Tony Fernandes would buy back Caterham

It all began with the convening of a press conference by Team Lotus, on Wednesday, April 27, at 10:30 a.m., at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, with the only comment being a promise of an incredibly exciting announcement about the future of the team.

« We cannot tell you more about this announcement, but we can tell you that it will definitely be worth coming to see us » specifies the invitation sent to the press. « In addition to our announcement, we will also conduct straight-line aerodynamic tests with the T128. »

According to Mark Kleinman, a columnist for Sky News, who recently revealed the intentions of News Corp and Carlos Slim to purchase Formula One, Tony Fernandes could officially announce the acquisition of the Caterham manufacturer, linked to Lotus.

In fact, it was in 1957 that Colin Chapman launched the now legendary Lotus Seven. Produced until 1970, Lotus ended the production of the Seven in 1973. Graham Nearn, founder of Caterham and until then one of the main dealers of Lotus, acquired the production rights of the Seven, which has been in continuous production since.

In 2005, the private investment fund Corven Ventures provided the necessary capital to Ansar Ali and Gideon Wigger, two former Lotus Cars executives who decided to venture into Caterham, to purchase the British manufacturer from the Nearn family, with the aim of expanding their market towards the Far East and China.

Thus, by acquiring Caterham, Tony Fernandes could buy himself legitimacy by getting hold of part of Colin Chapman’s legacy, further justifying the controversial use of the name ‘Team Lotus’ while providing himself with a fallback solution in case the Malaysian businessman were to be defeated in the legal dispute against Lotus Cars, whose verdict was initially expected on April 20th but was ultimately postponed by several weeks.

The Lotus Team, just like Tony Fernandes, having refused to comment, we will therefore have to wait until next Wednesday at 10:30 am to learn more.