formula one

Bear with us on this one, since it may at first glance seem a little confusing. Renault who used to own and run the F1 team called Renault F1, pulled out of the sport at the end of the 2009 season at the peak of the economic downturn. Shortly after it was announced that Genii Capital, led by Gerard Lopez, had bought a majority stake in Renault F1 and it was this team which competed in the 2010 F1 season with drivers Robert Kubica and Vitaly Petrov.

This morning with the announcement of the partnership between Group Lotus and Genii Capital, Renault finally step back from being an F1 team owner into being purely a supplier of engines and technology. This new supply company will be called Renault Sport F1.

We seem to be writing a lot about Lotus this year, but then they've been making the headlines - usually for all the right reasons. Up until recently we were praising Lotus for the incredible albeit pricey Evora, their collaboration with 1 Malaysia Racing Team in F1 (licensed under the name 'Lotus Racing') and then the nostalgic return of the Lotus-brand to Indy Car Racing, run by KV Racing and driven by ex-F1 pilot Takuma Sato. 2010 looked like being a pretty good year for Lotus fans.

And then it all went horribly wrong.

Put yourself in the shoes of Michael Stoschek - successful entrepreneur, collector and driver of historic racing cars and overall motorsport junkie. One day you decide to add another car to your collection, a New Stratos, successor to the iconic The Lancia Stratos HF rally car. But wait, Lancia ceased production of the Stratos in 1974 after only 492 cars were made and despite various concepts displayed at motor shows since, there is no 'New' Stratos.