The team achieved a race victory and fourth position in the Formula One Constructors' World Championship in their first season under the Lotus title.

Starting with the Lotus E20, the team has recognised these achievements by placing three gold stars in the livery of their car, located just forward of the cockpit.

[citation needed] When discussing the history of the organisation as a whole rather than those of specific constructors it has operated, the colloquialism "Team Enstone" is generally used.

On 9 December 2011 the team announced that GP2 Series champion and 2009 Renault F1 driver Romain Grosjean would race alongside Räikkönen.

[7] The dispute was not settled until the third race in China when the stewards unanimously rejected their formal protest[8] and Lotus subsequently confirmed they would not appeal against the decision.

In Monaco Grosjean was involved in another first lap incident but in Canada he worked a one-stop strategy perfectly to take second position, his best Formula One finish.

At the 2012 Belgian Grand Prix, Grosjean was involved in a multiple car pileup at the start of the race, resulting in Grosjean, Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and Sergio Pérez all being eliminated from the race and Kamui Kobayashi missing out on a possible podium after starting from the front row for the first time of his career.

After Räikkönen was penalised for impeding Nico Hülkenberg in qualifying and Grosjean failed to make Q3, the Malaysian Grand Prix saw Lotus sit only 10th and 11th on the starting grid.

After first corner contact at the start of the 17th round of the championship in Abu Dhabi, Kimi Räikkönen announced that he would be undergoing back surgery and would miss the final two races of the season.

On 5 July 2014, Lotus announced that they would be switching to Mercedes engines from the 2015 season, ending the team's 20-year association with Renault.

[17] Grosjean and Maldonado remained at the team, with Jolyon Palmer and Carmen Jordá being signed as test and development drivers respectively.

In Canada, Grosjean and Maldonado qualified in 5th and 6th places respectively on a track where all Mercedes powered cars had a clear advantage over the rest of the field.

Grosjean was forced to pit again after cutting his rear left tyre while attempting to lap the Marussia of Will Stevens and dropped from 6th to 11th in the process, but recovered to take 10th place and nevertheless secured Lotus's first double points finish of the season.

Both cars retired from the British Grand Prix, after a late breaking Daniel Ricciardo forced Grosjean into Maldonado during the first few corners of the opening lap.

However, the Lotus cars were temporarily seized post-race due to a legal dispute with former test driver, Charles Pic.

[22] During the 2015 Japanese Grand Prix, Lotus were locked out of their hospitality unit, stemming from unpaid bills from the race organizers in Japan from the previous year.

[23] On 30 September, it was announced that Renault had signed a letter of intent to buy a controlling stake of Lotus F1 from Genii Capital.

[25] Seventh and eighth places in the race itself gave the team their first double top eight finish since the 2013 Indian Grand Prix.

[26] In March 2013, days before the launch of the new Lotus E21, American conglomerate Honeywell pulled out of a reported €50 million sponsorship agreement with the team.

For the 2013 season Lotus signed a deal with the Coca-Cola group brand Burn energy drink and Pastor Maldonado sponsor PDVSA.

[31] The company later on was majority owned by Groupe Renault, with Jérôme Stoll as chairmen and Cyril Abiteboul appointed managing director.