The Team Lotus journey has reached a symbolic end today with the launch of the new CaterhamF1 brand.
Speaking in the final Lotus Notes newsletter Tony Fernandes says it’s now time to move on, “With Team Lotus, I would have battled to the end if I felt it was the right thing to do, but when you take a dispassionate look at where we were it made absolute sense to start with a clean sheet, and Caterham has given us that chance.
“I think back to when I decided to start a Formula One team and I chose to start a team from scratch so that we could control our own destiny. It’s definitely not been the easiest path, but now it is our time – time to take control and make our own history.”
Fernandes also says he plans to take the Caterham Group on a similar pathway to McLaren, where road cars will be the backbone allowing the F1 team to prosper. “McLaren has made great strides in diversifying its business and I feel we should do the same,” he said.
“It just makes sense. You spend all this time, energy, money and brainpower developing incredible technology, what’s the point in restricting it to the race track.
“We want to bring this technology to the people. We democratised air travel with AirAsia and we want to the do the same in sports cars with Caterham.”
