Team Lotus was the motorsport sister company of English sports car manufacturer Lotus Cars. The team ran cars in many motorsport categories including Formula One, Formula Two, Formula Ford, Formula Junior, IndyCar, and sports car racing. Under the direction of founder and chief designer Colin Chapman, Lotus was responsible for many innovative and experimental developments in critical motorsport, in both technical and commercial arenas. More than thirty years after its last race, Team Lotus remained one of the most successful racing teams of all time, winning seven Formula One Constructors' Championships, six Drivers' Championships, and the Indianapolis 500 in the United States between 1962 and 1978.
The Lotus name returned to Formula One in 2010 as Lotus Racing, a team backed by the Malaysian government and led by Tony Fernandes. In 2011, Lotus Racing was renamed as Team Lotus following a disagreement with Group Lotus whereas a Group Lotus-backed entrant entered as Lotus Renault GP, causing a dispute over the use of the Lotus name. In 2012, Lotus Renault GP was rebranded as Lotus F1 Team whereas Fernandes' Team Lotus was renamed as Caterham F1 Team. Lotus F1 Team continued to compete for four seasons before reverting to Renault.
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1950s – Lotus's origins
Colin Chapman established Lotus Engineering Ltd in 1952 at Hornsey, UK. Lotus achieved rapid success with the 1953 Mk 6 and the 1954 Mk 8 sports cars. Team Lotus was split off from Lotus Engineering in 1954. A new Formula Two 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 Bicknell.
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 1952 to 2.2-litres, 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-litres inline with Formula rules – Chapman continued with front-engined F1 cars, but achieved little, 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.
Domination in 1960s and 1970s
The first Formula One victory for a Lotus came in 1954, in the non-Championship Cornwall MRC Formula 1 Race won by John Coombs in a Lotus Mark VIII, although the Mark VIII was not a Formula One car. The first Formula One victory for a Lotus Formula One car was Innes Ireland's win in the non-Championship Glover Trophy in 1960, in a Lotus 18. Stirling Moss recorded the first World Championship victory for a Lotus car at Monaco in his Lotus 18 entered by the privateer Rob Walker Racing Team. The first World Championship Grand Prix win for the Lotus works team came when Ireland won the 1961 United States Grand Prix in a Lotus 21.
There were successes in Formula Two and Formula Junior. The road car business was doing well with the Lotus Seven and the Lotus Elite and this was followed by the Lotus Elan in 1962. More racing success followed with the 26R, the racing version of the Elan, and in 1963 with the Lotus Cortina, which Jack Sears drove to the British Saloon Car Championship title, a feat repeated by Jim Clark in 1964 and Alan Mann in the 1965 European Touring car Championship.
In 1963, Clark drove the Lotus 25 to a remarkable seven wins in the 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.
While very innovative, Chapman also came under criticism for the structural fragility of his designs. The number of top drivers seriously injured or killed in Lotus machinery was considerable – notably Stirling Moss, Alan Stacey, Mike Taylor, Jim Clark, Mike Spence, Bobby Marshman, Graham Hill, Jochen Rindt and Ronnie Peterson. In Dave Friedman's book "Indianapolis Memories 1961–1969", Dan Gurney is quoted as saying, "Did I think the Lotus way of doing things was good? No. We had several structural failures in those cars [Indianapolis Lotus 34 and 38]. But at the time, I felt it was the price you paid for getting something significantly better."
When the Formula One engine size increased to three litres in 1966, Lotus was caught unprepared partly because of the surprising failure of the Coventry Climax 1.5-Litre FWMW Flat-16 project, which prevented Climax from developing a 3-Litre successor. They started the season fielding the hastily prepared and uncompetitive two-litre Coventry-Climax FWMV V8 engine, only switching to the BRM P75 H16 engine in time for the Italian Grand Prix, with the new engine proving to be overweight and unreliable. A switch to the new Ford Cosworth DFV, designed by former Lotus employee Keith Duckworth, in 1967 returned the team to winning form.
1980s
After Chapman's death, the racing team was continued by his widow, Hazel, and managed by Peter Warr, but a series of F1 designs proved unsuccessful since then. Midway through 1983 Lotus hired French designer Gérard Ducarouge and, in five weeks, he built the Renault turbo powered 94T. A switch to Goodyear tyres in 1984 enabled Elio de Angelis to finish third in the World Championship, despite the fact that the Italian did not win a race. The team also finished in 3rd place in the Constructors' Championship.
When Nigel Mansell departed at the end of the year the team hired Ayrton Senna. The Lotus 97T scored victories with de Angelis at Imola and Senna in Portugal and Belgium. The team, although it had now won three races instead of none, lost 3rd in the Constructors' Championship to Williams (who beat them on countback with 4 wins). Senna scored eight pole positions, with two wins (Spain and Detroit) in 1986 driving the evolutionary Lotus 98T. Lotus regained third in the Constructors' Championship, passing Ferrari. At the end of the year the team lost its long-time backing from John Player & Sons and found new sponsorship with Camel. Senna's skills attracted the attention of Honda 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, with the team again finishing 3rd in the Constructors' Championship, like the previous year behind British rivals Williams and McLaren, but ahead of Ferrari.
Senna moved to McLaren in 1988, and Lotus signed Senna's countryman and then World Champion Nelson Piquet from Williams. Both Piquet and Nakajima failed to make any impressions in terms of fighting for victories. However the team still managed to finish 4th in the Constructors' Championship. Lotus showed in 1988 that it took more than a Honda engine to win races. 1988 was the year in which McLaren (with Senna and Alain Prost) won 15 of the season's 16 races with the same specification Honda engines as Lotus were using. The best results for the team were three 3rd places for Piquet in Brazil, San Marino and Australia. Lotus at times were hard-pressed fighting off the less powerful naturally-aspirated V8 cars during the season, and rarely challenged either McLaren or Ferrari.
The Lotus-Honda 100T was not a success and Ducarouge returned to France in mid-1989. Lotus hired Frank Dernie to replace him. With the new engine regulations in 1989, Lotus lost its turbocharged Honda engines and used the normally-aspirated Judd V8 instead. 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. The best results for the team in 1989 was 4th places for Piquet in the British, Canadian and Japanese races, and 4th place and fastest lap for Nakajima in Australia. At the end of the season Piquet left for Benetton, and Nakajima moved to Tyrrell.
1990s and demise
A deal was organised for Lamborghini V12 engines and Derek Warwick and Martin Donnelly were hired to drive for 1990. The Dernie design was not a success with Warwick scoring all the three points for a 6th in the 1990 Canadian Grand Prix and a 5th in the 1990 Hungarian Grand Prix; 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 organised 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 to drive updated Lotus 102Bs with Judd engines. At the 1991 San Marino Grand Prix, the team scored its first double points finish since the 1988 Brazilian Grand Prix, with Häkkinen in fifth and Bailey in sixth. Despite this, Bailey was soon replaced by Johnny Herbert for the balance of the season. For the following year, the team signed a deal to use Ford's HB V8 in their new Lotus 107s, designed by Chris Murphy. The team was now short on money and this affected performance, but the car allowed Häkkinen to score 11 points, including two fourth places at the 1992 French Grand Prix (where he had failed to qualify the previous year) and the 1992 Hungarian Grand Prix, while Herbert scored two points for 6th Places at the 1992 South African Grand Prix and 1992 French Grand Prix. The team finished 5th in the Constructors' Championship. Häkkinen, who finished 8th in the 1992 Drivers' Championship, moved to McLaren as a test driver in 1993. He was replaced by Alessandro Zanardi, who was himself replaced by Pedro Lamy after crashing heavily at the 1993 Belgian Grand Prix, where Herbert scored the last two points for Team Lotus. Over the year, the team scored 12 points despite the tight budget and finished 6th in the 1993 Constructors' Championship. Herbert finished 9th in the Drivers' Championship with three 4th placements: the 1993 Brazilian Grand Prix, where he lost 3rd to Benetton's Michael Schumacher shortly before the end of the race; the 1993 European Grand Prix, where he made only one pit stop for tyres; and the 1993 British Grand Prix, where he was not far behind Riccardo Patrese's 3rd placed Benetton at the end, having benefited from the retirements of Ayrton Senna, Martin Brundle and Damon Hill. Zanardi scored one 6th place at the 1993 Brazilian Grand Prix, the last race with both Lotus cars in the points. In exchange for licensing Team Lotus for the F1 Circus series, Japanese video game company Nichibutsu sponsored the team from 1991 to 1993.
Debts were mounting and the team was unable to develop the Lotus 107. For the 1994 season, the team gambled on success with Mugen Honda engines. Herbert and Lamy struggled on with the old car for the first few races. The Portuguese driver was seriously injured in an accident in testing at Silverstone and Zanardi returned. The team's new car, the Lotus 109, was introduced at the 1994 Spanish Grand Prix, five races into the season, but only one car was available until the French Grand Prix two races later. In an effort to survive the team took on pay-driver Philippe Adams at the 1994 Belgian Grand Prix, but by the time of the Italian Grand Prix Zanardi was back in the car. Herbert qualified fourth in the 109, but at the first corner he was punted off by the Jordan of Eddie Irvine. Herbert later commented that he felt he could have won the race. 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.
2010–2015: Return of the Lotus name in Formula One
In 2009, when the FIA announced an intention to invite entries for a budget-limited championship in 2010, Litespeed acquired the right to submit an entry under the historic name. Lotus Cars, the sister company of the original Team Lotus, distanced itself from the new entry and announced its willingness to take action to protect its name and reputation if necessary. When the 2010 entry list was released on 12 June 2009, the Litespeed Team Lotus entry was not one of those selected. In the same year, reports emerged of plans of a Malaysian government-backed Lotus named entry for the 2010 season to promote the Malaysian car manufacturer Proton, which at that time owned Lotus Cars. On 15 September 2009, the FIA announced that the Malaysian-backed entrant Lotus Racing, led by Tony Fernandes, had been granted admission into the 2010 season.
Group Lotus later terminated the licence for future seasons as a result of "flagrant and persistent breaches of the licence by the team". On 24 September 2010, it was announced that Lotus Racing was renamed as Team Lotus after Tony Fernandes had acquired the rights of the original Team Lotus from David Hunt, marking the return of Team Lotus in Formula One. On 8 December 2010, Genii Capital and Group Lotus announced the creation of Lotus Renault GP, the successor to the Renault F1 Team that would contest in 2011 as part of a strategic alliance between the two companies. Although neither team had any links to the original Team Lotus, only Fernandes' Team Lotus had the name whereas Lotus Renault GP was backed by Group Lotus. On 23 December 2010, the Chapman family released a statement in which they unequivocally backed Group Lotus in the dispute over the use of the Lotus name in Formula One and made it clear that they would prefer that the Team Lotus name did not return. On 27 May 2011, Justice Peter Smith made his verdict public in High Court, giving permission to Fernandes to naming his team Team Lotus after purchasing the rights from previous owner David Hunt. Justice Smith also declared that Group Lotus were entitled to race using the historic black and gold livery and have the right to use the Lotus marque. The 2011 season, therefore, had two teams competing with the Lotus name.
In 2012, Lotus Renault GP was renamed as Lotus F1 Team whereas Team Lotus was renamed as Caterham F1 Team following Fernandes' purchase of Caterham Cars. Lotus F1 Team competed for four seasons before the team was reverted to Renault whereas Caterham F1 Team competed for three seasons before going into administration.