Lotus to use black and gold livery in 2011

The classic Lotus livery will return to the grid in 2011

Lotus have today announced that they are to revive the classic black and gold John Player Special-sponsored Lotus livery from the 1970′s and 1980′s in their 2011 car.

Furthermore, they have also said that the fans will be able to have an input on the design, but haven’t said any more about this yet.

Their full statement is as follows:

In a move that is certain to excite Lotus fans and followers of 
Formula One™ around the world, Lotus Racing has announced this 
morning that its cars will be running in a black and gold colour 
scheme from the 2011 Championship onwards. This move echoes the 
evolution of Lotus Formula One™ cars of the past by moving from 
the iconic green and yellow paint scheme of the first season to 
the much loved black and gold.
Lotus Racing has already won an army of fans worldwide whose 
support for the Anglo-Malaysian squad has been fuelled by the 
team's open, honest approach to racing, and its efforts on track 
which has seen the team edge ever closer to securing the 'best 
of the new teams' title in its debut season.
To bring the fans even closer to the team in its second season 
Head of Marketing Silvi Schaumloeffel today explained how the 
2011 livery will be designed: "We have worked all year to make 
sure our fans are given unprecedented access to our team. We 
are all very excited about the move to a black and gold paint 
scheme for next season, and we want our fans to help us design 
the livery that will be racing around the world next year. We 
will shortly be announcing exactly how the fans can take part 
in our design process, so keep an eye on our website 
www.lotusracing.my for more details. The person who designs 
the livery we finally choose will be joining us at our first 
test next year to see the car out on track for the very 
first time, so for Lotus and F1™ fans it is the chance of a 
lifetime to help us take the next step forward in our 
amazing story in 2011."
Riad Asmat, Lotus Racing Chief Executive, added his thoughts 
on the next step in the Lotus Racing story: "When we first 
unveiled our 2010 car there was unanimous praise for our 
decision to bring the historic green and yellow livery 
back to the modern F1™ grid. I know the return to the 
track of the legendary black and gold will be met with 
even more universal support as it strikes such an 
emotional chord with fans around the world. Giving 
those fans the chance to help us bring it back to the 
contemporary grid is true to our core belief of 
putting our supporters right at the heart of Lotus 
Racing - we can't wait to show the world what we 
come up with!"

After this year’s excellent livery, I’m really looking forward to next year’s one, seeing as we haven’t seen a Lotus car run the design since the 1980s. As for the dispute between Lotus Cars and Lotus Racing (which is halting the change of name for the racing team), we will have to wait…

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