Quantum insists Lotus deal not dead

Despite quotes to the contrary from team owner Gerard Lopez, Quantum Motorsports maintains that it still has ambitions of taking a stake in the Lotus F1 operation.

The will it-won't it saga has been ongoing since the middle of 2013, when Quantum - then known as Infinity Motorsport - first expressed an interest in buying a 35 per cent share of the Enstone-based team, but the non-arrival of funds eventually led to Lopez starting the New Year by declaring the deal dead.

Quantum's head man, Mansoor Ijaz, always insisted that red tape involved in international banking law had led to the delays and, even as Lotus this week revealed a deal with Saxo Bank, claims that he still had hopes of concluding his own buy-in before the season kicks off in Melbourne.

"It is important to refresh memories," Ijaz told Press Association Sport, "Quantum's investors delivered the US Treasury Bonds in early October in full satisfaction of all amounts due under our contracts, [but] the transfer configuration was rejected due to certain regulatory provisions governing large funds transfers between the US and certain countries.

"The reconfiguration and re-transfer of the assets became internally complicated within Quantum's partnerships, so I took the executive decision in mid-December to completely restructure our financing effort."

Apparently unfazed by the scorn which accompanied his first attempt to take a stake in the 2013 frontrunner, Ijaz insists that, this time around, a deal could be concluded.

"It is important to emphasise we have all along self-regulated our own efforts," he noted, "I have made clear to Lotus that under the restructured plan if at any point I did not feel we could complete after last year's unforgivable delays, I would stop the process myself and announce openly I could not conclude, and accept the resulting consequences.

"We have agreed to give Lotus and Genii Capital complete step-by-step transparency in our process so they can make informed judgments about the probability of conclusion and time to complete. I am confident we will succeed this time around."