Fernandes handing over Lotus title with head held high

Tony Fernandes said his squad's final race under the Lotus banner would be an emotional affair, but that everyone in the team was already focused on a bright new future as Caterham.The row between car company Group Lotus and Fernandes' Team Lotus over the right to use the Lotus brand in Formula 1 lasted over a year before a recent agreement was reached.Fernandes had gained the rights to use the famous name for his new team shortly before Group Lotus decided it want to enter F1 too as a title sponsor of the Renault outfit.

Neither side was willing to back down, with Fernandes acquiring the licence to the 'Team Lotus' title always associated with the original F1 team and not the car company - and which had not been sold to Proton along with most of the Lotus business when it hit its crisis point in the mid-1990s.A court row failed to resolve the deadlock, but eventually both sides agreed that having a Lotus-backed Renault team and a Renault-engined Lotus team was a disaster for F1.Fernandes will therefore rename his team Caterham next year, having acquired the British sportscar firm, and Group Lotus is free to rebrand Renault fully as a new era Lotus team.