The Lotus F1 team is owned by Genii Capital, who had a sponsorship deal in place with Group Lotus. However, with the latter having recently been sold to Malaysian automotive conglomerate DRB-Hicom, the relationship has been cancelled.

"The sponsorship agreement and the obligations of Lotus have been terminated," Genii owner Lopez told Autosport.

"There is no option from Group Lotus to buy into F1 now - that option was taken over by us. There was one, but we have taken it over now."

But Lopez is keen to keep the Lotus name in Formula One.

"We are happy to carry the Lotus name as we believe it is a good name for F1," he added.

"We funded the team last year and the year before for whatever delta was missing. We would prefer to have sponsors up to the full amount - but if we have to fund it then we will fund it.

"When we changed the name from Lotus Renault to Lotus [for this year], it opened up the door for a title sponsor.

"So if you take into account the fact we signed Unilever, probably the biggest sponsorship agreement this year in F1, and we signed Microsoft, which is huge news as it is a brand that has never been in F1 before, we have a wide space for sponsorship.

"If we sign a title sponsor now, we will end up with a better cash flow situation than this team ever had before."