• Tony Fernandes Q&A

'I built this team from one screw'

Laurence Edmondson February 8, 2011

Tony Fernandes is a man with a lot to smile about at the moment as the owner of Team Lotus, which looks set for a much more competitive second year in Formula One. However, when ESPNF1 met with him at the first test in Valencia there was a huge elephant in the room that had to be addressed - the ongoing spat with Group Lotus over the right to use the Lotus name. The first part of this interview deals with the upcoming Lotus v Lotus court case and the second half focuses on his expectations for the new T128.

Fernandes on the Lotus naming battle

Renault's Gerard Lopez has said that your side of the battle over the Lotus name is all about money because if you change your name you will forfeit your FOM prize money from last year. What is your reaction to that?
It's got a little bit silly and personal, and in my opinion very childish. We're all bigger than that. I put my own money in and built a team that was dead for 16 years, I brought it back to life, we did it well last year and of course I'm very attached to it. I talked to them [Group Lotus] about buying it over because I didn't want the name being dragged around in court - I've watched Lotus since I was a five-year-old and it's sad that this is happening - but they would have made us bankrupt.

Both sides have been making noises about these talks, but there have been no real details...
They offered me £6 million. I've spent £80 million building this and the brand is worth a lot more than before I built it. So, as much as I love the brand, I'm going to have to defend my rights because I've got to protect 250 jobs here. So they were quoting that I wanted £100 million or £40-50 million, but £6 million is ridiculous. And I didn't do anything wrong. I brought the company back. I licensed it for five years... Mr [Dany] Bahar, who was obviously working way before the licence termination - if you read some reports they were talking to Renault way before they were designing the [2011] car and while I still thought we had a partnership. So there was no integrity in that, they just wanted me out.

Were you happy that the court case was brought forward after the preliminary hearing? Yeah, very much. We're the ones who brought the court case in the first place. We asked for the declarations of proceedings, right? So why wouldn't we want it earlier? I'd have liked it last year. I'd like it before the season starts because we've seen what we own, we've bought it. David Hunt for 16 years has prevented anyone from using it, Group Lotus made us change our name from Lotus F1 Team to Lotus Racing [before the start of the 2009 season because of naming issues with Hunt]. Group Lotus wanted to but it off us, there must be something there, right?

What kept me from giving in at the end of the day was my staff, who were very passionate about Team Lotus. I kept saying that a name is a name, but there was a huge amount of passion and they were saying we can't do this. I felt that passion. I built this team from one screw, that's all we had. We put it up there and the Chapmans helped launch the motor home and everyone was very proud. How did I feel when I went to Snetterton and there were 8,000 people all applauding, cheering that Team Lotus were back? They know I'm not Colin Chapman or anything like that, but they were thrilled that the name was back. So don't talk to me about passion because we've gone through a lot.

Of course you need money to survive, that's life. But I'm very proud of what I've done at Lotus. We're not Colin Chapman and we don't aspire to be Colin Chapman, but the asset was for sale and we bought it and we've done proud with it.

So is this about protecting your assets or about passion?
No, it is about passion. The easy thing would have been to say let's sell it and start over again. But I didn't want to sell it, they approached us and asked to buy it off us and I said, "OK - rather than court cases - fine, I'm prepared to give up". And I announced it to my staff and said I'm really reluctant doing this ... and a lot of the staff got very emotional about it. But I never wanted to...

Of course it's passion, otherwise I would have started AirAsia Racing - I've been watching Lotus for bloody years - but let's not be stupid, of course it's also about dollars and cents. Why doesn't he [Lopez] change his chassis name from Renault? It's not a Renault. Call it Genii or Lotus Genii. It has nothing to do with Renault anymore. It has as much to do with Renault as I have to do Renault, it's an engine and that's it. It's as much a Renault as Red Bull or ourselves - that's it. And Renault was Benetton before and Toleman before that. So I don't think his statement makes any sense at all.

What happens if you lose the court case, do you have a name and strategy lined up?
No. We have to win.

That confident?
Well, you buy a house, the title is there ... someone can't suddenly say sell the house. I think English law is pretty straight forward.

So you're 100% confident?
Nothing is 100%, but we'll cross that barrier when we come to it.

The Chapman family have come out in support of Group Lotus, how does that make you feel?
You can't force anyone's feelings. It's something I can't really explain because there is a deep feeling between Group Lotus and all that kind of stuff. But ultimately they sold it. Other people had the chance to buy it but they didn't and I did - it's as simple as that. They sold it and if they didn't want Team Lotus back in F1 they shouldn't have sold it - it's as simple as that. Because anyone who buys it wants to use it, otherwise what are they buying? And secondly, Group Lotus could have bought it back themselves.

And why do you think they didn't buy it back, why didn't they go into a bidding war with you?
If you look at the way they treated me, I think they thought they could push David Hunt around and do what they like. It's expensive defending these things [in court], it's not a walk in the park - the amount of [legal] fees. And that's generally what big corporations do. They'll try and push the little man around through legal fees. I'm not a big man, but I'm not a little man either.

What would you say to fans that say you're not the real Lotus, the real Lotus died in 1994?
Yeah I think there is an element of truth there and you can't argue with that. If Manchester United changed owners 100 times would that mean they are not the same Manchester United? The only difference is that Manchester United would stay at Old Trafford where as in our case Lotus died and was reborn. But it's a brand and at the end of the day it's up to the fans whether they like the brand or not, it's as simple as that. You can't force anyone to like it. And for some people they will say this is not the real Lotus and you can't argue with that. But some will say we have the spirit and they love what we're doing and they'll want to get behind us and support us. You can't force anyone and I have never pretended to say I'm Colin Chapman or Mike Gascoyne is - we've never said it, we've never said anything about the heritage. We've just tried to do pride to the name that we now own.

I tried to say, and maybe I was wrong to say, that Ron Dennis isn't McLaren. He's created a legacy at McLaren and if you look at it there is very little of the original McLaren to what Ron has done. It's a new factory, they've done everything differently, yet no one questions that. I can say that in the same way, because Team Lotus Ventures is the original company, there's just been a gap of 16 years. There are guys working here that worked at Team Lotus. So it's a gap of 16 years and we are reviving a hibernated brand, which many people have done in other businesses and industries. Pan America has been reinvented, etcetera, etcetera. There are lots of brands that went bust and were brought back.

Will you play on the history of Team Lotus in your marketing?
We own it, so you would. If you bought Manchester United you wouldn't say, "I don't own any of that". I'm not claiming to be part of that, but we own it and there is a continuity there, that's what we bought, right? I see where you're coming from but our problem is just the gap. Remember Team Lotus was not only owned by the Chapmans, Peter Collins and Peter Wright owned it, David Hunt owned it and I'm the fourth owner. When Collins and Wright owned it nobody said that's not the real Lotus anymore. There are arguments about it either way and you've got to make your mind up either way and run with it.

Fernandes on the 2011 car

You've always maintained that 2011 would be the year when you bring a proper racing car to F1, do you think you are on schedule with the T128 or maybe even ahead of schedule?
I don't know because we don't really know what the other cars are doing. But if we have a look at the Virgin car today [in Valencia], which has a double diffuser, we kind of know we have more downforce than them now, so I'd say we are where we thought we'd be.

So there's already more downforce on this year's car than last year's?
Oh yes, substantially. Of course you lose the double diffuser and you lose a lot of downforce, but we've just had more time to design it. We took a lot of conservatism with last year's car to make sure it worked, such as a bigger fuel tank and higher cooling etcetera.

You've decided not to run KERS on the 2011 car, is there any concern that might backfire?
Absolutely not. My whole strategy in life is not to put pressure on systems in case they fall apart. Last year was a nightmare with hydraulics and all that sort of stuff. This year we've got a good package, let's not give ourselves another headache worrying about whether it's going to work and all that.

What about at the start of a race, is there not a concern that if you qualify well the car will then lose places into the first corner?
Well, a grand prix is a long race. They'll be lots of tyre stops and there'll be lots of times when KERS will fail. I think it's the right decision. This project is not about two years or three years, it's about getting the right infrastructure in place and doing it properly.

Laurence Edmondson is an assistant editor on ESPNF1

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.