Lotus gone from indy car

[MAX_THRUST]

Is anyone surprised by this? I guess not.

[GRW1983]

Is anyone surprised by this? I guess not.
No surprise that Lotus have gone, pretty much a disaster from start to finish. On the plus side, both Honda & Chevrolet now have to pick up the tab. Last season it was 40% based on 25 cars, so 10 cars per manufacturer. Now, it's 60% based, I assume, on the same 25 cars, so that would mean Honda & Chevrolet providing engines for up to 15 cars each. So, we could have up to 30 cars this season.

[bricarr2]

Not surprised.

However, what a sad saga Lotus' foray into IndyCar was. The marque synonymous with Chapman, so synonymous with legends such as Clark, Chapman and Andretti utterly disgraced its revered name.

Very, very sad.

[Nikki Katz]

I thought this happened ages ago! I guess today's announcement was just making things official. I mean, even if HVM do return (which is doubtful), they wouldn't have been using Lotus engines anyway.

[Jag_Warrior]

Lotus in Indy Car and Cosworth in F1 have both been complete jokes recently. Rather than see them further denigrate those legendary marques, I'd rather see them go away. This was like watching Ali fight when he was well past his prime. At least Lotus did very well in F1 this past season. But Lotus has never been an engine company. Lotus is known for suspensions and chassis. They farmed out something that they didn't understand very well to begin with and it blew up in their faces.

Indy Car should have begged and pleaded (and uh, bribes are only illegal if you get caught - Donald Trump says so) for Porsche or VW to come in. And as a last resort, put Mari Hulman in a miniskirt and send her over to Dearborn to get Ford back. No, it's not what you think. Just tell Alan Mulally that she'll be showing up every single day... in that skirt (ewww!), making peoples' stomachs turn until they relent and badge an Indy Car engine. Mulally is a strong man. But every man has his limits. The human brain (and eyes) can only take so much.

[zako85]

^

You can't compare Cosworth and the 2012 Lotus's adventure in IndyCar. Lotus's Indycar stint in 2012 was a complete joke. On the other hand, Cosworth has been an F1 engine supplier for something like 50 years, and it is the third most decorated F1 engine supplier (by the number of wins) after Ferrari and Renault. Even without corporate sponsorship, Cosworth does not give up easily and keeps on hanging on in Formula 1 at any cost. Cosworth is a real deal. It's an engineering company that lived and breathed F1 for decades. On the other hand, Lotus's involvement as an IndyCar engine "manufacturer" can't be described as anything but an attention getting posturing. Lotus does not even build the IndyCar engine (or its own road car engines). Lotus was simply an empty shell and they made complete fools out of themselves this year.

As for Ford, man I wish Ford teamed up with Cosworth and made a good engine for both F1 and IndyCar again.

[anthonyvop]

Forget Ford. The head of Ford Motorsports has told me that Indycar is not in their future for the foreseeable future.