Caterham enters F1

Caterham Cars now officially has a presence in Formula One after its logos were added to the Team Lotus cars ahead of this weekend’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

The Caterham logo will feature on the sidepods of the Lotuses of Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen. The move follows the recent rebranding of the GP2 team owned by Team Lotus and Caterham Cars owner Tony Fernandes, to Caterham Team AirAsia GP2.

F1-2011-caterham “This is a monumental occasion for Caterham Cars,” said Caterham chief Ansar Ali. “We are a niche low-volume sports car manufacturer and yet we are now a key partner for a Formula One team with an extremely bright future.”

Fernandes told Autocar in May that a “full branding and platform for Caterham in F1” was in place, and Autocar understands the Caterham name to be more prominent within Team Lotus in future seasons.

The Caterham-Team Lotus tie-up will also filter back down to Caterham’s road cars.

“Caterham now has a huge marketing platform,” said Fernandes. “F1 is out of reach for most people, but we can filter F1 technology back down to Caterham and offer people an affordable sports car with F1 links.”

Autocar