Lola is struggling up again after taking ...

Published on 24 July 1997 by Verstappen Info Page

Lola is struggling up again after taking a public fall with the collapse of their F1 project at the beginning of this season. The company's administrator Latham, Crossley & Davis accepted an offer from a team of six Lola employees, not including founder Eric Broadley. Hopefully the team will be able to recover after not their blow in F1 and less interest in their present Indycar.

Proton, owner of the Lotus Group, has been offered a proposal for re-entering Formula 1 in 1999 with a $240 million budget for a five-year programme. The offer is in no way related to the F1 plans of Team Lotus that were announced last week. Lotus Racing consortium owner Toine Hezemans adds that this plan carries more weight and is a serious proposal. He also added that this year might be the last in GT1, due to excessive costs.

Gerhard Berger, returning to Hockenheim after having missed out three races, announced at a press conference in Hockenheim, held today, that he definitely won't drive for Benetton anymore next season. He told that he didn't know if, and if so for which team, he would drive next year. Berger told that he only would stay in F1 if he could get a drive for a top team.

The silly season has started off at full swing. Just some of the latest rumours: Alexander Wurz is a likely candidate to be joining Giancarlo Fisichella at Benetton. Jorg Muller, testdriver for Arrows, might replace Hill at Arrows. Hill is asking a rumoured $10 million for a drive next year. Ecclestone was even heard saying that "If Damon is not careful he'll find himself losing out again, just like he did last year. Perhaps if he hadn't been so greedy he might still be with Williams." CART and ex-F1 driver Mark Blundell would have had offers from Prost and Sauber and fellow CART driver, Canadian Greg Moore, has been linked more than once with McLaren.