Lotus F1 CEO Patrick Louis steps down

A management reshuffle at Lotus F1 has resulted in Patrick Louis stepping down as Chief Executive Officer, a spokesman for the team has confirmed to Crash.net.

Louis will remain on the board of Lotus and will take up a new position at Genii Automotive.

Louis, who joined the team as Chief Operating Officer in 2010 when Genii Capital bought the operation from Renault, will be replaced as CEO by Matthew Carter who is supported by minority shareholder Andrew Ruhan, a property investor who bought an estimated two per cent stake in the team for one million pounds early last year.

The management reshuffle comes after the team's hoped-for financial investment from Quantum Motorsports failed to materialise at the end of 2013.

The stalling of that deal meant that team principal Eric Boullier had to give up on his plans on attracting Nico Hulkenberg to the team to race alongside existing driver Romain Grosjean after the departure of Kimi Raikkonen to Ferrari,

Instead, Lotus have since signed up Pastor Maldonado as their new driver, who beings with him extensive sponsorship funding from Venezuela's state oil and gas company PDVSA.

Raikkonen's time at Enstone came to a premature end in 2013 when the Finn needed back surgery after experiencing pain from an old racing injury.

Raikkonen had also been in dispute with the team over unpaid salary for the year, at one point indicating that he hadn't been paid for any races at all. The reports had contributed to speculation about Lotus' overall financial position and viability moving into 2014.