The owner of Formula One team Lotus has reportedly revealed that they have incurred a whopping debt of 114 million pounds, although he insisted that the club's future is secure.
Gerard Lopez, co-owner of the Genii Capital investment company that runs Lotus, confirmed the debt, saying that more than 80 million pounds of the total debt is internal.
According to the BBC, Lopez further said that Kimi Raikkonen, who quit two races before the end of last season because of non-payment, had 'got part of his salary and will get the rest'.
The report mentioned that Lotus owed Raikkonen 14.5 million pounds at the end of the season, adding that one of the reasons for the delay in paying Raikkonen was that Lotus was waiting for an investment deal with a group called Quantum to go through.
However, Lopez said that they have reconciled the money as marketing expenses in order for the team to go forward, adding that he has now ended his links with the US-Middle Eastern group as the team's finances have been boosted by sponsorship money from their new Venezuelan driver Pastor Maldonado.
The report further said that Maldonado's backer, Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA, is understood to providing about the same 30 million pounds a year as they paid Williams from 2011-13.