The troubled Lotus F1 team was "locked out" of its paddock hospitality at the Japanese Grand Prix on Thursday "while freight, including engines, was also held up by payment problems," according to Alan Baldwin of REUTERS. French driver Romain Grosjean, who would normally hold a press briefing in the facility where team members and guests are catered for, "conducted it instead out in the paddock with reporters sheltering under umbrellas in the rain." Equipment "was piled up outside the empty hospitality under a tarpaulin." A team spokesperson said there had been a "slight delay" complicated by the time difference with Europe and "well-documented cash-flow problems." Grosjean said, "The guys are going to do their best as always. As long as they catch up by tomorrow at 2pm I'm happy." Lotus is "hoping to be taken over by Renault," its former owners, but the talks "have dragged on" and the team has had to fend off court cases and attempts to put it into administration. They "are due back in the London High Court on Monday for an adjourned hearing in a case brought against them by Britain's tax authorities, just one of a list of creditors seeking payment" (REUTERS, 9/24).
