Eight months after purchasing Caterham Cars (and a matter of weeks after the announcement of a name change for the F1 team from Lotus to Caterham), Tony Fernandes has announced the creation of a new 'umbrella brand' to cover all the firm's activities.

The new group will consist of four areas: Caterham Cars, Caterham F1 Team, Caterham Technology & Innovation (CTI) and Caterham Composites.

Team Lotus is now Caterham F1...

"We have been talking for some time now about our plans for Caterham in all its guises," says Fernandes, "from the road car company to Formula 1 and GP2, and in the technology, design and innovation fields. Now, with the announcement about the rebranding in Formula One to Caterham F1 Team for 2012 and beyond, we are in a position to give a much more in-depth explanation of how the Caterham Group is taking shape."

Which is as follows: "This range of business interests provides us a very strong foothold in a number of growth sectors, staffed with teams of people with a strong mix of experience, youth, creativity and passion. In short, we have all the right ingredients in place to do some incredibly exciting things in markets that are ripe for innovation and new ideas."

Jolly good... In practical terms this means that Caterham Cars will continue expanding into new markets, like India and China, and is even readying its first-ever all-new car for 2014.

The F1 aspect, meanwhile (which includes Caterham Racing as the new name for the Group's GP2 outfit), is a "new and permanent incarnation of our Formula One investment. On and off track we continue to invest in people, infrastructure and technology". It will also act as a focus for the 700-or-so Caterham racers around the world.

...but Riggers probably won't get a drive...

The third side of the operation is Caterham Technology & Innovation (CTI), which was launched in September and, as well as helping Caterham Cars with its next generation of models, is aiming to take on engineering projects for third-party companies.

Finally there's Caterham Composites, headed by the F1 team's chief technical officer, Mike Gascoyne, and charged with handling projects for the aerospace, nautical, motorsport and automotive industries.

So... a British sports car manufacturer with Malaysian backing, an F1 team and its finger in various engineering pies... remind you of anyone else?

hentet fra Pistonheads.com

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