Karun Chandhok could make another one-off return to the cockpit of a Team Lotus car for the Indian Grand Prix weekend, after team boss Tony Fernandes said that he would like to see the reserve driver come in for his home race.
Chandhok has already raced for the Team Lotus squad at the German GP weekend this year, when he deputised for Jarno Trulli, finishing 20th in the race.And Fernandes has suggested that he would like to see the Indian driver return to action for his home race at the new Buddh International Circuit at the end of October.
"I'd like him to. It's up to the team to see [whether he will race]," the Reuters news agency quoted Fernandes as saying after the Italian GP weekend.
He added that should Chandhok return, it would again be in place of Trulli, saying: "Yes, I think Heikki [Kovalainen] is our number one driver. Although Jarno's outqualified him here."
The Indian GP, which will take place on October 30th, will already have one home star on the grid, after HRT driver Narain Karthikeyan secured a one-off return to action.
Meanwhile, reports have again suggested that the Team Lotus squad could be set to change their name for the 2012 season.
The team won a legal fight against Group Lotus earlier this year which allowed them to continue using the 'Team Lotus' moniker in their F1 endeavours.
But the outcome of the legal fight has seen two 'Lotus' teams compete in F1 this season, with the Group Lotus-aligned 'Lotus Renault GP' also taking to the grid.
And on Monday, Fernandes hinted that despite winning the legal case, he may be prepared to "walk away" from the Lotus name for 2012 in order to end the current confusion
"Effectively we are marketing someone else," he told the Autosport website, "I don't think this is healthy for anyone – Lotus Renault, Team Lotus, whomever."
He added: "I've always said that protecting the brand is paramount and it's not me that started all this. I didn't have a claim, [Group Lotus] had a claim. And they lost that case.
"But I've always had the door open and it may be a win-win for everybody and we walk away."
According to reports, Fernandes would likely move to rename his team in line with his new GP2 team, which races under the name 'Caterham Team AirAsia'.
Fernandes secured a link-up with the British Caterham company earlier this year, in what many saw at the time as the first move towards renaming the F1 team.
"I also always said we wanted to be in the car business and I never hid that fact," Fernandes explained, "And now we have Caterham."
Should Team Lotus drop the historic name for 2012, the Lotus Renault GP team would then become simply 'Lotus', with the Renault brand dropped to their new status as engine supplier.
Renault sold their remaining stake in their former works team to Group Lotus at the start of 2011, though the team has continued to be referred to as 'Renault' throughout this season so far to try and avoid confusion.
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