In taking over Lotus, Renault are essentially buying back the team they had sold to Genii Capital in 2009 and which was renamed Lotus F1 Team for the 2012 season.

In taking over Lotus, Renault are essentially buying back the team they had sold to Genii Capital in 2009 and which was renamed Lotus F1 Team for the 2012 season.

Jolyon Palmer, son of former F1 driver Jonathan Palmer, will replace Romain Grosjean. Pastor Maldonado is the other Lotus driver.

Renault said they had struck a deal with the Lotus team's current owners Genii Capital and said it marked the manufacturer's "first step towards the project of a Renault Formula 1 team from the 2016 racing season".

Romain Grosjean, Lotus driver, says the failure of the cash-tripped team in getting good engines prompted him to leave. Announcement on new team may happen next week.

Lotus have been involved with a row over engine payments and team officials have blamed the time difference between Europe and Japan for delaying track payments to track authorities.

The Venezuelan driver is believed to bring around

Engine manufacturer Renault says they have informed the Formula One management about their decision to not supply engines to various teams from 2016. They will either run their own team or exit F1 completely.

Lotus team CEO Matthew Carter has dismissed reports of an uncertain future for the team and stated that the team is not relying on Renault to re-purchase the team.

Lotus' Romain Grosjean was slapped with a five place penalty on the grid for changing the gearbox while Daniil Kvyat was reprimanded for being unsafe.

Lotus had changed Romain Grosjean's gearbox following the Spanish Grand Prix earlier this month.

Lotus' Pastor Maldonado made the most of his time on the supersoft tyres to record the quickest lap of the test at the Circuit de Catalunya in 1min 24.348sec.

Romain Grosjean joined the team in 2012 and made a highly promising start, but this year he has to date managed only a paltry eight points ahead of the final race of the season in Abu Dhabi.

For the first time since 2005, there will be only nine teams in the paddock and some of them are competing in straitened circumstances.

Maldonado has spent three seasons with Williams, winning the Spanish Grand Prix in 2012, but only notched up one point this season with his 10th place in Hungary.

The 32-year-old Heikki Kovalainen has raced in 109 GPs for Renault, McLaren and Caterham, securing one win at the Hungarian GP in 2008 and three other podium finishes.

Lotus' Kimi Raikkonen's long-standing back problem flared up during Singapore Grand Prix in September and needs surgery.

The Finn had made clear that he was contemplating boycotting the last two races,