Mr Lopez recently admitted that Genii had sold a 2pc stake in Lotus F1 to
property tycoon Andrew
Ruhan, who joined the board of the team in February.
He isn’t the only new arrival. During 2012 the team hired 20 staff, giving it
a total of 520. Lotus
also took on former F1 champion Kimi Raikkonen and, according to the
accounts, higher payments to drivers fuelled a 9.1pc rise in costs to
£146.6m.
Raikkonen made an immediate impact and the team finished fourth in the 2012
standings, up from fifth the previous year.
However, a question mark hangs over his future as he recently revealed that
his contract with Lotus expires at the end of the year and has not yet been
renewed.