This forum contains threads to discuss teams themselves. Anything not technical about the cars, including restructuring, performances etc belongs here.
Lotus apparently as signed a mega sponsor deal worth 32 Mio $ every year for 5+3 years, so it worth max 252 Mio $. Sponsor is rumored to be a top 100 company from the USA. Lotus F1 Team has the rights of the Lotus name until 2020 secured.
Already in Austin Lotus F1 will introduce another north american sponsor on the car.
from swiss Speedweek magazine 47, 2012
Sounds too good to be true. Maybe it's not a top 100 company from the USA (Coca Cola company???), but a top 100 venezuelan company that comes with a certain driver
Finishing races is important, but racing is more important.
FrukostScones wrote:Lotus apparently as signed a mega sponsor deal worth 32 Mio $ every year for 5+3 years, so it worth max 252 Mio $. Sponsor is rumored to be a top 100 company from the USA. Lotus F1 Team has the rights of the Lotus name until 2020 secured.
Already in Austin Lotus F1 will introduce another north american sponsor on the car.
from swiss Speedweek magazine 47, 2012
Sounds too good to be true. Maybe it's not a top 100 company from the USA (Coca Cola company???), but a top 100 venezuelan company that comes with a certain driver
30 millions?Hmm, that's pretty good, especially because that is long term contract.It's at least enough to pay Kimi and have spare for some developments.I think they still need general sponsor, right?They've won on lottery as soon as Kimi crossed the line in P1.
USA driver?Maybe Alexander Rossi?Who else is from USA?
What I thought was interesting, is how informed Kimi was about the team's situation and its needs. Especially in light of the stories about how his initial deal was rumored to include shares in the team.
It has to be quite a cool thing for someone to be in Kimi's position where if your result is eye-catching, you absolutely know it can have a direct effect on your company's chances to obtain income. You only have to look at the autosport.com website and see how many Lotus and Kimi stories there were from Sunday on. It was as little as around the Valencia race ago when I was lamenting how little exposure Kimi was getting with the momentum definitely swinging Grosjean's way in that regard.
Grosjean is heavily backed up by the Total Group (which is also hooked up with Dams in GP2 - the team Grosjean won with) and I would be surprised if he will not be in the team next year. He has costed the team a lot of points this season, it is true, but if they can unlock his potential he can be a mighty good driver.
I think that a big sponsor for Lotus wouldn't come just because a driver brings it. Lotus made a good season this year and the association with the team & Kimi has a good marketing potential (even taking in consideration that Kimi doesn't like being a marketing whore).
Lotus are on a good trend and I hope they continue like this - keeping their heads down, working and speaking during the races. A shitload of money doesn't mean that they will automaticly have success and a great car as we learned from the past, they have to continue the good work they are doing now.
I think that Lotus can have (potentially) better 2013 season than this one because:
1) The team knows the drivers, they can tailor the cars according to their needs, styles and preferences. They have a good direction from this years' car.
2) They wil receive a little bit more money because they will finish better than last year in the constructor's.
3) Signing Kimi for one more year is a good thing, and Kimi likes Lotus. I think he is the only driver who isn't afraid to tell his oppinion about the team he is in and wouldn't have had signed for another year if he wasn't happy
"...and there, very much in flames, is Jacques Laffite's Ligier. That's obviously a turbo blaze, and of course, Laffite will be able to see that conflagration in his mirrors... he is coolly parking the car somewhere safe."Murray Walker, San Marino 1985
stefan_ wrote:Lotus made a good season this year and the association with the team & Kimi has a good marketing potential (even taking in consideration that Kimi doesn't like being a marketing whore).
The key is finding a way to tap into Kimi's personality. Like this:
stefan_ wrote:
I think that Lotus can have (potentially) better 2013 season than this one because:
1) The team knows the drivers, they can tailor the cars according to their needs, styles and preferences. They have a good direction from this years' car.
2) They wil receive a little bit more money because they will finish better than last year in the constructor's.
3) Signing Kimi for one more year is a good thing, and Kimi likes Lotus. I think he is the only driver who isn't afraid to tell his oppinion about the team he is in and wouldn't have had signed for another year if he wasn't happy
I think I've already said something like that today.
Raikkonen was pretty good with E20, regardless of problems with steering.Raikkonen hasn't had his own input during process of developing E20, neither Grosjean.Really big difference can be made if driver can improve his setup to suit him exactly as he needs.Look at Abu Dhabi, the difference between Hamilton and Button was quite big.We can say that they are even drivers.Button was more than 0,5s behind Hamilton i Q.That is because Hamilton had better setup for him.Maybe Kimi can't find so much immediatelly, but his input in developing E21 will be crucial.They don't need additional money to adjust the car to the driver.About the money, for this year they had budget of 180 millions.There is going to be hard budget cap in 2013 and onwards, so they've almost got to the point when they don't need more money for current (2013) season.Remember, many sponsors aproached them during the midle of the season.
Would be nice to get som figures on how much money Coca-Cola will be providing this first baby steps into sponsoring Lotus, and if they are rly doing it to maybe start something larger.
Coca cola already had links with F1 before. Anybody remember the 2009 Brawn? It was sponsored by Monster, a brand associated with Coca Cola Enterprises, though it was only by means of distribution (but that same goes for Burn).
Last edited by turbof1 on 22 Nov 2012, 15:11, edited 1 time in total.
The Coca-Cola Company has confirmed it will sponsor the Lotus Formula 1 team through its Burn brand, as reported earlier by AUTOSPORT.
Burn will join an F1 grid that features increasing amounts of energy drink sponsorship by companies such as Red Bull, TNT and Monster.
"We are proud that The Coca-Cola Company [via Burn] has chosen Lotus F1 Team as the best vehicle to represent the burn brand in its most high profile partnership," said team boss Eric Boullier.
"We are excited to partner with burn to build a new and innovative model for sponsorships that will combine experiences, content creation and social media."
Burn said in a statement that it plans to incorporate "art and music in a way that will break the conventions of traditional F1 sponsorship".
The team said details of the sponsorship will be revealed in 2013 when the partnership officially launches.
Will the Lotus name remain or could a name change be in the offing I wonder? Considering the team seem to be going out their way to refer to themselves as 'the Enstone team' and Lotus not giving them a penny...
