This past weekend in Valencia, Spain, the reconstituted Lotus Racing celebrated its 500th Grand Prix start... To which I have to say, this is nothing more then a ‘PR (STUNT) exercise... As for me, Team Lotus died a miserable whimpering death back some sixteen years ago in the autumn of 1994, a dozen years after its founder Colin Chapman had passed away at the very tender age of 54.
Nevertheless, I applaud Tony Fernandes’s efforts as it’s enjoyable to see this venerable name back upon the F1 grid, albeit I’d assume the Team would rather focus upon the number 500 then Heikke Kovalainen’s setting up of Mark Webber, which sent the Red Bull chassis airborne!
And after all I suppose, just what’s in a name, eh? Since is Renault really Renault? As this is now majority owned by a Luxemburg firm GenII Capital, after The “Reggie” bought out the Benetton Family for the Enstone based squad that started its Formula One life as Toleman...
Not to mention that Mercedes Grand Prix is potentially Tyrrell, eh? As after Tyrrell became BAR, BAR Honda, then simply Honda before becoming BRAWN GP... Although I like to consider a Racing Team’s or Constructors claim to major milestones such as Lotuses come from consecutive starts without multiple year service breaks...
Why Valencia is Lotus’s 500th Grand Prix
