As showed in a report last week, the Indian outfit feared that the Lotus F1 Team wind tunnel model – which they disclosed pictures of last month – was a copy of their own for the 2010 season. The fears grew bigger as it emerged that Force India's former wind tunnel operator Aerolab was contracted by Lotus F1 Team for the development of their 2010 challenger.
In the meantime, Force India and the Italian company parted ways, but it seemed that the Indian outfit had forgotten one of their wind tunnel models at the Aerolab facility where Lotus was to develop their own machinery. Shortly after these allegations started to make the headlines, Aerolab hit back by threatening to sue Vijay Mallya's team for “breach of contract”.
Apparently, the Indian team did not fulfill all of their obligations towards the Italian company and the latter was – and still is – considering legal actions against the former.
In the meantime, all the executives back at Lotus F1 Team insisted the problem is not theirs to begin with and asked the media to leave them out of the espionage case (probably fearing they would suffer in terms of image, prior to their F1 debut).
“We are not going to add anything more to this as it is not our issue. We are very sure that we have not infringed any rights. It is entirely between the wind tunnel operator and the other team,” Lotus F1's chief executive Riad Asmat told the New Straits Times.
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