Lotus F1 Team trucks were heading to Monza on Tuesday as the financially troubled Formula One team moved to calm fears they might not make it to this weekend’s Italian Grand Prix.
Despite the positive news, confirmed by a spokesman, the British-based team still face an uncertain future, with their longer-term hopes seemingly pinned on former owners Renault riding to the rescue.
Speculation about the team’s survival has grown since last month’s Belgian Grand Prix, where bailiffs moved to impound the cars after Frenchman Romain Grosjean had finished a strong third.
That intervention was a result of legal action taken by former reserve driver Charles Pic for an alleged breach of contract.
Lotus also had a problem paying for their tires before Friday practice in Hungary, after seeing off a winding-up petition in Britain, and other bills have reportedly gone unpaid.
Formula One tycoon Bernie Ecclestone was quoted in the Times newspaper on Tuesday as saying he had stepped in to ensure staff were paid.
“I thought I should cover the wages of the people there to make sure they were all right and so that Lotus would at least get to Spa and, hopefully, to Italy, but they really need to make progress with Renault now to make sure everything is OK,” he said.
Renault, the team’s former owners who won titles with the Enstone, England-based outfit in 2005 and 2006, are assessing their Formula One options and whether to quit entirely or become more involved in the sport.
Currently engine supplier to Red Bull and sister team Toro Rosso, the French manufacturer is tipped to retake control of Lotus.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later