Caterham enters Formula One

By Paul Bond

06th July 2011

Caterham Cars will make a symbolic entry to the F1 stage this week, with the annoucement that the brand's logos will appear on both Team Lotus cars at the British Grand Prix.

It's the rebirth of a historic partnership which began when Lotus opened Caterham in the 1960s as an official dealer, and continued recently when the F1 team bought out the the British firm through a holding company.

The Caterham branding will appear on the sidepods of both Team Lotus, at Silverstone, driven by Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli. The coming race weekend also marks 50 years since Lotus recorded its first ever F1 victory at the US GP.

Following the annoucement, Caterham boss Ansar Ali, said: "We are a niche low-volume sportscar manufacturer and yet we are now a key partner for Formula One team with an extremely bright future"

The news has also sparked speculation that the F1-tie in will filter down to Caterham's road cars, with a series of Lotus themed special editions rumoured to be in the pipeline.