Contributors: Robert Percy, Danny Herbert
Ever since the 2008 financial crisis caused an exodus of car manufacturers from Formula 1, the championship has been eager to facilitate their return.
The likes of Honda, Aston Martin, Ford, Audi and Cadillac have all joined or returned to the F1 grid in the last decade. Each manufacturer that returned did so in a differing capacity ranging from full team ownership to technical partnerships and sponsorship deals.
Honda returned as part of an ill-fated powertrain deal with McLaren (you only have to mention “GP2 engine” to seasoned F1 fans) before striking a much more successful one with Toro Rosso and Red Bull. Aston Martin’s first F1 foray since the 1950s began as a sponsorship deal with Red Bull Racing, before it gained its own team under Lawrence Stroll’s leadership.
Ford will be returning as a technical partner of Red Bull Powertrains in time for the 2026 regulations. Audi will be taking over the Sauber team from 2026, turning the Swiss outfit into a fully factory-supported works team powered by an Audi powertrain. Cadillac will also be joining in 2026 and eventually fit a General Motors-developed powertrain in 2028.
The inevitable model we’ve seen played out several times in F1 where manufacturers frequently come and go (I’m looking at you, Honda) isn’t so much of a feature in the series anymore. F1’s growth has been a key factor in shifting this pattern. The big corporations want to join the party, largely down to how Drive To Survive has made F1’s popularity sky-rocket, especially in the USA, and F1 is all too happy to give them a seat at the table.
There may be another name in the mix, though, and it’s one that’s not been talked about in F1 circles for a little while. That name is Lotus.
Lotus is a name synonymous with F1. Many veteran fans remember the huge successes of Colin Chapman’s original Team Lotus. Between 1958 and 1994, Team Lotus won seven Constructors’ Championships and six Drivers’ Championships, taking 74 race victories and 165 podium finishes. Some of the greatest drivers the sport ever witnessed drove for Chapman’s outfit – the likes of Jim Clark, Graham Hill and Ayrton Senna.
The Lotus name’s more recent GENII Capital-backed involvement saw the team claim 25 podium finishes from 2012 to 2015, as well as two Grand Prix victories for Kimi Raikkonen before he returned to Ferrari. Lotus F1 Team also gained notoriety for hiring two of F1’s most incident-prone drivers; Romain Grosjean, who competed as a Lotus driver through the entirety of its time as Lotus, and Pastor Maldonado, who replaced Raikkonen after the Finn’s departure.
Renault eventually bought back the outfit and revitalised its works team status. Initially competing as Renault Sport F1 Team, the branding was switched to Alpine F1 Team from 2021 to help push the revival of Groupe Renault’s historic sportscar brand forward. Lotus hasn’t played a major role in top-level motorsport since.
In 2017, Geely purchased Lotus. The Chinese mega-corporation owns several brands, including Volvo (purchased from Ford), Polestar (a fully independent brand originally derived from Volvo), Smart (purchased from Mercedes), Lynk & Co. and LEVC (the manufacturers of London’s latest generation of black cabs).
Recently, Lotus has showcased a shift in its sights, introducing the Emira sportscar, Evija hypercar, Emeya “hyper-GT” and Eletre SUV. It had planned to become a fully-electric brand by the middle of the 2020s, but those plans have now been dropped. Most recently, Lotus announced the creation of limited edition Emira models featuring liveries designed as tributes to its F1 history.
With Lotus dropping its fully electric plan and releasing a limited run of cars proudly displaying its rich F1 heritage, it does raise some intriguing questions. Is Geely looking to push the Lotus name back into the F1 space, much like Toyota has achieved in its new Haas partnership?
Alternatively, could it be looking to take over an established team to overhaul much like the Audi and Sauber deal? If Geely did want to take over an existing team, could it be Team Enstone that ticks all the right boxes?
Geely and Groupe Renault do have some history of working together. Alpine and Lotus collaborated on an electric sports car concept intended to replace both the Lotus Emira and the Alpine A110, before agreeing to discontinue the partnership.
Interestingly, Geely already has a working agreement with Team Enstone’s future powertrain supplier Mercedes. The Lotus Emira utilises an AMG engine as one of its engine options. That specific AMG engine is the M139 unit, a 2.0 litre turbocharged 4-cylinder that’s used in the A45, CLA 45, GLA 45 and SL 43 models sold by Mercedes.
This engine uses an electrically-assisted turbocharger as part of its setup, which actually uses technology similar to the MGU-H system that’s a part of current F1 powertrains. With Geely already having a relationship with Mercedes through a powertrain option for its only ICE-powered road car, it would certainly smooth things over in a transition from Renault to Geely majority ownership of the F1 team.
There’s also a link when it comes to fuel too! Geely has announced very recently that the Saudi oil giant, Aramco, which has already signed on to be a sustainable fuels partner to F1 from 2026, has bought a 10% stake in Horse Powertrain Limited. This is a company jointly owned by Groupe Renault and Geely, with the ownership totalling at 45% each after the Aramco investment.
Geely already having dealings with one of F1’s industrial partners, in a circumstance where Renault is also involved, only adds more fuel to the idea that a Geely brand could join the world’s most prominent motorsport series.
Earlier this year, F1 YouTuber Tommo weighed up who could realistically buy Team Enstone in the event of Groupe Renault selling it off. One of the most realistic options mentioned was Geely, and he gave solid reasons for choosing the Chinese corporate giant:
It’s looked like Groupe Renault has wanted to scale back its F1 involvement for some time now. The recent confirmation that the F1 powertrain operations in Viry will be shut down after 2025 is the biggest public sign of this. The announcement of the planned Viry shutdown was arguably one of the most controversial moments in 2024’s F1 season. It triggered a peaceful protest by employees at the Italian Grand Prix, alongside public statements from F1 figures and former employees criticising the decision.
Of course, when there’s internal changes, a poor run of form or shifting priorities, age-old rumours over a team’s future will always surface. Predictions of doom and gloom will always take centre stage when, as an outsider, it looks like the entire team is starting to fall apart.
Team Enstone is no stranger to managerial chaos as of late. Who can forget the infamous departures of Cyril Abiteboul and Otmar Szafnauer, and the return of Flavio Briatore in an advisory capacity.
You certainly can’t ignore Oliver Oakes’ involvement in Team Enstone’s long-term future. As one of the Co-Founders of the hugely successful racing team Hitech GP, he’d had his own sights set on F1 for some time before becoming Alpine’s Team Principal. Oakes has also been speculatively linked to an Alpine takeover for a few months now, with rumours suggesting Alpine could rebrand to Hitech under an Oliver Oakes-led buyout.
Oakes could also become a minority owner in Team Enstone within the broader context of a Geely takeover. Suppose Geely was able to give Oakes a minority share in the team while still keeping the largest ownership share for itself. In that case, it’s possible that it could work further with Oakes to make investments into Hitech GP, or even trigger a merger between Hitech GP and Team Enstone.
Could we see a Hitech and Geely (branded as Lotus) partnership on the horizon to take over from Groupe Renault at Team Enstone? It seems plausible! Geely has been making some of the right noises lately for it to happen. The rumours of Oliver Oakes looking at taking part in a buyout of the team and Geely’s pre-existing relationships with Renault, Mercedes and Aramco only give more credence to the idea that Team Enstone is getting ready to be sold.
As the late, great Murray Walker used to say, anything can happen in Formula 1 and it usually does. With that in mind, maybe we should be paying attention to what moves Geely is making through the Lotus brand over the next year. It could lead to the return of one of F1’s most beloved brands!
Leave a comment