Lotus F1 Team is a British Formula One racing team. The team will compete under the Lotus name for the first time in the 2012 Formula One season, following the renaming of the former Renault team based at Enstone in Oxfordshire. This comes after the acquisition of a majority stake in the team by Luxembourg-based ventue capital group Genii Capital and the acquisition by Lotus Cars of a twenty-five percent holding in the team.
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| Lotus Renault |
The team's roots can be traced back as far as 1981 and the Toleman team, which subsequently became Benetton in 1986. Renault purchased the Benetton team in 2000, and the team was renamed as Renault F1 in 2002. In 2005 and 2006 it won both the drivers' championship (with Fernando Alonso) and the constructors' championship. At the end of 2009, Renault sold a majority stake in the team to Genii. For 2011, Lotus Cars became involved with the team and it became known as 'Lotus Renault GP'. The team was rebranded to 'Lotus F1 Team' for 2012.
Team Lotus, a sister company of Lotus Cars, competed in Formula One between 1958 and 1994, winning seven constructors' titles and six drivers' titles between 1963 and 1978. The Lotus name returned to Formula One in 2010 through Tony Fernandes's Lotus Racing team, which used the name on licence from Group Lotus. Group Lotus later terminated the licence, but Fernandes acquired the privately-owned Team Lotus name and used it in the 2011 season. For 2012, Team Lotus changed their name to Caterham F1, allowing the Renault team to become known as Lotus.
On 29 November 2011, the team announced that Kimi Räikkönen would race for them in 2012 as he returned from a two-year stint away from Formula One which he spent competing in the World Rally Championship he signed for two years (and a third year option) . On 9 December 2011 the team announced that GP2 Series champion Romain Grosjean would race alongside Räikkönen.
Lotus Renault photos
