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Recap: 2013 Australian Formula One Grand Prix is all about the rubber [w/spoilers]

A pre-season full of talking points was swapped for a brand-new set of talking points after the running of the opening grand prix of the 2013 Formula One season. The consistency of the regulations from last year to this year and the triplicate dominance of Infiniti Red Bull Racing meant that no one would have been that surprised if the relative order of things remained the same. But teams found so many ways to switch things up that, in typical pre-season fashion, no one was ready to make any bets on in-season performance, and a couple of surprising players suffered the ignominy of getting it really wrong: McLaren knew it was in trouble from the very first test, while Williams drivers applauded their car as the best in years, only to have Pastor Maldonado call it "undriveable" on the very first day of practice in Melbourne.
And then there were those Pirellis, the Italian company talking up the fact that its super soft tires would only go off so quickly that it would force teams to pit at least twice during the race.
Even then, no one could have seen the first round of pit stops beginning on Lap 5.

Lotus Elise Cup 260 celebrates the automaker's 70th anniversary

Lotus rides the special edition train nearly as often as Jeep. When you only sell a few models, you need to make the most of what you have. Today, Lotus announced a new very-limited-edition variant, the Elise Cup 260. Just 30 examples will be built and, based on pricing, it doesn't look like it will be coming to America. Hey, the cars are likely all spoken for already. The Elise Cup 260 builds on the Cup 250 and takes influence from the Lotus Evora GT430 and Exige Cup 380. Lotus says this car is even lighter than the already pint-sized Cup 250. Downforce is the name of the game with the Cup 260. The car makes 397 pounds of downforce at 151 mph (44 percent better than the Cup 250), helping the car maneuver around a circuit with copious amounts of traction. The key components here are louvered front fenders, a carbon fiber front splitter and a carbon fiber rear wing that wouldn't look out of place on an FIA-spec GT car. All of the lightweight performance options from the Cup 250 are standard equipment on the Cup 260. The sill covers, roll hoop cover, front access panel and engine cover are all made of carbon fiber. It also uses a polycarbonate backlight glass to save more weight. The Cup 260 has two-piece rotors and two-way adjustable Nitron dampers at all four corners. Strangely, the Elise uses AP Racing calipers up front and a set of Brembo clamps out back. The Elise Cup 260 is powered by a supercharged 1.8-liter inline four making 250 horsepower and 188 pound feet of torque. In the right hands, the Lotus will hit 60 mph in just 3.8 seconds. Top speed is listed as 151 mph. Lotus' Hethel track is the true benchmark of any car to wear the green and yellow badge. On it, the Cup 260 is 2.5 seconds faster than the Cup 250. The exterior has been done up in gold and features a couple of wreaths meant to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Lotus' first car. The car comes standard with Alcantara upholstery, but if it were our money we'd spring for either the yellow or red Tartan trim pack. As befitting any Lotus, weight savings was first and foremost. Things like air conditioning, carpeting and sound deadening material are all optional extras. Pricing has only been announced for Europe, but the UK base price converts to roughly $77,800. Not cheap, but few if any cars provide the pure, unadulterated driving experience of a Lotus. Related Video:

Renault paid GBP1 to buy back its F1 team

Running a Formula One team is anything but cheap and straightforward, but it didn't cost Renault much to reacquire the Lotus team from Genii Capital. In fact, according to the latest reports, the French automaker paid just GBP1 – less than a buck fifty – for the privilege. Still, the process was deeply complicated. The reason Renault was able to get it so cheap is because the team was deeply in debt, part of which Renault will now assume. Less than a year ago, the team was said to be nearly $200 million in the red, and just a few months ago Renault came to its rescue to pay a $4 million tax bill to the British government. Under the terms of the new deal, Renault will assume the debt that the team's previous owners had accrued, but will be spared the nearly $150 million which its stakeholders loaned to the team. The history of the outfit based in Enstone dates back to 1981 when it was founded as Toleman Motorsport. French fashion giant Benetton bought the team in 1985, which in turn sold it to Renault in 2000. A decade later, after two world championship titles, Renault began stepping back its involvement in the team and gradually transferred ownership to investment firm Genii Capital, which has run it ever since under the Lotus name that it secured from the automaker under contract until 2017. Unable to fund a competitive team, Genii has now sold the team back to Renault, but the financial intricacies of the deal are far from straightforward. To start with, Genii and its subsidiary Gravity Motorsports (the team's parent company) didn't hold all the shares in the operation, so it bought back over 6 million shares from Whiterock Alliance to add to its own 60 million shares. The vast majority of those shares were then transferred (for that princely sum of GBP1) to Gringy (UK) Ltd, the shell company that technically owned the team in its Benetton days. Gringy (a wholly owned subsidiary of Renault) will hold a 90-percent stake in the team, with the last 10 percent remaining in Genii's hands and those of its investors. In the process, the outfit will now rejoin the likes of Ferrari and Mercedes among the F1 teams developing their own powertrains. Related Video: News Source: Motorsport.comImage Credit: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Earnings/Financials Motorsports Lotus Renault F1 genii capital