Renault Buys Lotus

[Rollo]

http://media.renault.com/global/en-g...pagetomediaid=

Following the September announcement of the signing of a Letter of Intent with Lotus, teams at Renault continued to evaluate the possibility of a return to Formula 1. Particular attention was paid to competing successfully with its own team in a financially sound way starting in 2016.
...
Work continues on finalizing the terms of the acquisition of the Lotus F1 Team in the shortest timeframe possible. The principal contracts were signed on December 3, 2015. The Lotus F1 Team effectively stands out as the best partner. Renault and Lotus F1 have known each other for 15 years and were world champions together in 2005 and 2006.
- Renault Media, 3rd Dec 2015

[N. Jones]

Sweet. Now we just need a French GP and we are all set!

[Stan Reid]

So will Lotus be the only Renault powered team in 2016 ?

[N. Jones]

Nope, Red Bull is staying with Renault but the engines will be branded Tag-Heuer.

[Storm]

How stupid is that?
RedBull blames Renault for poor performance (perhaps rightly so) and then decides to do away with engine contract. So Renault gives them the finger and buys Lotus to run as a works team again. RedBull shops around and eventually ends up with.....Renault? As a customer?

Good luck in what will be the worst year, engine wise for RBR

[Stan Reid]

Well, we have enough engines-what we need is more teams. According to the Wiki page, we have all the teams and all the engines; all we need is two drivers for Marussia which I assume will be purchased rides. There's also a rumor that Force India-Mercedes might be rebranded as Aston Martin.