Racing passion vs Politics?
Excerpts of an interview: David Hunt with Peter Windsor...
"It would be a disaster if Tony and his partners let it go," he insisted, "They’ve represented to the world, and given me assurances, that they’re totally serious and fully-committed to the Team Lotus brand. Tony has been a fan since childhood and this is a dream come true for him - all the rhetoric has been there and, without it, I wouldn’t have done business with them.
"Yet it appears they may be giving in at the very first hurdle, a threat they were well aware of at the outset and which came from people who were, at the outset, ostensibly on the same side as Tony! I certainly hope they don’t give in and I’m comforted that Tony has confirmed to me again over the past few days that they will fight it all the way in court. I would be both outraged and bitterly disappointed if Team Lotus were to be sequestered in some political backroom in Kuala Lumpur and pressures applied in commercial and/or political ways unrelated to F1.
"My view is that it’s really all about who is going to lose face – the Proton and Group Lotus bosses due to the wild and laughable claims they have made, or Tony and his partners for all their claims about being serious and committed to bringing the Team Lotus brand back and taking it back to its former glories. For either side, that’s a huge potential loss of face as I understand Malaysian culture.
"If Tony, Din and Naza were to roll over it would demonstrate to me that they have been acting in bad faith, with me and the fans and the F1 authorities who gave them their entry. It would also be a blot on my custodianship of Team Lotus as I will have sold it to people who were not passionate or serious or committed – something I have always been at pains to avoid.
"I’m also sure that Tony has not forgotten that he has a commitment to the staff in Norfolk. Many have had to re-locate and I am pretty sure almost every one of them went there because they believed they were part of a ‘Lotus F1 project’ - they didn’t go there to work for Team Tune!
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