JUNE 21, 1999
No Malaysian money for Team Lotus - at the moment
This could, of course, change as Malaysian oil company Petronas - which funds the Sauber team and has ambitions to build its own F1 engines - is currently negotiating to buy a major shareholding in Proton. There are suggestions from Malaysia that Petronas may pay as much as $265m for a 27% share in the company, although negotiations have been dragging on for nearly eight months.
The latest Proton models are being fitted with the road-going engines developed by Sauber Petronas Engineering in Switzerland. Some of these cars will be used as safety and intervention cars at the forthcoming Malaysian Grand Prix in October.