Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsLotus F1

Renault staff already working at Lotus

Renault already has staff working at Enstone as it continues to work on its takeover of Lotus, according to deputy team principal Federico Gastaldi.

While Renault signed a letter of intent to proceed with a takeover back in September, the speed with which the process has been moving forward had fuelled doubts about the deal. However, Gastaldi told F1i the size of Renault is the reason for the lack of completion so far but he is pleased with the progress made behind the scenes.

“For us it’s much more than positive, having Renault on board again. As I keep saying, it’s a gigantic, multi-national company. They have their own procedures, we cannot dance faster than the music but they have done as much as possible to keep it moving as fast as possible. Obviously it takes time.”

And when asked if he had any concerns that the takeover might not be completed, Gastaldi replied: “No, no, not at all.

“They are working. They have done the usual process when one company wants to buy another company. Due diligence is done, approved, presented to the board. We started working in Singapore with the technical guys. People from administration, people from marketing have been in Enstone since Singapore.

“So it’s positive, I don’t know why everybody believes it’s not positive. For us it’s magnificent.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.