Formula One News — November 1996

AS we speculated last week, Malaysia's Proton car company has bought the Lotus Group - taking 64% of the British car company with Proton chairman Yahaya Ahmad buying a 16% personal shareholding. The deal is believed to be worth $85m to Lotus's owner Romano Artioli.

KEN TYRRELL announced last Wednesday in Tokyo that he has signed a three-year "marketing consultancy agreement" with his former driver Satoru Nakajima.

TWO months ago Benetton team boss Flavio Briatore was telling the F1 media that he had "no intention of changing" drivers for 1997 and that Benetton's priority was improving technical performance.