One of the great names in Formula One history is set to return to the sport next year with Team Lotus being awarded the 13th slot on the 2010 grid. The reborn constructor with sponsorship from Malaysia might not bear much resemblance to the Lotus of yesteryear, but is being controlled by Lotus Cars so retains a firm link to the marque’s heritage.

Lotus Engineering was founded by Colin Chapman in 1952 and by the end of the decade his business had developed into a group of companies that included separate production car and motorsport divisions. After Chapman’s death in 1982, the Lotus road car business was sold to General Motors who later sold it to the owners of Bugatti. The company was then sold again just a few years later when Bugatti went bankrupt giving control to Proton in Malaysia.

The Formula One outfit remained property of the Chapman family until team manager, Peter Warr, took ownership in 1991. His efforts to financially support the operation failed and within a few years he ran out of cash. He sold Team Lotus to David Hunt (the brother of James) who started an alliance with Pacific Grand Prix but the venture came to an end in 1994.

Earlier this year, British Formula Three constructor Litespeed bought the ‘Team Lotus’ name off David Hunt and applied to enter a budget-capped F1 in 2010. The FIA rightly decided their resources and facilities were not a match for the other applicants and the project went no further. Proton had an objection to Litespeed’s attempted entry and threatened to sue them in order to protect the Lotus Cars brand.

Perhaps the reason that Proton were keen to stop Litespeed’s bid was that it clashed with their own plans to revive Team Lotus. If not, the idea of having the Lotus name in back F1 must have sparked the Malaysians into action because they are now fully responsible for the team’s resurrection.

Mike Gascoyne was behind Litespeed’s push for F1 and is now Technical Director at Lotus for Proton, which suggests the two companies might actually have been working together for some time. However, Litespeed’s involvement in the team is now fairly insignificant.

BMW’s F1 withdrawal opened the door for Proton to set their Grand Prix plans into action and their application to fill the vacant 13th slot was quickly approved by the FIA.

It ‘s interesting that Proton didn’t try to takeover BMW Sauber, which was a genuine possibility thanks to the Malaysian link with Petronas. They clearly have the resources to start from scratch.

The level of investment being made into Team Lotus is very impressive. The project is being bankrolled by a group of Malaysian companies that includes Proton, Air Asia, Naza Motors, the Sepang International Circuit, and the Malaysian Government.

You would also expect Petronas to jump onboard as well now that BMW Sauber is on the way out.

The team will initially be based in the UK but is currently building a factory and technical centre at the Sepang Grand Prix Circuit. The intention of this is to attract technological investment to Malaysia as well as boost the local industry. The new facilities at Sepang will also go a long way to securing the future of the Malaysian Grand Prix that was recently in doubt.

As well as displaying industrial Malaysia to the world, Team Lotus will be a marketing tool for the companies backing it like Air Asia and Naza Motors. In addition to that, it will be fascinating to see how Proton use their Grand Prix activities to promote Lotus road cars. The company recently launched the Evora, their first totally new sports car since the Elise, so expect the ‘F1 edition’ to be available sometime soon.

There are some that say “Force Malaysia” isn’t really Team Lotus since the only thing similar with Colin Chapman’s original organisation is the name. That’s a valid point, but the team is being run by Lotus Cars with the blessing of those who tried saving the F1 outfit in 1994. If the Lotus name was ever going make a genuine return to Formula One, this is exactly how it would happen. It’s also worth noting that all F1 teams evolve over time. For example, McLaren is very different now to how it was when Bruce McLaren was first in charge.

With that in mind it’s more than fair to consider this new team an extension to the Lotus history.

The man in charge of getting everything started is Tony Fernandes, the current CEO of Air Asia. He will act as team boss until partway through next year at which point he will relinquish control to a Malaysian management structure. Tony will be a popular figure for many hardcore Formula One fans. Unlike other outside managers that have come into F1 (such as Flavio Briatore) Fernandes has a real passion for the sport and fondly recalls watching races at Brands Hatch as a child. He also has a passion for the Lotus name and got in touch with Colin Chapman’s widow when the current project came together. He has a thorough appreciation of the Lotus history and what it means to the sport, so is well placed to direct the team into this exciting new era.

The technical side of things is being organised by Mike Gascoyne. Mike is a very accomplished technical director but is known to be divisive and sometimes difficult to work with. There is evidence of this in his early departures from Renault, Toyota and Force India. Whilst he’s very good at what he does, it appears that he must get his own way at all times. Since Gascoyne will be creating the technical team from nothing it looks like he will have total control over its structure and that should give him the freedom to get the most out of his own skills. He won’t be clashing with an existing management system or an ego driven team boss so will probably have a better chance of success than he has had elsewhere.

A lot of Formula One teams are downsizing at the moment so Gascoyne’s experience with a few different squads will help him look for the right people.

Tony Fernandes and his fellow investors are aiming high and expect to be fastest of the new teams, but that isn’t going to be as easy as it sounds. The current Formula One field is the most competitive in the sport’s history and the existing runners have a healthy head start. In addition to that, the logistics of moving Team Lotus from the UK to Malaysia once it’ up and running is going to be hugely disruptive.

It could be a long time before the tally of 73 Lotus victories is bolstered.

Lotus started in Formula One in 1958 and within 16 years had become the most successful Grand Prix Team of all time. They claimed 13 World Championships and were regarded as the sport’s best innovators having been the first to use a monocoque chassis, front wings, rear wings, ground effect aerodynamics, side mounted radiators, and active suspension. These advances were in addition to the team’s experiments with gas turbines, four wheel drive, and carbon fibre. They were also the first team to introduce sponsorship into F1, something which possibly changed the sport more than any other development.

Colin Chapman built his first race car in 1948, a heavily modified Austin 7, and was pleased to note the extensive changes that he made were very successful. He continued to modify Austins and tasted more success before he moved into other forms of racing.

Innovation and engineering excellence typified all of Chapman’s designs. When the team first entered F1, their cars featured a new type of suspension and a unique chassis layout. The early models weren’t overly successful but the ideas within them were developed until they created some of the most dominant machines in F1 history.

A customer Lotus driven by Stirling Moss won the Monaco Grand Prix in 1960, and the factory team won another race the following year, before Team Lotus started winning regularly throughout the next decade.

Chapman built the Lotus 25 in 1963, the first ever Formula One car with the engine as a stressed member of the chassis. The new design rocked the F1 world and over a three year period Jim Clark won 70% of the races he finished (a similar level to Schumacher’s domination in 2004). It was an incredible run of success that should have provided more than just two driver’s championships.

Clark died in a Formula Two Lotus in 1968 but the team continued winning and scored titles with Graham Hill, Jochen Rindt, and Emerson Fittipaldi.

The mid seventies were not as successful but Lotus still beat Ferrari to become the first team to win 50 races. Occasional victories came courtesy of Ronnie Peterson and Mario Andretti, and the latter eventually beat his teammate to the 1978 championship.

Andretti’s victory was the last major triumph for Lotus. The team lost direction in 1982 after Colin Chapman’s untimely death and they started fighting for podiums instead of wins. A three year stint from Ayrton Senna resulted in six victories but the glory days of Team Lotus were over. When Senna left, Honda followed him, and so did the sponsors.

A change of ownership in 1991 failed to save the team’s slide down the grid. In 1994 Lotus scored zero points for the season and had the same bad number on their financial statement. A failed alliance with the equally underfunded Pacific Grand Prix amounted to nothing and the F1 factory closed its doors.

Mike Gascoyne seems confident that the reincarnated Team Lotus will fare much better. After claiming that he expects to be fighting in the top ten next year, he added “we are aiming to take this team to the very top level in the long term.”

Lotus is doing something radical by running a Formula One team out of Malaysia, and that is the sort of innovative thinking the marque is famous for.

The marque is also famous for winning lots of F1 races, but that level of emulation is a long way off yet.