[Closed] Eric Boullier quits Lotus

Wow. Quite a coup. Nice one Ron!

I wonder if Eric was being paid in magic beans too?

He does seem like an effective leader - mind you Benneton/Renault/Lotus/Genii/etc always seemed to be a team that overachieved. It'll be interesting to see how he gets on at McL.

[url= http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Éric_Boullier ]Wikipedia [/url]practically already has him as Team Principle at McLaren! I'm starting to feel quite sorry for Martin Whitmarsh. I wonder where he's gonna go?

McLaren can pay his wages. That must be an attractive proposition.

McLaren can pay his wages. That must be an attractive proposition.

Haha!

He does seem like an effective leader - mind you Benneton/Renault/Lotus/Genii/etc always seemed to be a team that overachieved. It'll be interesting to see how he gets on at McL.

Definitely. I always wonder how much a team's success is down to one person, and even if it is, who?

Will be interesting if Ross Brawn is persuaded to join them once he's finished his sabbatical. Not sure how the team structure would work out though, unless they have some sort of technical/management divison a la Mercedes - but that contributed to Brawn leaving. Would love to see him go to McLaren but I figure he'll end doing something for Honda.

Lotus Engineering USA is already ten years out of date with the technology they are offering the motor industry. Insiders tell me that senior staff are leaving in droves and Lotus UK is about to go down the pan; their demise is being caused by "extravagant Director lifestyle aspirations".

Is Honda going to run a whole team then? I thought they only providing engines?

Is Honda going to run a whole team then? I thought they only providing engines?

I think they're supplying engines first for a season or two & then coming into it as a full works team... I could be wrong tho...

Will Lotus make the grid?

Yes

globalti - Member
Lotus Engineering USA is already ten years out of date with the technology they are offering the motor industry. Insiders tell me that senior staff are leaving in droves and Lotus UK is about to go down the pan; their demise is being caused by "extravagant Director lifestyle aspirations".

I heard this about a year or so ago on here (about them going down the pan and asked my mate who works at Lotus whether it was the case or just a load of hot air.

He said that the previous MD (who's name escapes me), messed up pretty badly - he was the one that planned to release 5 new cars (or whatever it was) but they were getting back on an even keel. He was telling me (in very broad terms as he couldn't go into detail) about work they were doing for lots of big car manufacturers and seemed to think the future was pretty rosy.
You never really know though, do you?

I can think of 200million reasons why Honda wouldn't have another F1 team again. It costs massive money and they've been hit by a recession once. Plus HONDA on the side of cars that use their engines still get maximum exposure. Ontop of the ad's they'll run bigging up their F1 engine connection. Its all they'll need.

Lotus wont be there. Not with their debt.

stumpy - my outsider view is that Bahar thought that proton were going to fund lotus like fiat funded ferrari, until they got the brand up market, but proton aren't in that business model.

globalti - Member
Lotus Engineering USA is already ten years out of date with the technology they are offering the motor industry. Insiders tell me that senior staff are leaving in droves and Lotus UK is about to go down the pan; their demise is being caused by "extravagant Director lifestyle aspirations".

You do realise that Lotus F1 have nothing to do with Lotus Engineering other than the name.
Lotus Cars/Engineering are on a comeback after Dany Bahar screwed the company over.