Lotus-Quantum deal still progressing, says Boullier

2013 Brazilian Grand Prix

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Lotus team principal Eric Boullier says progress is still being made on a deal for Quantum Motorsport to invest in the team.

Boullier indicated the deal had moved forward since the last race weekend and is optimistic it will be concluded soon.

“Well, there is still some discussion ongoing, especially now between bankers,” said Boullier.

“The process is not fully completed but I think part of it has been done, which is obviously a good sign for the weekend and we hope that everything is closed by early next week.”

Whether Lotus can seal the deal in the near future is expected to have an important bearing on the driver market, with Nico Hulkenberg and Pastor Maldonado in contention for a seat at the team.

During Friday’s press conference at Interlagos Boullier rebuffed a question on the business practices of Quantum’s Mansoor Ijaz, insisting: “we have very serious proof of funds and good compliance of what is Quantum Motorsport”.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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41 comments on “Lotus-Quantum deal still progressing, says Boullier”

  1. money talks, ** walks. Hope it goes thru, but I wonder if the zebra has changed his strips.

  2. After reading repeated assurances through the season from Boullier that Kimi has been paid, i’m mistrustful of his statements.

    Even if this deal somehow goes through, it will mean that one of F1 top teams will be owned by some mysterious company with no real product and a con man as a representative.

    As a Lotus fan, i’m in a awkward position.

  3. With tickets to the paddock club costing $4,000. a race M.Ijaz is on a good thing here. I’m thinking we should get together to form a syndicate to rescue a team next year, if you have some spare smoke or mirrors let’s get together.

  4. What I have wondered in all this is… Lotus. The car company. Can’t possibly have money enough to pay to be THE sponsor of a mid to high end to team, can they?
    My point is, why don’t they drop all the pseudo 70’s Chapman Lotus and go with a sponsor with a properly sized vault of gold. I don’t know. McDonald’s F1 Racing, or for a low fat diet, maybe Apple Grand Prix Engineering.
    Can Lotus really be paying them ‘enough’ for the rights to be name sponsor?

    1. Apparently Lotus don’t pay them anything, because they’ve licensed the Lotus marque to use in their F1 cars. Not surprising, Lotus don’t have the kind of money to be doing anything like this.

      1. ya, I actually believe the Lotus F1 team PAID to have the Lotus name.

      2. Jack (@jackisthestig)
        23rd November 2013, 8:42

        The Tony Fernandes team (1 Malotusham as I like to call them) licensed (paid for) the name in 2010 (Lotus Racing) before buying the rights to the name ‘Team Lotus’ from David Hunt. During 2011, Lotus Cars paid for title sponsorship of what was the Renault team and pursued legal action against 1 Malotusham to stop them using the Team Lotus name although neither Lotus Cars or Group Lotus have no rights whatsoever to ‘Team Lotus’. Anyway, Lotus Cars defaulted on payment to the Enstone team in 2012 but the team have upheld their side of the deal as they feel they gain more from the prestige of the Lotus name and the black and gold livery than they would from just being called ‘Team Enstone’ or ‘Genii Racing’ despite not recieving ang money from Lotus Cars.

    2. McDonald’s F1 Racing

      Funny enough, that is actually a good idea. Maybe a US based team could look at an option like this

    3. lotus doesnt pay them anything! they just got the name from lotus group due to their partnership in 2011 or 2012. after that they negotiated to keep the name and group lotus didnt mind…

    4. I think Samsung should finally sponsor someone. They conquered half of the world, but still not much presence in F1.

      1. Since they’ve already conquered the world it seems they don’t have much need for F1 ;)

        1. Samsung is “sponsoring” Apple:-) so they haven’t money for an F1 team also.

  5. Eric Boullier to me is like becoming a money-faced team principal.

    1. That can’t be helped, how else are they suppposed to survive?It’s remarkable that they are even in mathematical contention for 2nd in the WCC given all their financial woes; imagine what they could accomplish with financial security.

      1. They are financially secure: owned by billionaires.
        Even though they sink in 8 million dollars a month, they can go on for decades. But that wasn’t the plan: they want to make profit.

        I think the ‘deal’ will collapse and I hope they sign Perez/Telmex.

        1. If that were true I think they would have paid Raikkonen ages ago since I’m pretty sure they had every intention of keeping him… or are we talking about something else?

          1. I think that was more about Ferrari than anything else. The team said they always paid him – but late.
            And there’s different companies involved, with their own profits/losses. But in the end of the day, they surely have the money, just look them up.

  6. So amaze. Such delusion. Very Ijas. Wow.

  7. Does anyone know the amount of money in question ? Anyhow I did read a lot of articles against Ijaz.
    But I hope for team Lotus as they have so far made all the brilliant moves right from signing Kimi , retaining RoGro. Unfortunately James Allison was poached by Ferrari.

  8. I’m very dubious about some of these excuses they are giving. They say the money can’t be transferred because of American anti-laundering rules. I’ve worked in international finance, and as long as you have legitimate documentation and legitimate banks, it is extremely easy to move gargantuan sums of money across international borders. Either the money isn’t there, or the documentation isn’t there. Both scenarios are very worrying.

  9. Eric Boulllier is not smart at all as there is no money coming through from Quantum as it is only a fantasy. I still can’t believe he still thinks that next week they will sign the deal, which is not going to happen. Is Eric Boullier related to Mansoor Ijaz? Eric should know better that the deal wasn’t happening
    1. QM said that Kimi will get paid
    2. QM preferred choice is Nico Hulkenberg
    3. Drivers will get paid
    4. Lotus will become the most viable team
    5. QM was going to buy 35% of Lotus
    6. QM’s Head insists that money will be paid last week
    Base on those figures he should have known the deal wasn’t happening. Is Eric in a dream land?

    1. I agree.
      I think Lotus got deceieved initially but are coming to the realisation that it will never happen.
      They are now trying to save face and also take a pay driver/ driver who brings sponsors. But they don’t want to just go ahead and do that straight away.
      They are hoping Hulkenberg will sign for another team which will then leave them with “little choice”, but to sign the next best driver available, who happens to come with a lot of cash.
      I’ll be happy to be proved wrong.

      1. I suspect Hulkenberg will stay at Sauber, Ferrari want a back up for Alonso/Raikonnen for 2015.
        If not, he will have to leave.

      2. You are right as it will be Pastor Maldonado. Hulkenberg will go to Force India alongside Adrian Sutil

        1. its such a shame that hulk didn’t get paid at force india then he moved to sauber and still unpaid and planning to get lotus who haven’t paid kimi this year.F1 is turning out be a charity ball for hulk

          1. I am sure if the one of viable teams set up three cars for the team then Nico will almost certain that he will go there e.g. Red Bull and Ferrari

    2. Its not Boullier who is in charge of the money side though @william, so while your points might be valid, he is not the right person to bring them to

  10. In other, totally unrelated news, my daughter just told me that she is looking forward to see Santa Claus.

    1. you made me breath heavily through my nose there… hah, funny! Maybe the Quantum money will arrive on a flying reindeer painted gold/black with e red nose?

  11. The only reason this fiction continues to exist is because so many people _want_ it to be true. That’s always a conman’s greatest advantage.
    What I’m wondering is if there is any way Lotus could scrape through another year with the funding they have and a quality driver like Hulkenburg. Do they have to take the Venezuelan money?

  12. Ijaz is a wannabe who never will be. He has always made spectacular claims that have never eventuated. This guy just likes to get his name in the headlines and move in the same circles as the rich and famous.

    1. He is already claiming to be “an owner of the Lotus F1 Formula 1 team.” on his website. Take a look on this screengrab

        1. You should read the Wikipedia page on him and see that the first part is word for word what is on his website.

  13. Bjornar Simonsen
    23rd November 2013, 10:01

    The entire Quantum deal is feces of bulls. It is only a lie that will never happen. Lotus have made some terrible choices, which is going to have consequences for them.

    Either this Ijaz guy fooled them and they did not do their due diligence, or, they have known all along and used it to gain leverage in negotiations.

    Either way, Lotus are left looking like fools.

    1. You are confusing with Mclaren !
      Lotus Not really as all those podiums are looking good, they leak it to be on the radar, fishing sponsors that maybe tempted to go full on.

  14. From the little I have looked at on the Internet, there is ZERO chance of this happening, research the guy putting this together …dodgy is not the word !!

  15. Couple the highly plausible idea that the sale of such a large stake of the team takes prolonged and detailed negotiations, with the fact that Maldonado is in “advanced talks with Sauber”, then you’d have to say that there is some hope for the Hulk. There are a lot of dodgy people at the pinnacle of business, however as long as Lotus have demanded that Quantum provide them with some form of evidence that they have financial resource to fulfil their side of the deal, which they have of course, and that the brands that Quantum are offering to bring as additional sponsorship are willing then it really is only a matter of time. This is a big deal for Lotus, literally. The commercial, financial and practical elements do take time to come together, and I genuinely believe they will. F1 needs this deal. Not just to reward a young driver that has done everything he possibly could have done, but to ensure the future of a team that I hope will retain the title of a “top team” in 2014.

    1. Apparently it is all but confirmed that the Hulk is signing a deal with Force India with just a little bit more of negotiation to finalise the contract.

  16. Information about Mansoor Ijaz’s ‘interesting’ financial deals and other jaw-dropping details about him (is he Walter Mitty?) collected by Greg Evangelista on Reddit:
    http://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/comments/1qqqjz/why_the_lotus_deal_is_a_fantasy_who_are_quantum/

  17. The deal is progressing at the same speed as the virgin galactic project.

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