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Lotus settles with ex-CEO Dany Bahar, avoids London High Court

Five years after it began, it appears the Dany Bahar tenure at Lotus is finally over. After former Lotus owner Proton brought in the ex-Ferrari and Red Bull marketing savant to run the company in 2009, everything had gone pear-shaped by 2012: Proton had been sold to Malaysian auto supplier DRB-Hicom, who suspended Bahar and then fired him for what it said were expense-account transgressions (although Bob Lutz reportedly said something different).
The separation led to the expected suit and countersuit, Lotus going after Bahar to get its money back, Bahar filing a $10.6-million suit againt Lotus for wrongful termination and potential bonus money. The case was set to go to trial next month but both parties have settled, the terms undisclosed, a DRB-Hicom statement saying only that "the parties involved in the legal suit have signed a Settlement Agreement and Release... and have agreed to withdraw their claims against each other."
Now that that bit of housecleaning is all cleared up, can new CEO Jean-Marc Gales please get our Esprit?

Race Recap: 2013 Bahrain Grand Prix follows the template of this year and last [spoilers]

The sand, the wind, the penalties, the contact and the one crash - all of them collided to make the Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix a surprise affair from day to day and lap to lap. Oh, and did we mention the tires? Pirelli made a last-minute swap after the amusement park ride that the Chinese Grand Prix turned into with the soft compound tire, and brought medium and hard compounds to the desert. That didn't stop things from falling apart for some teams - literally - and that didn't stop the one team that seems to love the hard compound Pirelli tire.

Lotus F1 confirms Grosjean, Maldonado for 2015

With the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix now just ten days away, the focus is beginning to shift to next year's Formula One World Championship, with more and more pieces to the puzzle falling into place. And the latest news comes from the Lotus team. The Enstone-based outfit has confirmed that it's keeping both its drivers right where they are for next season, with Romain Grosjean partnering Pastor Maldonado once again.
Swiss driver Grosjean, now 28 years old, made his grand prix debut with the team in 2009, returned as test driver in 2011 while winning the GP2 title, returned to the F1 grid in 2012 and has been driving for the team ever since. He's scored nine podium finishes to date, but has finished no better than his eighth place this season.
Venezuelan pilot Maldonado, 29, won the GP2 the year before his teammate, and moved up to F1 with Williams, for whom he drove for three seasons before switching to Lotus for this one. He shocked the field when he won the Spanish Grand Prix in 2012, but has only finished in the points once this season.