Fernandes denies asking too much in the deal with Lotus

As the battle over the Lotus name continues, Tony Fernandes has hit back at Dany Bahar's claim that the two sides did not merge into a single F1 team due to Fernandes' "ridiculous and absurd claims".

Bahar, CEO of Group Lotus, said this week that the most logical solution would have been an agreement with Fernandes to create a single Lotus team, and not create two teams, both called Lotus, at war with each other.

The Swiss Bahar had gone so far as to declare that Fernandes had requested three times the sum that Bahar recently invested in Renault.

“Interesting to find that Bahar wanted to work with us… I don't think anyone here realised,” Lotus team designer Mike Gascoyne wrote on Twitter.

Fernandes also cut short Bahar's claims: “The thing that bothered me the most is that Bahar claims that we wanted too much money, and that Renault cost him a third of what he would have spent to conclude a deal with Lotus Racing. They apparently said they spend £15-20m a year on Renault, which means we would be asking for £45-60m. This figure is more than our budget. We were never even close to an offer, but it's completely false to say we asked for three times what they spend on Renault,” he told the BBC.
The war of words between the two Lotuses has highlighted the need to put an end to the matter, and Bahar said this week he was confident the two sides wanted to avoid an even more bitter battle.

“We are pragmatic. There has to be a solution, but we also have to do what's right for the brand. Our licensing agreement was torn up unceremoniously and illegally,” Fernandes said, “and at any time we will be happy to close the matter. But it will have to be a fair solution and respect what we have done,” he insisted.

“Who can say whether they will abandon their arrogance? I'd say it's highly unlikely, but if you'd told me three months ago that Group Lotus would sponsor Renault I would have laughed. It's really a shame,” concluded Fernandes.

Filippo Ronchetti