Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) or the International Automobile Federation announced the official change in names of three teams on 6th November 2011. Out of twelve teams, the Formula One governing organisation has come up with the idea to put an end to the confusion over the name Lotus.
The official statement released by the International Automobile Federation confirmed the news. The teams that would undergo the change are Lotus, Renault and Virgin. According to the FIA statement, “The FIA, on the basis of the support expressed by its F1 commission chaired by Bernie Ecclestone, which had a meeting in Geneva on November 3, has agreed the following team name changes as from 2012.” The statement was concluded with a list of new names that would replace the existing ones.
From 2012, Group Lotus team will be known as Caterham F1 Team, whereas Renault Team will replace its name with that of its sponsor, Lotus and will be called as Lotus Renault GP. The third team to join the league is Virgin Racing, who will share the new name with its major Russian shareholder, replacing the existing name with Marussia F1 team.
The move was undertaken, in order to avoid the ongoing confusion regarding the two teams with similar name.
During the last season, Group Lotus Team entered the F1 event as Lotus Racing; however, later had a fall out with the group and the parent company, Proton.
The F1 commission aided the International Automotive Federation for the respective name changes of the three F1 teams. The FIA is a governing organisation for worldwide motor sport. The federation lays out various rules and regulation for every four-wheel international motor sport event, such as FIA World Rally Championship, FIA Formula One World Championship and FIA World Touring Car Championship.
Thus, the car racing teams, with their new names are expected to stay away from any sort of confusion in the future.
