The internal turmoil and uncertainty at Lotus has been capturing headlines for several months, while McLaren’s unexpected ‘civil war’ broke out a few weeks ago and since then has been a huge topic of debate – now the two teams are at loggerheads over team principals and a big money title sponsor.
A few days before the 2014 preseason testing gets underway, both teams are without team principal and neither have a title sponsor on their new cars.
In the McLaren corner, gone now is their high profile partnership with Vodafone, but also missing at the launch of the MP4-29 on Friday was boss Martin Whitmarsh.