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Renault will buy back Lotus F1 Team

Renault's relationship with Red Bull may be about to crumble, but the French automaker isn't calling it quits on Formula One altogether. Instead, Renault will cease being an engine supplier and instead acquire Lotus F1 to become a full-fledged manufacturer and team owner again. The long-anticipated deal will see Renault re-acquire the team currently known as Lotus F1 from present owner Genii Capital, an investment fund. Renault owned the team outright before selling it to Genii back in 2009. This move will see the Enstone outfit move back under Renault's roof – and hopefully get more resources than Genii could muster. Renault recently had to come to the team's rescue after an outstanding tax bill threatened to send it into bankruptcy. The deal will likely mean the end of the Lotus name in F1 once again, after the rights were hotly contested between this team and the now-departed Caterham outfit. The Enstone-based outfit will become Renault's principal team, just as Mercedes and Ferrari run their own teams and also supply engines to others. Over its various eras of ownership, the team has shown that it has what it takes to win, given the right drivers and resources. The question is whether Renault can get its engines up to speed again to catch up to its rivals. The partnership between Daimler and the Renault Nissan Alliance created speculation that the two could strike a deal in F1 as well that could see Renault running Mercedes engines in the future - just like the Lotus team currently does. F1 : SIGNATURE OF A LETTER OF INTENT BETWEEN RENAULT GROUP AND GRAVITY MOTORSPORTS S.A.R.L Renault Group and Gravity Motorsports S.a.r.l., an affiliate of Genii Capital SA, are pleased to announce the signature of a Letter of Intent regarding the potential acquisition by Renault of a controlling stake in Lotus F1 Team Ltd. The signature of this Letter of Intent marks Renault's first step towards the project of a Renault Formula 1 team from the 2016 racing season thereby extending 38 years of commitment of the brand to world's premier motorsport championship series. Renault Group and Gravity will work together in the coming weeks to eventually turn this initial undertaking into a definitive transaction provided all terms and conditions are met between them and other interested parties. Related Video: Featured Gallery Lotus Renault GP 2011 livery News Source: Renault Earnings/Financials Motorsports Lotus Renault F1 genii capital

China's Geely buying majority stake in Lotus

Geely, the Hong Kong car company that owns Volvo, is acquiring control of British car company Lotus. Geely is purchasing a 51-percent stake in Lotus from struggling Malaysian car company Proton, and a 49.9 percent stake in Proton itself. Etika Automotive will gain the other 49 percent of Lotus. France's PSA Group and Japan's Suzuki had apparently also been interested in acquiring Proton. Geely says it plans to revive both Proton and Lotus. "The agreement lays the foundation for a wider framework for both Geely Holding, Proton and Lotus to explore joint synergies in areas such as research and development, manufacturing and market presence," Geely said in a news release. Those joint synergies will be highlighted by the lightweight chassis technology Lotus is known for, which could help Geely improve fuel efficiency. Geely CFO Daniel Donghui Li said the company aims to "unleash the full potential of Lotus Cars" by expanding and accelerating new products and technologies. Proton was nationally held but was privatized in 2007 to Malaysian conglomerate DRB-Hicom, which is owned by tycoon Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary. It was supposed to be the flagship for Malaysia's economic development.Though it owns two factories, Proton mainly rebadges foreign-made cars and sells them in Malaysia. What it has, what Geely presumably wants, is a distribution network in Southeast Asia to pit Chinese cars against Japanese automotive dominance in the region. Retaining a 50.1-percent stake in Proton is seen as a face-saving move. "Proton will always remain a national car and a source of pride, as Proton will still have a majority hold of 50.1 percent," Malaysian finance official Johari Abdul Ghani said. "Our very own much-loved brand now has a real chance in making a comeback, a huge one I hope." Related Video:

Lotus teases its sleek Type 130 electric hypercar

Lotus has shown a teaser image of a new concept, which will usher in the automaker's electric era. The Type 130 hypercar concept will be shown later this year in London, but this aerodynamic teaser is the first glimpse at its shapely flanks. The Type 130 is said to be in "advanced stages of development." According to Lotus, the Type 130 will spawn a production version, which will be the brand's first all-new vehicle in 11 years. It will be partially bankrolled by Lotus' parent company, the Chinese carmaker Geely, which also owns Volvo. Despite that, the hypercar will not be built in China, but in England. An earlier Autocar article estimated the eventual price at around $2.6 million. Last month, news broke that Lotus is also bringing another new car to market, but that one is likely to retain internal combustion technology along with engineering ties to older Lotus architecture, as it forms a sort of "bridge" between current Lotus products and its future cars. Hence, it can't be called "all-new" in the same sense as a fully electric halo model can. Lotus also noted some of its "firsts" when informing the media of the upcoming concept, which it calls "the world's first full-electric British hypercar." The 1995 Elise was the world's first aluminum and bonded extrusion construction production car, while the 1957 Elite was a production first in the sense that it first brought the composite monocoque within the reach of customers. Between those, there was a lot of groundbreaking F1 knowhow: ground effects for the '77 Type 78 F1 car, carbon fiber for the '81 Type 88, and active suspension in 1983.