The rise and fall of Lotus as an F1 superpower

Sixty years ago, Innes Ireland took the first Formula 1 world championship win for Team Lotus in the United States Grand Prix.

Stirling Moss had already scored four victories for founder and designer Colin Chapman’s cars, run by the crack privateer Rob Walker squad, and Lotus was to become a true powerhouse over the next two decades.

Lotus would take its first title double in 1963, and by the time Team Lotus closed its doors in 1994 the British constructor had racked up 79 victories, six drivers’ titles and seven constructors’ championships. Even now, only Ferrari, McLaren, Williams and Mercedes can match or better those figures.

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To mark the anniversary we thought we would delve into Lotus’s F1 form over the years, just as we have done for Ferrari, Williams and McLaren. Once again, we’ve used supertimes, which are based on the fastest single lap by each car at each race weekend, expressed as a percentage of the fastest lap overall (100.000%) and averaged over the season. We’ve used all Lotus entries, not just the works, but have ignored the times when the Lotus name has been brought back, first by the Malaysian-backed team that later became Caterham and then the Enstone-based ‘Lotus’ between its different Renault eras.

 

Lotus arrived in F1 in 1958 with the front-engined type 12 and 16 models. As historic racing has shown, the lightweight 16 had the potential to be rapid but that was not unlocked in period.

As was to become a theme for Chapman, the cars weren’t reliable either. Lotus was 5.307% and 3.829% off the pace in 1958 and 1959 respectively, though the period’s bigger gaps meant that it was actually fourth fastest in the later year and took the same spot in the constructors’ championship!

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Chapman’s first rear-engined F1 car, the 18, made Lotus a frontrunner. Its pace encouraged Cooper to introduce the lowline T53 and Lotus ended the season just 0.042% behind the double title-winning team on supertimes. That result might have been reversed – and a closer championship fight enjoyed – had fastest Lotus driver Moss not been put out of action by a terrible crash caused when a wheel fell off his 18 at Spa.

Cooper and Lotus were both jumped by Ferrari as F1’s new 1500cc regulations arrived in 1961. The ‘Sharknose’ 156’s main advantage was engine power and Ferrari was 1.060% clear across the season, only Moss virtuosity twice defeating the Italian cars in Walker’s Lotus.

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Lotus kept a narrow pace advantage for the final two seasons of the 1.5-litre era. The difference was that in 1964 unreliability cost Clark, whereas the following season he was able to finish – and win – the first six world championship races he started

Ireland’s win in the season-closing race at Watkins Glen was scored in the absence of Ferrari, which had already secured both titles at the tragic Italian GP. He was replaced for the following season as Chapman made Jim Clark his lead driver.

He also introduced the first big Lotus F1 innovation, the monocoque chassis, with the Lotus 25. It was the fastest car of the season by 0.269% but reliability let down Lotus – and Clark – allowing BRM and Graham Hill to take advantage.

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There were no such mistakes in 1963, a 0.474% advantage being enough for Clark to win seven of the 10 races, both the Scot and Lotus taking the maximum score under the points system of the time.

Jim Clark in the Lotus 25 at the 1963 Italian GP

Photo by: Rainer Schlegelmilch / Motorsport Images

Lotus kept a narrow pace advantage for the final two seasons of the 1.5-litre era. The difference was that in 1964 unreliability cost Clark, whereas the following season he was able to finish – and win – the first six world championship races he started. It’s also worth noting that Lotus’s absence from the 1965 Monaco GP (due to being busy winning the Indianapolis 500) reduced its overall supertimes advantage – there were slower privateer cars that are included in the calculations.

Like most teams, Lotus lacked a suitable powerplant for the arrival of the three-litre regulations in 1966. Using a combination of two-litre Climax and BRM power, and the three-litre BRM H16, Lotus fell to fifth on supertimes, 1.026% off the pace. It managed just one victory.

But Chapman already had a plan, having pulled together Cosworth expertise and Ford backing to create the DFV. And in the Lotus 49 he made it a stressed member, creating another game-changer.

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Across 1967 Lotus’s advantage was 0.915% but even that underplays the car’s advantage. If only the races at which the 49 appeared (following its winning debut in the Dutch GP, round three) are included that number climbs to 1.217%.

Hill and Clark took pole for every race following the 49’s arrival but woeful reliability meant Lotus lost both championships to Brabham. That makes the 1967 version of the Lotus 49 one of F1’s very fastest failures.

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It made amends in 1968. Lotus fell to second, behind Ferrari, and faced a strong challenge from Matra and Jackie Stewart. But a dogged campaign from Hill in the wake of Clark’s death in an F2 race helped Lotus secure a title double.

The Matra-Stewart and Lotus-Jochen Rindt combinations were evenly matched on pace in 1969 but the blue car’s finishing record was much better. Stewart strolled to the title despite Matra’s relatively small 0.106% advantage.

The 49 was still capable of winning in 1970, which was just as well given the time and work required to sort out Chapman’s next wondercar, the 72.

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Over the season Lotus was only fourth fastest on supertimes, 0.663% behind Ferrari. But that includes the races in which the 49 was wheeled out, the events before the 72 was sorted and the GPs after team leader Rindt was killed at Monza. In the middle of the season, Rindt scored four straight victories and built enough of a championship lead to win the title posthumously.

Jochen Rindt in the Lotus 72C on the way to winning the 1970 German GP

Photo by: David Phipps / Motorsport Images

Lotus fell back to fifth and 1.409% behind Tyrrell in 1971 as it worked to get the 72 working on Firestone’s new slick tyres but things were looking better by the end of the season. Emerson Fittipaldi scored five wins on his way to a fine title in 1972, helped by illness striking main rival Stewart.

It was a close season in terms of pace, Lotus only being fourth but only 0.296% slower than pacesetter Ferrari, but the 72 was consistently competitive and took both titles.

It arguably should have done the same in 1973. The combination of the now-perfected 72, Goodyear rubber, Fittipaldi and new signing Ronnie Peterson was the fastest of that campaign. Peterson took nine of the team’s 10 poles from 15 races and Lotus had a 0.669% pace advantage. But bad luck for the Swede, the points being shared between the two drivers, and a brilliant final F1 season from Stewart meant Lotus had to be content with ‘just’ the constructors’ crown.

Race of my life: Jackie Stewart on the 1973 Italian GP

Lotus needed time to regroup and 1975 could perhaps be seen as a holding year, the 72E pressed into service once again. It fell to ninth fastest, 1.662% behind, and Lotus was only seventh in the constructors’ table, its worst performance to date

The 72 began to show its age in 1974 and was fourth quickest. Using both the 72 and its troubled ‘replacement’, the 76, Lotus was 0.858% slower than Ferrari, though it was only 0.142% behind the McLaren M23 that took both titles and Peterson managed three victories.

Lotus needed time to regroup and 1975 could perhaps be seen as a holding year, the 72E pressed into service once again. It fell to ninth fastest, 1.662% behind, and Lotus was only seventh in the constructors’ table, its worst performance to date.

Colin Chapman and Ronnie Peterson at the 1975 Italian GP

Photo by: Motorsport Images

The arrival of Mario Andretti and the new 77 steadied the ship. Although Lotus was still ninth on supertimes in 1976, it closed to within 1.270% of the front and Andretti won the famous wet season-closer at Fuji. And Lotus was on the verge of another breakthrough with ground-effect.

The Lotus 78 was the result of work from Chapman, Tony Rudd and the design team on using airflow under the car to create downforce. It was the fastest car of the season by 0.206% and was 0.573% ahead of Ferrari, which claimed both titles with Niki Lauda. Problems with development Cosworth DFV engines cost Andretti several races, leaving the American only third in the table despite leading more laps and taking more poles than anyone else.

The 78 won two of the first three races of 1978 and Andretti was tied with Ferrari’s Carlos Reutemann at the top of the points standings when Chapman wheeled out the sleek 79 for round five in Belgium. Andretti took pole by 0.79 seconds and won – with Peterson second in the old 78 to really rub it in.

Andretti would win another four races (and a fifth on the road), with Peterson adding another, as Lotus won both titles for the last time. Its advantage was 0.751% – or 0.993% once the 79 was introduced – marking F1’s biggest margin since 1967.

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Remarkably, Lotus would not win another F1 race for four years. In perhaps the best example of Chapman’s quest to find the next big step, Lotus tried to make a ‘full wing’ car with the type 80. The team could never get the concept to work, while other squads – most notably Williams – simply built better versions of the Lotus 79.

Lotus ended up relying on the 79 for most of 1979 and fell to sixth, 0.865% off the pace, and subsequent models failed to arrest the slide. Lotus was 1.522% (sixth) and 1.694% (seventh) off the pace in 1980 and 1981 respectively as Chapman got more frustrated with increasingly tight F1 regulations – and the banning of the twin-chassis 88.

The turbo revolution was also under way, enabling those with forced induction to turn up the boost in qualifying. This spread out the field in terms of raw pace, even though the turbo cars’ race pace (and reliability) was less impressive. That helps to explain why DFV-powered Lotus was able to win a race in 1982 despite being eighth fastest, 3.235% off pacesetter Renault.

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Elio de Angelis narrowly winning the 1982 Austrian GP in the Lotus 91, beating Brabham's Nelson Piquet

Photo by: David Phipps / Motorsport Images

Chapman died in December 1982 but had already had a hand in the next two Lotus F1 cars, the DFV-engined 92 and the Renault turbo-powered 93T. This brought the team closer to the pace and up to fourth fastest, but the gap to the front was still 1.984% and there were no wins in 1983.

There probably should have been in 1984 with the Gerard Ducarouge-penned 95T. The Renault-powered car lifted Lotus to fourth, 0.455% from double title-winner McLaren and both Elio de Angelis and Nigel Mansell took a pole. A combination of McLaren’s dominant race performances with its TAG-badged Porsche engine and some mishaps – most notably Mansell crashing out while leading at Monaco – meant no victories, but Lotus was third in the constructors’ championship.

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Ayrton Senna arrived for 1985 and the 97T was competitive, albeit a better qualifying machine than a race car. It was 0.255% clear of the field on raw pace and there were three victories, including Senna’s brilliant wet-weather masterclass in the Portuguese GP.

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Senna’s finishing record was not as good as that of team-mate de Angelis but the duo managed eight poles and nine podiums between them, matching the points tally of Williams and 19 shy of title-winner McLaren.

The team lost Senna and decided not to continue with active suspension in 1988. The 100T chassis was not in the same class as the similarly Honda-engined McLaren MP4/4 and new team leader Piquet had a lacklustre season

It was a similar story in 1986, Senna scorching to eight poles as Lotus topped the supertimes by 0.266%. But the Williams-Honda combination was normally better on race days and Alain Prost starred for McLaren, restricting Senna to fourth in the points and Lotus to third in the constructors’ contest.

Lotus fell to second, 1.331% away, in 1987. But that reflects both the strength of Williams-Honda and a change of emphasis at Lotus. The Honda-powered 99T’s active suspension looked after the tyres – not particularly helpful for qualifying but a good asset for GPs – and Senna focused on race set-up.

The result was a consistent campaign that included two wins and six other podium finishes, taking third in the drivers’ table behind Williams duo Nelson Piquet and Mansell.

The team lost Senna and decided not to continue with active suspension in 1988. The 100T chassis was not in the same class as the similarly Honda-engined McLaren MP4/4 and new team leader Piquet had a lacklustre season. The raw pace gap to the front more than doubled, to 2.831%, and Lotus fell to fourth fastest despite troubles at Williams.

Nelson Piquet in the Lotus 100T at the 1988 Brazilian GP

Photo by: Motorsport Images

It was the beginning of a slide from which Lotus would not recover. The 1989 Lotus 101 was 3.690% off the pace in 10th, not helped by the similar switch from Honda to Judd power that had hurt Williams the year before.

Performance was sufficiently poor that it brought management changes but both Piquet and Satoru Nakajima failed to qualify at Spa, and Lotus fell from fourth to sixth in the constructors’ table.

By now ex-Williams designer Frank Dernie had joined the team and his Lamborghini-engined 102 was a marginal improvement, being eighth fastest, 3.323% behind McLaren. Despite the best efforts of Derek Warwick and Martin Donnelly – who suffered a serious crash at Jerez – Lotus only finished eighth in the constructors’ table.

The troubled team changed hands but the revised 102 continued into 1991. Mika Hakkinen and Julian Bailey finished fifth and sixth respectively in the San Marino GP but they would be the only points Lotus scored all year. It fell to 5.346% off the pace and ninth in the constructors’ title.

The 102 soldiered on into the start of 1992 before being replaced by Chris Murphy’s 107. This was Lotus’s best car for several years and, in the hands of Hakkinen and Johnny Herbert, was a consistent points threat. It was sixth fastest, its 4.577% gap exacerbated by the 102’s appearances early in the season and the massive advantage – 1.492% – of the Williams FW14B at the front of the field.

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Money was becoming a problem and the 107, which also had active suspension, was not reliable, but Lotus still leapt to fifth in the points table, beaten only by Williams, McLaren, Ferrari and Benetton.

The revised 107B fell to eighth fastest and sixth in the table in 1993 as the financial strain continued to bite. Thanks to the banning of many of the ‘gizmos’ perfected by Williams, the field closed up in 1994 but Lotus fell to 11th fastest, still 3.405% off the pace.

Johnny Herbert in the Lotus 107C at the 1994 Brazilian GP

Photo by: Motorsport Images

The Mugen-Honda-powered 109 failed to score a point and Team Lotus finally closed its doors at the end of the 1994 season. The Lotus name has been revived several times in the years since, most notably as the moniker for the ‘Team Enstone’ operation between 2011 and 2015, scoring two wins, but we regard that as a separate entity.

As a constructor, Lotus topped the supertimes rankings 10 times (in 37 seasons), putting it on a par with McLaren and behind only Ferrari, which has been in F1 almost twice as long.

Chapman’s innovations, which helped shape the modern grand prix car, and its successes in the 1960s and 1970s, mean Lotus is still one of the greatest F1 teams of all time – and almost certainly the most legendary of the squads no longer with us.

Colin Chapman throws his hat in the air beside the pitwall as Mario Andretti and Lotus team-mate Ronnie Peterson finish 1-2 at the 1978 Spanish GP

Photo by: David Phipps / Motorsport Images