Lotus puts Sepang move on back burner

Date published : 12 Feb 2010 - 22:16:01

Tony Fernandes says there are no immediate plans to move Lotus Racing's operations to Malaysia as he believes it is currently more important that the new team enjoys a period of stability.Although the new 2010 entrant is running under the banner of the legendary British car maker and has set up base in Norfolk, it is being financially backed by the Malaysian government and a group of Malaysian entrepreneurs.On gaining an entry into F1 for this season last September, the team indicated that it would eventually relocate its design, R&D, manufacturing and technical operations to a new purpose built facility to be constructed at the Sepang International Circuit in Kuala Lumpur. However, speaking at the launch of the squad's first car in London on Friday, team boss Fernandes said this move had been put on the back burner for now as the team concentrates on establishing itself on the grid.The conclusion I've come to very quickly is that I want to keep things stable, he said.So right now, stability is important and there are no plans to move to Malaysia yet.In time, obviously, it would be great to be in Malaysia because there's a Formula 1 track, but we have no immediate plans to move.For now, let's get the team going, let's keep the stability, let's build from there and then we'll look at it next year.Lotus is currently running its team out of the RTN facility in Norfolk, some 10 miles from the Lotus Cars factory, which was originally built for Toyota's initial F1 programme and then used by Bentley for its Le Mans assault.