of affairs really, with the big teams themselves pretty much deciding how the money pot is split we're not going to see any of the smaller teams progressing up the field. I'm sure I read that despite finishing just behind them in the constructors, Lotus end up with about a third as much cash from the pot as Ferrari...crazy situation.

[stew-S160]

Cyder said:

stew-S160 said:

Other than Pastor's 30million Euro, Lotus are in the st.
I've heard Marussia most likely won't make it to 2014, and at this rate, Lotus will be absent in 2015.

I had lunch with a mate who works in engineering at Marussia at the weekend and he didn't seem concerned with life at the moment, said they were steaming ahead with next years car.
What's your source?

Internet...I could be very wrong, wouldn't be the first time the internet told lies.

[Steamer]

Cyder said:

I had lunch with a mate who works in engineering at Marussia at the weekend and he didn't seem concerned with life at the moment, said they were steaming ahead with next years car.
What's your source?

I'd be interested to hear that too - lots of teams are not having an easy time financially - but I though marussia had a fairly rosey future season ahead of them

[angrymoby]

ukaskew said:

I'm sure I read that despite finishing just behind them in the constructors, Lotus end up with about a third as much cash from the pot as Ferrari...crazy situation.

Not sure what's in place at the moment, but under the old concorde agreement Ferrari basically benefited from a 'loyalty' bonus for being the oldest (continuous) team in F1

[Chrisgr31]

PW said:

Cyder said:

What's your source?

There was a story a week or so ago claiming Mr Marussia was fed up with funding the whole thing himself and was looking for investors, therefore the only logical conclusion was that Marussia and Sauber would merge.

Sounded like the typical F1 story of 2+2 = potato.

Although I thought that the outcome of the story was that it wouldn't happen because by very definition merging 2 teams means the total of one load of staff have to go.

[RYH64E]

I find it hard to support 'Lotus' these days because there isn't really any Lotus DNA in the organisation. Other than the name, where's the Lotus connection?

[rubystone]

RYH64E said:

I find it hard to support 'Lotus' these days because there isn't really any Lotus DNA in the organisation. Other than the name, where's the Lotus connection?

Indeed. I try not to refer to them as Lotus. I don't see the defections as anything other than natural wastage. When RBR lose key staff you don't seen the web get overheated about a possible financial problem do you?

The core of Enstone is as it was back when they were Benetton. Flav's "bedouin" style office may long have disappeared as has his named parking space, but there's plenty there now that was there then.

[entropy]

RYH64E said:

I find it hard to support 'Lotus' these days because there isn't really any Lotus DNA in the organisation. Other than the name, where's the Lotus connection?

Because of Danny Bahar

[bishbash]

There's a rumour that Boullier might be next to jump ship, off to Force India.

[Chrisgr31]

bishbash said:

There's a rumour that Boullier might be next to jump ship, off to Force India.

I saw that on Twitter too, apparently from the same source that predicted the driver line up.

[Chrisgr31]

Chrisgr31 said:

I saw that on Twitter too, apparently from the same source that predicted the driver line up.

However denied by EB who apparently says no one has approached him.