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Team Lotus has joined a list of resurrected names from the sport's glittering past seeking a return to Formula One next season.

The Norfolk-based Litespeed Formula Three team said in a statement ahead of Sunday's Turkish Grand Prix they had submitted an application to the governing FIA to enter Formula One next season as Team Lotus.

They added that former Lotus grand prix driver Johnny Herbert had joined as "driver manager and global commercial ambassador".

Former Renault, Toyota and Force India technical director Mike Gascoyne is also involved in the project.

The FIA is due to announce the entry list next Friday, with at least 10 would-be new entrants seeking to compete under a budget cap.

Others include a Brabham Grand Prix team entered by a German businessman, who bought the assets of the failed Super Aguri team, Lola and March.

Kuwaiti-financed Prodrive have also applied with their entry, if successful, likely to race eventually under the Aston Martin name.

Force India and former champions Williams are the only existing teams to have submitted unconditional entries, with the other eight attaching conditions to their joint application under the Formula One Teams Association umbrella.

The FIA has said there would be room for three new teams if all the current ones stayed.

However, FOTA and the FIA are at loggerheads over the 2010 rules, with champions Ferrari and others threatening to walk away unless the regulations are rewritten to remove an optional £40 million.

"The FIA's new regulations are a bold initiative which allow for a level playing field in the sport for the first time," said Team Lotus principal Nino Judge, himself a former Lotus engineer, in the Team Lotus statement.

"It underpins our objective to re-establish the Team Lotus name and paves the way for us to introduce a competitive car."

The original Team Lotus was founded by the late Colin Chapman and made its debut in 1958.

It remains the fourth most successful Formula One team with 73 grand prix wins, seven constructors' titles and six drivers' crowns between 1963 and 1978.

Chapman died in 1982 and the team's last race was in 1994.

Reuters