Team Lotus unveils abandoned livery

Team Lotus' black and gold livery will be used on a show car

Team Lotus has released images of the black and gold livery it had planned to run in 2011 before Renault announced that it too would paint its car in the John Player Special colors.

Team Lotus set up a competition at the end of last season for fans to design its 2011 livery in black and gold and received a large response. However, when Group Lotus announced it was sponsoring Renault next year, the Enstone-based squad immediately unveiled a black and gold livery of its own.

As a result Team Lotus will again run in the traditional green and yellow colors, but still went through with the competition anyway. The winner was Raphael Campos who took inspiration from Emerson Fittipaldi's championship-winning Lotus 72D that was the first car to run with JPS sponsorship.

The team will paint a show car in the colors next year.