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Lotus Will Be Renamed Renault For '16 F1 Season If Takeover Deal Is Completed

Lotus F1 CEO Matthew Carter indicated that the team will be renamed Renault as early as '16 if the French manufacturer completes its "takeover of the Enstone-based team," according to SKY SPORTS. Renault remains "in the process of buying back the team" it sold to Gerard Lopez's Genii Capital in '09 and reviving a "works" outfit. Carter insists "confidence is very high" that a takeover deal will be finalized in the coming weeks, with Lotus having been given until Dec. 7 to complete the transaction after the High Court "agreed to an adjournment in its case over unpaid taxes." Should the deal "go through then there has been speculation" over whether Renault, which is set to buy a controlling stake, will immediately rebrand the team under its own name or wait until '17. When it previously bought the Enstone outfit from then-owners Benetton in '00 the car firm waited another two seasons before changing the team name while it "waited for the outfit's competitiveness to improve" (SKY SPORTS, 11/9). MOTORSPORT's Pablo Elizalde reported Carter insists "everything is progressing well." Carter said, "Renault issued a letter of intent, so behind the scenes the Renault and Lotus senior management are working flat out to make sure that we get the deal done. Things are progressing, but these things take time. I am confident that the deal is going to happen, but as I said, it needs time to get it across." Carter said that the Lotus name will disappear from Formula 1 if the Renault deal goes ahead, "as the French car maker will run as a manufacturer team." Carter: "If the deal with Renault goes through, then yes. Then the team will not be called Lotus -- then the name will fall out of Formula One." Carter added that Lotus is designing its '16 car for both the Renault and Mercedes engines "in case the deal with the French marque does not go through as expected" (MOTORSPORT, 11/9). 

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