[Team] USF1 was clearly shopping for money in all the wrong places

[LiveandLetDrive]

Apparently all you have to do is show up at a Holocaust denier convention.

http://twitter.com/MyLotusRacing

As seen on Twitter, ex-Malaysian PM Tun Mahathir is being joyously welcomed to their factory grand opening. Not being up on Malaysian politics until recently, I had to look him up to find out that he's a man of great stature and many quotable quotes:

"The Jews had always been a problem in European countries. They had to
be confined to ghettoes and periodically massacred. But still they
remained, they thrived and they held whole governments to ransom."

"Even after their massacre by the Nazis of Germany, they survived to
continue to be a source of even greater problems for the world. The
Holocaust failed as a final solution.”

Those from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahathir_bin_Mohamad

Not that the source of funding (and location of the Malaysian GP) is a stranger to bad press given the recent canings of adulterous women. (Apparently they committed these grave acts with eachother as no men seemed to be involved.)


Seriously Lotus, wtf. My home team turned out to be vaporware, my favorite historic team is funded by sources I can't in good conscience ignore, I guess I'll be pulling for Virgin for best-of-the-rest!

[Smokey 6 litre]

I wasn't aware of this situation but it doesn't make any difference to my feelings about my 'home' team. I am supporting the continuation of the legacy that Chapman built, the efforts of Mike Gascoyne and Tony Fernandez, and the progression of the Lightspeed team to top flight motorsport.

I will not allow the involvement of some ignorant, racist bigot to spoil the return of the Lotus colours to F1. Hate the man, not what his money is being used for.

[duke_toaster]

And where does it say that Dr Mahathir is funding this team? Of course, his views are unsavoury to say the least (however, those comments were made at the OIC, which I wouldn't describe as a "holocaust denier's convention").

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Smokey 6 litre

I am supporting the continuation of the legacy that Chapman built, the efforts of Mike Gascoyne and Tony Fernandez, and the progression of the Lightspeed team to top flight motorsport.

Just a question but how much of Colin Chapman's legacy is there in the new Lotus team?

[Fox89]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

Just a question but how much of Colin Chapman's legacy is there in the new Lotus team?

They are called "Lotus" and they race in Lotus colours!

.....Which is something!

[luke]

Which is pretty much the only thing despite a few ex guys from Lotus part of Litespeed claiming to run the team with Lotus principles. Other than what you stated above that's gotta be it.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by Fox89

They are called "Lotus" and they race in Lotus colours!

.....Which is something!

I'm aware of that, but that doesn't really have much to with Colin Chapman's legacy; nontheless it's an aspiration, though a noble one.

[jab]

For the nth time, you only have to look at the rear wing endplate to see where the Lotus link comes in. It is a totally legitimate link to Chapman

And if you're going to nitpick people that are involved in F1, you won't have much of a grid left. For God's sake, even the man running the sport said Hitler "got things done"

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by jab

For the nth time, you only have to look at the rear wing endplate to see where the Lotus link comes in. It is a totally legitimate link to Chapman

And if you're going to nitpick people that are involved in F1, you won't have much of a grid left. For God's sake, even the man running the sport said Hitler "got things done"

Lol, calm down.

[LiveandLetDrive]

Thought that might spark some controversy...

And where does it say that Dr Mahathir is funding this team?

I shouldn't have implied that; as far as the funding I mean to question the morality of holding races and accepting investors from countries with major human rights issues. How bad does a country have to be for someone to say "Enough's enough. We don't want your money here."? Obviously noone and no country is perfect but where is the line? Who's going to have to grow a conscience and boycott a race (or team) first? The fans, drivers, teams? Personally Malaysia's current state makes me very uncomfortable, but I'm open for debate.

As for Dr. Mahathir, I don't know if he has any other connection to the team whatsoever but the fact remains that they invited - as their Guest of Honor to a defining team event - an outspoken anti-semite who thinks, unlike Bernie's highly un-PC claim, Hitler couldn't get things done, at least not as well as he should have. I'm not trying to turn anyone against Lotus, in fact it should be their (and it is my) affection for the team that makes this sort of association not okay. It's bad for the image of the team and the sport, and potentially bad for others if we choose to give positive notoriety to dangerous people. (And potentially money should they manage to turn a profit.)

I didn't mean to say anything about the OIC, but it hardly matters where he said it does it? I just meant that Mahathir is on a holocaust-denier level of morality.

[duke_toaster]

Originally Posted by LiveandLetDrive

I shouldn't have implied that; as far as the funding I mean to question the morality of holding races and accepting investors from countries with major human rights issues.

If you start going about countries with dodgy human rights records hosting GPs, there are a number of equally bad or worse countries on the calendar, and other FIA series. There should be stronger action taken in the regard of hosting races, and the powers that were should have been absolutely disgusted with themselves for racing in South Africa when they did, but that was then.

How bad does a country have to be for someone to say "Enough's enough. We don't want your money here."? Obviously noone and no country is perfect but where is the line? Who's going to have to grow a conscience and boycott a race (or team) first? The fans, drivers, teams? Personally Malaysia's current state makes me very uncomfortable, but I'm open for debate.

Malaysia does not have a particularly good human rights record, but as I mentioned it is in some ways better than China, Singapore, Bahrain and other places F1 has raced in its past.

[Armco Bender]

Listen, don't mention the war! I mentioned it once, but I think I got away with it all right........... So! It's all forgotten now, and let's hear no more about it

[LiveandLetDrive]

Originally Posted by duke_toaster

Malaysia does not have a particularly good human rights record, but as I mentioned it is in some ways better than China, Singapore, Bahrain and other places F1 has raced in its past.

I saw a few weeks ago that Monaco's human rights record was sterling, maybe we should just hold 19 races there? Floating tracks in international waters could work, but then someone might drive a car into a whale and we'd all be screwed.

It certainly isn't as simple as just lopping any one country off the calendar. I just think we need to be thinking about it, and to let the powers that are know that we are concerned. Society only progresses if we hold each other accountable and improve upon our past failures. I saw Malaysia's "two sides" coming together and noone seemed to be talking about it, so I thought I'd push it out into the light of day.

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by jab

For the nth time, you only have to look at the rear wing endplate to see where the Lotus link comes in.

The rear wing endplates have both the Bridgestone and Proton logos on them.

[duke_toaster]

Originally Posted by LiveandLetDrive

It certainly isn't as simple as just lopping any one country off the calendar. I just think we need to be thinking about it, and to let the powers that are know that we are concerned. Society only progresses if we hold each other accountable and improve upon our past failures. I saw Malaysia's "two sides" coming together and noone seemed to be talking about it, so I thought I'd push it out into the light of day.

For the most part I do agree, however when the international consensus is for a boycott (which it obviously isn't in the case of any country on the F1 calendar currently), it would probably be wise for motor racing to join it.

[jab]

Originally Posted by bjohnsonsmith

The rear wing endplates have both the Bridgestone and Proton logos on them.

Indeed they do...but it's one of those in particular that I'm hinting at

[Mekola]

Of course, and that sponsor is Proton, that owns Lotus Cars.
If thinks are OK also with Classic Team Lotus (team that preserves Lotus racing cars heritage), that could make the team as a "legitimate" Lotus F1 team.

But something is make me thinking... Title of this thread is about USF1... Why the notes are about an "unpolitically correct" backer of Lotus???

[bjohnsonsmith]

Originally Posted by jab

Indeed they do...but it's one of those in particular that I'm hinting at

I understand Proton own Lotus but that's it. I'm not trying to denegrate what they are doing at Lotus F1. If Colin Chapman's legacy lies anywhere it lies in the Lotus F1's aspirations and there's nothing wrong with that.

[Bononi]

This subject is pointless, move on people.