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Team Lotus was one of Formula 1's most successful teams.
1950s - A New Presence
Colin Chapman established Lotus Engineering in 1952 at Hornsey, UK. Lotus achieved rapid success with the 1953 Mk 6, and the 1954 Mk 8, the first aerodynamic sports racer. A new Formula 2 regulation was announced for 1957 and in Britain several organizers ran races for the new regulations during the course of 1956. Most of the cars entered that year were sports cars and they included a large number of Lotus 11s, the definitive Coventry Climax powered sports racer, led by the Team Lotus entries for Chapman, driven by Cliff Allison and Reg Bricknell.
The following year the Lotus 12 appeared. Driving one in 1958 Allison won the F2 class in the International Trophy at Silverstone beating Stuart Lewis-Evans's Cooper. The remarkable Coventry Climax powered Type 14, the Lotus Cars production version of which was the original Lotus Elite, won six class victories, plus the "Index of Performance" several times at the 24 Hours of Le Mans race.
As the Coventry Climax engines were enlarged in 1958 to 2.2-liters Chapman decided to enter Grand Prix racing, running a pair of Lotus 12s at Monaco in 1958 for Graham Hill and Cliff Allison. These were replaced later that year by Lotus 16s.
In 1959 - by which time the Coventry Climax engines had been stretched to 2.5-liters - Chapman continued with a front-engined F1 cars but achieved little, and so in 1960 Chapman switched to the milestone mid-engined Lotus 18. By then the company's success had caused it to expand to such an extent that it had to move to new premises at Cheshunt.
1960s and 70s - dominant force
The first Formula 1 victory for a Lotus came at Monaco in 1960 when Stirling Moss beat the dominant Ferrari team in his privately entered Rob Walker Lotus 18. The first victory of Team Lotus was in 1961 when Innes Ireland won the United States Grand Prix.
In 1963 Clark drove the Lotus 25 to a remarkable seven wins in a season and won the World Championship. The 1964 title was still for the taking by the time of the last race in Mexico but problems with Clark's Lotus and Hill's BRM gave it to Surtees in his Ferrari. However, in 1965, Clark dominated again, six wins in his Lotus 33 gave him the championship. For the new 3-liter Formula 1 in 1966 Chapman chose BRM engines (a mistake) for his Lotus 43 but the arrival of the Ford Cosworth DFV, designed by former Lotus employee Keith Duckworth, in 1967 returned the team to winning ways.The first ever Formula Ford car was built around a Formula 3 Lotus, the Type 51. Graham Hill won the F1 World Championship in 1968 driving the Lotus 49. In 1970 Jochen Rindt was posthumous World Champion having driven a "49" and the Lotus 72 to victory. And Emerson Fittipaldi used a revised version of the car to win Lotus another World Championship in 1972. In addition. Team Lotus won the F1 World Championship for Manufacturers for a sixth time in 1973.
The company, now permanently situated at Ketteringham Hall, continued to do well financially as the demand for sports cars in the 1960s, before the US Federal Government introduced the sweeping regulations of the '70's, seemed to be endless.
Chapman was also successful at Indianapolis with the Lotus 29 almost winning the 500 at its first attempt in 1963 with Clark at the wheel. The race marked the beginning of the end for the old front-engined Indianapolis roadsters. Clark was leading when he retired from the 1964 event with suspension failure, but in 1965 he won the biggest prize in US racing driving his Lotus 38; The first ever mid-engined car to win the Indianapolis 500.
Many of Chapman's successes came from innovation. The Lotus 25 was the first monocoque chassis in F1, the 49 was the first car of note to use the engine as a stressed member, the Lotus 56 Indycar was powered by a gas turbine engine and was fitted with four wheel drive, the Lotus 63 was the first F1 car to use four wheel drive, and the 72 broke new ground in aerodynamics. Chapman was also an innovator as a team boss, and it was Team Lotus which first introduced major commercial sponsorship to F1 at Monaco in 1968 appearing in the Red, Gold and White colors of Imperial Tobacco's Gold Leaf brand.
Team Lotus was first to achieve 50 Grand Prix victories. (Ferrari was the second team to do so, having won their first Formula 1 race in 1951, seven years before the first ever Lotus F1 car.)
In the mid-1970s Lotus engineers began to investigate aerodynamic ground effects. The Lotus 78, and then the Lotus 79 of 1978 were extraordinarily successful with Mario Andretti winning the F1 World Championship. Lotus attempted to take ground effects further with the Lotus 80 and Lotus 88 The team was the first team to introduce carbon fibre to F1, when it introduced its all carbon fibre Lotus 91 in 1982. Chapman was beginning work on an active suspension development program when he died of a heart attack in December 1982 at the age of only 54.
1980s - moderate success
After Chapman's death the racing team was taken over by Peter Warr but a series of F1 designs had proved unsuccessful. Midway through 1983 Lotus hired French designer Gérard Ducarouge and, in five weeks, he built the Renault turbo powered 94T. A switch to Goodyear tires in 1984 enabled Elio de Angelis to finish third in the World Championship, despite the fact that the Italian did not win a race. When Nigel Mansell departed at the end of the year the team hired Ayrton Senna. The Lotus 97T was another solid achiever with de Angelis winning at Imola and Senna in Portugal and Belgium. Senna scored eight pole positions, with two wins (Spain and Detroit) in 1986. At the end of the year the team lost its long time John Player & Sons Ltd backing (John Player Special) and found new sponsorship with Camel. Senna's skills attracted the attention of the Honda Motor Company and when Lotus agreed to run Satoru Nakajima as its second driver a deal for engines was agreed. The Ducarouge-designed 99T featured active suspension, but Senna was able to win just twice: at Monaco and Detroit. The Brazilian moved to McLaren in 1988 and Lotus signed Nelson Piquet from Williams.
1990s - The end
The Lotus-Honda 100T was not a success and Ducarouge decided in mid 1989 that he was going to return to France. Lotus hired Frank Dernie to replace him. With the new normally-aspirated engine regulations in 1989 Lotus lost its Honda turbo engines and moved to Judd V8 engines. In the middle of the year Warr departed and was replaced as team manager by Rupert Manwaring, while long time Lotus senior executive Tony Rudd was brought in as chairman. At the end of the season Piquet went to Benetton and Nakajima to Tyrrell. A deal was organized for Lamborghini V12 engines and Derek Warwick and Martin Donnelly were hired to drive. The Dernie design was not a success and Donnelly was nearly killed in a violent accident at Jerez. At the end of the year Camel withdrew their sponsorship.
Former Team Lotus employees Peter Collins and Peter Wright organized a deal to take over the team from the Chapman Family and in December the new Team Lotus was launched with Mika Häkkinen and Julian Bailey being signed for the 1991 season. Bailey was soon replaced by Johnny Herbert and a deal was struck for the team to use Ford V8 engines in 1992. The team was now short on money and this affected performance, but it did well, Häkkinen scoring 11 points and the team finishing fifth in the Constructors' title. Häkkinen moved to McLaren in 1993 and after his replacement Alex Zanardi crashed heavily at the Belgian GP, Herbert was joined by Pedro Lamy. The team scored 12 points despite the tight budget and finished sixth in the '93 Constructors' Championship.
Unfortunately debts were mounting and the team was unable to develop the Lotus 107, which had been designed by Chris Murphy. The team gambled on success with Mugen Honda engines. Herbert and Lamy struggled with the old car. The Portuguese driver was seriously injured in an accident in testing at Silverstone and Zanardi returned. The hope was that the new Lotus-Mugen Honda 109 would save the day. In an effort to survive the team took on pay-driver Philippe Adams at the Belgian GP. At Monza Zanardi was back in the car, and the new 109 was ready. Herbert qualified fourth but at the first corner he was punted off by the Jordan of Eddie Irvine. The following day the team applied for an Administration Order to protect itself from creditors. Tom Walkinshaw pounced and bought Johnny Herbert's contract, moving him into Ligier and then Benetton.
In October the team was sold to David Hunt, brother of James. Mika Salo was hired to replace Herbert. In December, however, work on the design of a new car was halted and the staff laid off. In February 1995 Hunt announced an alliance with Pacific Grand Prix and the Illustrious history of Team Lotus came to an inauspicious end.
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"Team Lotus"