Team Lotus will be back in Formula One next season – and the Norfolk man draughted in is Mike Gascoyne, ex Toyota, Jordan and Tyrrell designer. Malaysian entrepreneur and new team principal Tony Fernandes is involved in the project – something which brought with it backing from the Malaysian government and a consortium of investors from the country.”It is different from what Lotus was, obviously, as the company is now owned by Proton and this is very much a Malaysian backed initiative. But that backing is exciting and great for Formula One, and to tie that in with the heritage of Lotus has a very nice synergy.” said Gascoyne.

Lotus F1 will initially be set up in the RTN centre at Hingham, a 50,000 square foot facility most recently used by Bentley for its Le Mans programme. Works will eventually move to Lotus’ new operations base at Malaysia’s Sepang circuit. Sponsorship announcements are anticipated and driver line-up is due to be revealed next month.

Lotus F1, based in Norfolk joins Manor Motorsport, based in Buckinghamshire, as two of the four new teams in Formula One in 2010 boosting the motorsport industry in the UK. The other teams are from the USA, Team US F1, and Campos from Spain – more good news is the return of Cosworth as an engine supplier. BMW Sauber also has a new owner having been sold to Swiss-based Qadbak Investments.

It seems the auto manufacturers are pulling out gradually as teams – leaving more independant teams to fill the F1 grid… isn’t this how it used to be?? What goes around comes around!