WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU LOSE YOUR LEADER! The Downfall of the Lotus F1 Team (1983-1994)

[@OnionChoppingNinja]

When you learn about the unceremonious downfall of the likes of Lotus, Brabham and BRM it becomes understandable why people get so militaristic about preserving Williams

[@therrydicule]

At this point, it feels like it's Williams in name only anyway...

[@OnionChoppingNinja]

@@therrydicule Why? because the Williams Family is no longer associated? Does that make McLaren only McLaren in name because of Bruce's untimely demise?

[@therrydicule]

@@OnionChoppingNinja McLaren kept somehow the same image since the 1980s. It's not the same staff... Williams? That's not the same mood with the staff, not really the same image. It became what Pacific was to Lotus. A shell of its former self.

[@RukaGoldheart]

​@@therrydicule McLaren today and McLaren 5 years ago are already completely different. So I won't tell you just how wildly different they are from the 80s.

[@OnionChoppingNinja]

@@therrydicule Total horse shit. Wind the clock back 10 20 30 or 40 years buddy; you'll see a VERY different McLaren then what you see today. you see a very corporate soulless machine of a team.

[@marknielsen9762]

I was at the 1994 Italian GP. Lotus had a single new uprated mugen engine for Herbert. He qualified a solid fourth. He was hit by Irvine at the start, after having passed Hill into third place, the track was blocked and the race stopped. Herbert took the restart in the spare, which lacked the uprated engine. Has was out on lap thirteen with a failed alternator. But for the accident, they may well have had a finish good enough to attract more money.

[@slowhoon]

My memory of that race was of someone (probably Murray Walker) saying that if Lotus had a good result in that race then they would get a cash injection from somewhere for the rest of the season. Johnny Herbert's crash told me that was the end of Lotus.

[@Ryzard]

That's such a sad ending... You know that if the commentators know it, so did Herbert and the rest of the team. That's the worst feeling in the world :(

[@jimgraves4197]

I'm thankful we still have Classic Team Lotus running the championship winning cars at Historic races and Goodwood

[@AidanMillward]

When o went to Silverstone with radical one of the drivers was the guy who races the 79. He said it’s insane.

[@MrSniperfox29]

You missed Lotus "merging" with Pacific for 1995 and the only thing they contributed to the new team was a little tub of paint to put the Lotus badge on the car

[@chrisdavidson911]

There wasn't time for anything more than that! The PR02 does have some bits that looked a lot like the 112 wind tunnel model though

[@ivaneurope]

The most notable thing of that era was when Keith Wiggins for nearly half a hour tried to open a bottle of champagne.

[@kingakim11]

lmaoo

[@BungleBare]

There was a British Racing Green stripe edged in yellow that ran across the nose of the car, along the cockpit sides, and along the base of the engine cover of the ‘95 Pacific, recalling Lotus’ pre-sponsorship colours. The only tangible thing Lotus gave Pacific that year though was a guaranteed start if they could qualify the car- by pulling out on the ‘95 season the grid size shrank by two cars (Lotus and Larousse left, while only Forti arrived in their place). In ‘94 two cars would have failed to qualify, based on grid size, but that problem for Pacific fixed itself for ‘95. Not that having a near-guarantee of starting every Grand Prix seemed to help drive development.

[@MrSniperfox29]

@@BungleBareAnd even then that only lasted until Simtek pulled out after Monaco and given how hopeless Forti were at the start of the season, Pacific would have still qualified for every race regardless

[@charamia9402]

Funfact; way back when, my brother got an F1 card game (yes, card game) which featured Senna and Nakajima in Camel Lotus. Other drivers featured were Johansson, Palmer, Prost, Arnoux, Capelli, Berger and Patrese. That's my main reference point for drivers back then. We still play that card game, every year, at christmas.

[@Selzor]

How does it work? Do you just draw cards and argue for 3 hours over who was a better driver like me and my friends used to with baseball cards?

[@charamia9402]

@@Selzor Sounds like fun, might try that next christmas! No, it's a proper game based on numbers. Cylinders, Cc, kW, km/h and weight I believe. Of course over the past 20-25 years or so we've learnt the best stat for each car, but you might be unlucky and call Warwicks 604kW against Patreses 605kW you know. Or a Zakspeed of 580 kg against the Osella of 585 kg. There is no single card that could beat all other cards on all stats either, so it's all to play for so to speak. The deck is divided equally between the players, highest chosen stat gets the card and put both cards at the back of their bunch, winner of the round calls next stat, and you keep going until one player has the entire deck.

[@markalbert9011]

My uncle was a pattern maker in the engine induction R&D department at Ford in the 60's and 70's where he met many luminaries in auto racing. He said Chapman's most amazing quality was his charisma. "You would be listening to him thinking he's full of sh*t and you just want him gone. Then he comes over to you and asks a favor and you simply can't say no". And trust me, my uncle found saying NO pretty easy.

[@ianwynne764]

Hello Aidan: This was excellent thank you. I am old enough to remember when the 49's were racing. When the 72 came out, it look like a UFO. Have a good day.

[@LJW1912]

The only benefit to Lotus' misfortunes was the surprisingly beautiful liveries of the last few cars

[@yudhabagaskara98]

castrol liveries are far cry compared to legendary jps liveries

[@HammerHeart3229]

The 1992 livery was pretty good, that 1994 livery screams 'Backmarker' though. Like the commenter above me said too, those final liveries were a far cry from the JPS days.

[@SamuelSantos_]

Crazy how in 1994 Johnny Herbert drove for one team that was about to cease, one team that was well past its prime and a couple years away from new ownership, and one team that was about to win its first championship.

[@AnimaDweller]

It's such a shame to see Lotus fall down from grace like they did. Lotus is proof that no team is safe, not even in the modern era if we see how close Williams was of suffering the same fate.

[@CyberAuto]

Just before passing away, Colin Chapman had also started started a venture with the equally genial Burt Rutan to build lotus ultra light aircraft. They were of fibreglass construction and powered by a lotus designed engine. Story goes the first prototype arrived at the lotus from the Rutan Aircraft Factory a few days after Chapman`s death.

[@_Ben4810]

Let's be honest, Chapman was pretty flush with cash for his passion projects just before he passed away...😉

[@gus8016]

8:55 im from the same town as dumfries, he was a class guy and nobody here has anything bad to say about him, honestly one of the nicest guys ever but sadly he passed a couple of years ago

[@ic3man]

11:23 Camel leaving for Benetton is ironic because Benetton got taken over by Renault then Lotus took over fully in 2012 until Renault got the team back in 2016

[@_Ben4810]

There was no takeover of the Enstone F1 team by Lotus...It was purely a marketing only agreement by the then Group Lotus boss Dany Bahar whose ambitions didn't align with reality in any & everything he did....

[@thatguyfromcetialphaV]

Lotus' business manager didn't help. He was paying the previous years' bills with the sponsorship for the new season rather than spending to develop the car, as well as defrauding all of Lotus' shareholders. Peter Warr didn't think much of Mansell for whatever reason. By the end Senna's time at Lotus, he didn't think much of Warr either.

[@tjroelsma]

If your company almost exclusively depends on one person for its success, then that company will almost certainly fail when that person passes away. The people around Chapman were mostly just flunkies and only did secondary chores so Chapman could fully concentrate on developing his cars. Without Chapman, there was no one to step up and take over, so Lotus started fading away.

[@briankearn6991]

Chapman had already ruined Lotus business. He was being investigated for his fraudulent involvement with DeLorean when he died.

[@chrisdavidson911]

@@briankearn6991 you say that as if Group Lotus didn't survive

[@chrisdavidson911]

Ron Dennis used to say Nigel was the sort of driver he wouldn't employ

[@briankearn6991]

@@chrisdavidson911 New investors had to pay for Chapman’s deceitful business practices. Toyota sold their investment to GM. Lotus has had several owners since and has never made much profit.

[@daveblock4061]

So sad Lotus could not survive sans Chapman as Ferrari did after Il Commendatore passed. They still have the most beautiful cars ever designed. Who still does not watch video of Andretti in the 79 or Senna in the 98T JPS?

[@AidanMillward]

Ferrari had the FIAT money, might be why.

[@daveblock4061]

@@AidanMillward Quite true. Plus Enzo was grooming Luca di Montezemolo to take over. Chapman at dying 54 did not see the need (likely prison not withstanding).

[@noobsaibot7006]

​@@AidanMillward also Chapman did not even choose a successor. F1 team died with Colin chapman.

[@ethanstiles948]

Best motorsports history channel on KZbin! Instant watch every time you upload! Appreciate all the work and research you do for this!

[@charamia9402]

Funfact; my brother has an F1 card game from way back when, where Senna and Nakajima are featured in Camel Lotus. Other drivers featured are Johansson, Palmer, Prost, Berger, Arnoux, Capelli and Patrese. That's my main reference point for drivers back then. We still play that card game, every year, at christmas.

[@christodejong42]

I believe it was a South African team who was the first to run a sponsor livery? Lexington if I recall

[@Shroomdiffnuclear]

That JPS and the Senna Camel Lotus are pure nostalgia 😢

[@adrianperezfunes3502]

Greetings from South America, beautiful concepts you have about us....

[@ivaneurope]

The 'Chapman faked his death' conspiracy is something befitting of a story for a James Bond villain to be honest. And I think not much credit has been given to Elio de Angelis for the upward trend for Lotus in the mid-80's - sure, he wasn't Senna, Prost or even Piquet, but was consistent enough to finish 3rd in the drivers standings in 1984 ahead of the Ferrari of Alboreto, Piquet in the Brabham, both Renault's of Warwick and Tambay, Keke Rosberg in the Williams his own teammate in Mansell and of course Senna. Only the two McLarens of Niki Lauda and Alain Prost were ahead, but let's be real here - the McLaren's were in a league of their own. And the following season finished just 5 points behind Senna which isn't really bad. And it's a shame that his life was tragically cut short in a testing incident at Paul Ricard (the last fatal incident in a contemporary F1 car until the deaths of Ratzenberger and Senna at Imola).

[@_Ben4810]

I always love the story of Emerson Fittipaldi surprised to see Hazel Chapman travelling alone at Sao Paulo airport in the mid 80's...!?! 😉🤔💰😄

[@JohnSmithShields]

One of the stories I both was looking forward to hearing, but not at the same time. Well handled.

[@thegridgab]

Love the videos! As someone who loved 90's F1, your channel is the place to be!

[@icewhitegames6875]

Always enjoy your retrospective videos. Much appreciated.

[@JkTheMixer]

I did some research into Essex and wrote a small article about it to a local motorsports magazine. That was the pivotal high life moment for Lotus team members, money and Michelin star chefs and private jumbo jets only brought them backwards in the grid. Arguably, this is where Lotus started to struggle in development, and after the wake of the scandal, in research too. Chapman regretted it immensely in his last months, which is really sad.

[@_Ben4810]

The Essex Petroleum period was for Chapman yet another wake-up call that all his years of hard toil hadn't put him in the super wealthy league like David Theme & John DeLorean were, & he made many efforts to climb the elite rich lifestyle ladder & join them...

[@How_to_Fish]

The downfall of Lotus was inevitable once Colin Chapman died. Even during Chapman's time Lotus had funding problems compared with the other big teams. But Colin's engineering genius made up for it .This was most obvious during 1975. Colin was lost focus with the F1 team to concentrate on the road car side of the business to sell more cars to fund the race team, just like Enzo Ferrari did before Fiat bought Ferrari. Also Colin was a dictator there just wasn't anyone suitable / trained up to take over from him. And without a major manufacturer or investment firm to buy Lotus & pump cash in it was only a matter of when Lotus would fail.

[@ic3man]

13:15 Komatsu is returning with Williams for this year

[@hugoagogo9435]

I know you mean sponsor but a Williams Komatsu would be an interesting combination. 😂

[@_Ben4810]

Komatsu has huge engineering, manufacturing, hydraulics & technical expertise...they are a welcome return to the sport...

[@captainmagenta899]

A thumbs up for the plain, simple tailoring.

[@minibus9]

Awesome video

[@alaricbragg7843]

Michael Bartels also drove for Lotus in 1991, but failed to qualify! Strange, considering how legendary he was later in GT racing.

[@nomar5spaulding]

Nice shirt. I see that's from Garak Menswear. That's my favorite.

[@EuropaSman]

Hi Aidan. As a diehard Team Lotus fan & Lotus owner, I enjoyed the video. I'm not sure if you have covered this in a previous video, but I'm intrigued about Norfolk's other Formula 1 team, Pacific, and their tie up with Team Lotus in 1995, competing as Pacific Team Lotus.

[@_Ben4810]

It was an attempt by David Hunt to keep the Team Lotus name relevant in the sport & the first of many, many, many pipe dreams by Hunt that he could somehow get Team Lotus back on the grid...

[@zanemurcha9742]

David Hunt did a deal with Keith Wiggins of Pacific to combine Lotus and Pacific for 1995. The Pacific car that actually looked a lot like the Lotus 112 concept car. I really admire Hunt's determination as he entered Lotus in nearly every form of Motorsport to try and get back to F1 and he ultimately (kind of) did in 2010. But they really must have taken a toll on his health and he died suddenly of a heart attack in 2015.

[@_Ben4810]

When did David Hunt ever enter Team Lotus into any form of motorsport, let alone ''nearly every form''....???

[@markflowers7214]

He said he didn't have a picture of David Thieme. It took me a few seconds to google a picture of him and he was famous for his El Zorro hat.

[@AidanMillward]

Okay, now find me one I can use under Creative Commons. It wasn't a case of not being able to find one, it was a case of finding one I can use in the video.

[@kevinprior3549]

You should do a video on the reasons and developments of sidepods in F1. For me, the moment Senna left Lotus, the team went down fairly quickly.

[@palm92]

Wonderful video as always!

[@RJFHMusic]

Man those 2014/2015 Williams years were frustrating that they didn't continue that trend 😅

[@orionexplorer]

Lotus was and is one of my favorite race teams. I learned of Emerson Fittipaldi from driving a Lotus 72D, then there was the Lotus 77, 78 & 79, racing innovation at full speed. In fact, being able to race a Lotus 79 in iRacing was the whole reason I joined originally in 2009. Then you have to have the famous Lotus paint job of Black and Gold. Today there is PB Racing running a Lotus Elise (I think) in 24H Series races with driver and team president Stefano d’Aste. If you want to see a REAL character at the track, go and look at some of his driving suits from the late 2000's and early 2010's in the WTCC, especially his Captain America suit from the first time WTCC visited Sanoma Raceway (or Sears Point for us old timers).

[@mrterp04]

4:11 looks like Business Matt Kenseth

[@PaperBanjo64]

Ha ha 😂yes it does

[@Jmeon4eva]

Just don't put him a lasso down and damaged being passed by Joey

[@andrewbowen4544]

Johnny Herbert gave a great interview to Bring Back V10s about his time at Lotus and the final year of Lotus

[@chrisguardiano6143]

For all of their history in F1, I find it remarkable that Lotus did not also participate in CART/Indycar in the 80's or early 90's either as an engine provider or as an outright team though they did develop the 96T to eventually enter CART at some point. However they decided not to enter CART for some reason. It wasn't until 2011 that Lotus entered Indycar as a sponsor for the KV team & then entered the 2012 Indy 500 as their own team with Chevy engines. However the team was absolutely terrible as both cars (driven by Jean Alesi & Simona De Silvestro) were black flagged after 10 laps for being too slow & after the 2012 season they were dropped as a sponsor by KV Racing.

[@_Ben4810]

Roy Winkelmann scared the other CART teams so much that he was bringing the Lotus 96T to the series that they scuppered all his sponsorship & the project was cancelled. Al Unser Jr was to have driven it, & even came to Team Lotus HQ Ketteringham Hall for a seat & driver position fitting in the chassis buck.

[@oliverbyrne3209]

You can always guarantee a well researched accurate video from Aiden

[@BungleBare]

Camel (actually Reynolds Tobacco, to be precise) basically took their sponsorship to Benetton because of Piquet. There’s a copy of Piquet’s Lotus contract on a thread in the Nostalgia Forum bit of Autosport’s website - Piquet was paid directly by Reynolds, as part of their sponsorship of the team. Lotus got a three time world champion in their car in exchange for the sponsorship, as well as a chunk of money. Piquet was technically never a Lotus employee though - he was basically loaned to them by Reynolds. How that contract ended up in the public domain is a bit sketchy, but it seems genuine and is there for all to see. It might even have just found it’s way into a skip when Lotus eventually folded a few years later. How all this played out though when Piquet went to Benetton is not known though. It must have been a different arrangement because Camel continued to sponsor the Benetton team after Piquet left.

[@Spike-sk7ql]

Another great video, man.

[@Butterfingers1989]

The 1993 and 1994 Lotus are one of my favourite cars in terms of how they look.

[@GellertLapka]

For 1989, Honda engines were exclusive for McLaren ? Because Lotus had Nakajima in the 2nd car, so it is strange why they did not receive the V10 Honda too.

[@palm92]

Yeah. From what I've heard one of the reasons that was the case was that GM tried to have Lotus techs photograph the Honda fuel injection control electronics which pissed them off to no end, eventually losing the engines to Tyrrell for 1991. Remember, they had exclusive use for 1990 as well, the Tyrrell used a Ford-Cosworth.

[@LegitSarchie]

Love your videos man been binge watching for days now. Love learning about the history of F1 from before I was even born

[@muddyblokjes9753]

complete off topic. i.m a big fann of Super gt. a lot of time the rivelery between the red and the bleu Nissan is mentiont. can,t vind a thig about it. Can you do your thing on this thing ? sorry for my bad English thanks.

[@jonathanpatterson2798]

Brilliant as always

[@harmkuijpers6642]

@4:00 Thieme is actually a Dutch name, David Thieme's father Anthony (or actually Antonius Johannes) was born, and studied art in, The Netherlands. I'm not 100% sure, but I think it's pronounced 'team-uh'. That's how I would pronounce it, at least.

[@othgmark1]

Until the Schumacher years Lotus was more successful than Ferrari. If Ferrari left the grid f1 would still survive. When l started following the sport Lotus was far and away the most important team.

[@chrisdavidson911]

If March hadn't gone under it would all have happened sooner, it's where the 107 came from. Autocar magazine doing a pre-season review for '94 stated McLaren, Bennetton, and Williams had budgets of £35 million. Lotus had £5 million. The 107 always looked like being a good car, it just needed a good engine, but reliability ruined everything. They'd had to pay cash for the updated Mugen that Irvine wrecked because creditors had started saying no.

[@palm92]

The Mugen was a solid engine Mugen’s issue was always that they were basically a garagiste making F1 engines. Despite their links to Honda they are an independent company.

[@basilwatson1]

​@@palm92yup ... I live just around the corner from them. Used to get some alloy welding done by the old fella . ( Not sure hos relationship with the company) ..

[@jameskastner1425]

I absolutely love your videos

[@eamonahern7495]

The Lotus 79 is the F1 car that I find the most beautiful looking of all f1 cars from 1950 to 2023. That's my opinion and I'm sticking with it. And if you question my vision, I went to specsavers for an eye test on Saturday and the optician said I have perfect 20/20 vision with my glasses on so there's no need to change my lense prescription.

[@bobbybishop5662]

It just looks so right. My favorite F1 car too. Watching Andretti in 78 & 79 was so great . Losing Peterson was so sad. Another truly amazing driver .

[@solitaryclusterofneurons598]

I was about to suggest the Brabham BT58, Ligier JS41, and BAR 003, but then you said Specsavers said you have perfect 20/20 vision so I retracted my statement.

[@bobbybishop5662]

@@solitaryclusterofneurons598 lol

[@ivanboggs7238]

Sad tale of how the mighty can fall within F1. On another subject would love to hear your take on Aussie touring car great Peter Brock and his “Energy Polerizer”. Quite possibly the craziest idea that a driver has ever had to gain performance

[@AidanMillward]

Last time I talked about Brock I had Holden fans threatening me cos I didn't portray him as a god. It was like dealing with Senna fans. Sure, I'll do it again XD

[@baxdesign]

Good vid, but as an aside Braun weren't exactly a garagista. PS - And some of us did rate Honda and Button as likely contenders, so it wasn't that much of a surprise that when they swapped to a less hand-grenadey engine that was still quick, that they did what they did.

[@aaronaaronsen3360]

I love how Aidan always casually slips trekkie references all the time. I never watched any shiws but I might start, just to enjoy more of these videos.

[@herbertschmerbert]

I like you, Aidan. You seem like a fun person to get a beer with.

[@marcelgrguric3785]

Please watch 'The Secret Racing Life of Colin Chapman' to see some great segments with David Thiem; actually speaking too. Plus excellent commentary by writer Keith Botsford. There's also lots of photos of David Them, with his distinctive hat, in early 1981 editions of the great magazine 'Grand Prix International.' Thiem is a sort of mixture between Lord Hesketh and Mephistopheles, with a gnarly American accent.

[@_Ben4810]

He's still alive, living in Paris, & apparently still owns the very first Lotus Essex Turbo road car.

[@joshcooper7755]

I used to joke about the 1994 Lotus not being sponsored by Meccano but made from it.

[@markoarkaina8656]

That 92 car was pretty though.

[@kevinprior3549]

1987 had a beautiful ray of cars. Senna with his yellow helmet in the yellow Lotus looked the part.

[@evangallagher8550]

Can u do a video on the Delorian scandal

[@AidanMillward]

Already have

[@geek49203]

You barely mentioned the biggest Lotus innovation at all -- putting that Players logo on the side and changing the paint color. Now, other teams had sponsors -- see "Porsche 917 with Gulf sponsorship" -- but like many Lotus "revolutions" Colin got it to work more, faster, first. Not long after that, NASCAR picked up the Winston sponsorship, and beyond that, the CART guys went their own way (1978/79) to chase after big sponsor dollars. Now the business model was "race for sponsor dollars" -- something kinda sorta captured in "Rush". And that business model -- created by a perfect storm of nations banning tobacco ads along with the rise of cable TV channels -- was the way that F1, NASCAR, IndyCar's various permutations, etc all funded their teams until recently. What happened? Well, the tobacco advertising laws changed, and now cable TV is in decline, and the thing is funded by... investors.

[@samuelivascu7633]

Hey Aidan. Can you please elaborate in what way Colin Chapman had a play in sidepods? I thought it was the lancia D50 that pioneered it

[@AidanMillward]

Lotus were able to incorporate the side pods as part of the aero. So a narrower cockpit and two smaller radiators as opposed to one massive one.

[@chicobicalho5621]

7:50 Inasmuch as I am a huge Clark fan, it isn't fair to claim Senna was the only driver that showed "raw pace" for Lotus since JC. What about Rindt in 1970? If that wasn't raw pace, I have no idea what raw pace is. And... Peterson in 1973, in an obsolete 72 with the "wrong" (Goodyear) tyres, that seemed like raw pace to me as well.

[@ic3man]

15:27 man, you just angered a whole load of people saying that like Massa/Bottas. They wouldn’t have been world champions even if they had Vettel/Hamitlon

[@pacman_birthmark]

Agreed. Saying Felipe and Bottas aren't 'world class' is disengenuous. Whatever you think of Massa, he was seconds away from being F1 champ in 2008. Bottas has contributed massively to Mercedes continuing their constructors title streak from 2017 to 2021.

[@Zephirot080]

There is a documentary about Colin Chapman that covers the Essex-Lotus affair and, boy it is a doozy

[@MR-ji1jn]

I thought i was the only one having a chuckle at what people say the enginge power figures were in the eighties turbo era, they were astounding but 1400 hp is crazy talk

[@KR1736]

BBV10s has an excellent episode on the last years with Johnny Herbert. It is an excellent episode (maybe their best). Highly recommended

[@DuncanCunningham]

you done a good job

[@olivergould3878]

I carn't wait to see Circuit De Monaco in June!

[@beeemm2578]

I see you're a rocknroller..53 yr old lifelong guitar player here. What amp in the background? Some sort of Marshall it looks

[@AidanMillward]

Marshall DSL50

[@mrkipling2201]

Plus using active suspension in the mid to late 1980's. Before Williams I believe. Even though Williams were more successful with it.

[@billy54bob]

Very sad end for team that used to be so good, setting the bar high through the 60s and 70s

[@_Ben4810]

I went to their other team factory in Wymondham, where they had their wind tunnel....I just remember it being an elevated plywood contraption ("that's an F1 wind tunnel...?") & a million miles from the set-ups of Ferrari, McLaren, Williams & Sauber.

[@olafcomments3765]

I can still feel the pain tho i wasn't even born back then. 😢

[@sleebanger]

chapman was buying himself houses and toys with sponsor money... instead of developing his cars. that's why lotus always struggled with money, and why chapman was always crying poor when sponsors pulled out of his team.

[@_Ben4810]

& that's why Team Lotus never became part of Group Lotus plc... The Chapman family always kept that cash cow VERY close to their chests...😉💰🤫

[@Pablo668]

Amazing that the team went the way it did. Didn't a Malaysian company/team resurrect the Lotus name for a year or two in F1?

[@duckrutt]

2010-11. They changed the name to Caterham which is unfortunate because we almost had a Lotus Renault and a Renault Lotus on the grid.

[@_Ben4810]

There were some tales that this was all a front to launch a very audacious internal takeover of Group Lotus & Proton by a group of well-funded power & status-hungry Malaysian elites who wanted to get their hands on & takeover the conservatively-run Proton Group...

[@redfire9]

Its funny how many time a change in cigarette sponsor seems to have signified a downwards trend

[@mike04574]

surprised you couldn't find a picture of thieme. Maybe you were spelling his name wrong? Bloke looked straight out of the 70s with his hat and shades

[@1BCamden]

ACBC was an enigma, incredibly brilliant, such a loss would result in an implosion, fortunately survived by Lotus Cars.

[@Squiddy97]

Hurts me that Brawn was 15 years and half my lifetime ago 😂

[@johnbeer4963]

As of February 19th 2024 it was 1850bhp

[@paulreilly3904]

Love it. 😂Well done you 👌👍

[@hugoagogo9435]

Can’t wait till 12th June 2028 when it goes to 2000bhp

[@davidg3944]

On February 29th it goes up to 1875BHP, but just for that day only.

[@piglos]

Were Lotus really the sponsorship innovators? Checkout photos of Team Gunston from the 1968 South African GP. Lotus were still in BRG and yellow, but from there the circus kicked on in NZ for the Tasman Series, where they suddenly become Gold Leaf Team Lotus

[@AidanMillward]

I did say “sponsorships had been done elsewhere too” and “chapman might not have always been the first to do it”

[@seventysevenfiji]

Enzo had his private secretary, Count Luca Di Montezemolo. You might have heard of him 😅 he would have been in charge, or the Agnellis simply would have seen a good deal and pounced after the fact😂

[@Holden308]

Peter Warr didn't leave Lotus voluntarily. When a new consortium bought Lotus in mid-1989, Warr was "asked" to stand down (walk or be publicly fired), mostly due to the lack of results outside of Senna's 6 wins (which were seen as Senna's wins rather than the teams) and the inherited win by de Angelis. For all intents and purposes, Lotus has gone from the top team under Chapman in 1978, to literally being also-rans just 10 years later and Warr paid the price for that.

[@Holden308]

And the sad thing is that if things don't change ... Williams might one day fall the same way into Formula One obscurity.

[@_Ben4810]

The Collins/Wright buyout didn't happen until over the '90-'91New Year period...Warr was given his marching orders by Hazel Chapman & Tony Rudd mid-1989 season when Team Lotus was still family-owned....

[@GregBrownsWorldORacing]

Ah yes I remember the Earl of Dumfries, kind of an afterthought like Dr. Johnathan Palmer of the days. It would have been great to see Warwick in that JPS Lotus.

[@_Ben4810]

Johnny was hamstrung all season because he was running semi-developmrnt Lotus gearboxes...that were not reliable.

[@urchinnorton7632]

Still remember Ron Dennis reaction when he found how much the Camel sponsorship was "Is that all!"

[@_Ben4810]

Well, there's a story in itself about Marlboro sponsorship...ever wondered why they insisted on sponsoring Andrea De Cesaris all those years...?!? #kickbacks

[@UncleJoeLITE]

I liked that thing Mr Millward.

[@PaperBanjo64]

Lotus gave us wings before Paul McCartney or Red Bull did.

[@MrGoo514]

Great video aside from Boston Bruins cap... 😅

[@davidg3944]

Nope, it's the Bruins cap that makes this video great!! 😀

[@jacobmassey3897]

Martini jumped ship because they knew Williams were going to do crap in 2018. A mechanic from that team also said that they got far more constructive feedback from George Russell in his debut season than they'd had from Massa in 4 years 😳

[@AidanMillward]

Martini were pulling out of motorsport entirely. Williams being crap at the time was a nice problem for them to have

[@heliumtrophy]

What with Chapman's private life as well....the man might've been gone through an amount of excuses to hide his infidelity from his wife. I love the one I heard from a former Lotus worker who had to take the brunt of Chapman's wife's ire as Chapman had lied to her that this girl was his worker's girlfriend and he'd passed out in the back seat and he was just driving them home. Which sounds great and people will shout "LAD" until they have to cop one for the boss. Peter Warr will always live highly in my books for his scathing sentiment of Nigel Mansell. That quote of Mansell "won't win a race so long as I've got a hole in my arse," is something that's missing from the uber-corporate F1 of today - doesn't matter that Mansell proved him wrong (that comment could fuel Mansell's desire to prove him wrong) but that you ask an honest question and you get a blunt response. Plus on some level I think he's right about Mansell in some respects but that's another topic for another day.

[@caphowdy666]

Williams was a catch 22 really. Bringing in a bigger star like Hamilton, Vettel or Alonso would probably have given them better results, and may have brought more sponsorship, but if they spent money on them as drivers, they would not have been able to develop the car to the same degree due to lack of funds if new sponsors were not attracted by big name signings. Plus lets face it, this would not have been like the risk Schumacher took going to Ferrari. Those guys could have walked away from bigger teams and ended up at the back of the grid with very little chance of improving the team.

[@solitaryclusterofneurons598]

Thing is there was no way in hell Martini-era Williams could've afforded Hamilton, Vettel was still living the Ferrari dream (before it became a nightmare). Maybe there was an outside chance they could've got Alonso, but would they have *really* even wanted Alonso when he was badmouthing his team every week? No amount of talent can compensate for a consistently bad attitude. I think Massa deserves some credit as he did a solid job at his stint in Williams. One thing for certain is that hiring a bunch of billionaire's son's may have helped them in the short term, but costed them any competence they had as a team and even their soul in the end.

[@caseyf14483]

First non-bot here! (i have the mind of a child)

[@djh29971]

It's worth noting how much Senna's demands ending up damaging the team and in retrospect Ayrton was more of a Grim Reaper than the saviour of Lotus. Peter Warr documents this well in Motor Sport Magazine, but Warr was far too weak and lacked being an authoritative figure to the point that Motoring News had a cartoon that Senna was the owner, chief designer, manager and so on. The development budget was being lost to Senna's pocket with Lotus also having to cancel their Renault deal one year early, all because of Senna. Warr should have seen that he Senna was never going to stick around anyway and history has shown Renault had the best engine when they returned with Williams. Whatever anyone thinks of Chapman, there is no way he would have tolerated Senna in any form as a driver does not run the team, de facto or otherwise. In retrospect, they should have signed Warwick (it is extraordinary that Senna has such influence in his first season with the Hethel outfit) as they would have been a steadier ship, retained Renault and who knows what for the future. Senna had the gun that killed Lotus, but Warr was the one who allowed him to use it.

[@MrSniperfox29]

Lotus didn't have a choice with Renault as Renault had pulled out it's works team in 1985 and were ending its engine program in 1986 which is why all three Renault powered teams in 1986 ended up with new supplies in 1987 including Ligier who were virtually by law guaranteed Renault engines if they were available and wanted them The issue here is that if you say no to Honda, who else do you go with? BMW were pulling out with Brabham's forced to use year old engines and Brabham and Ligier using rebadged units maintained by a third party Porsche were pulling out in 1987 following the end of their partnership with McLaren and had let their program lag behind in development anyway Zakspeed were in no place to offer any other team engines as were Motori Moderni Other than those, the only two left and Ford and Ferrari who obviously had works teams as their priority

[@Lukeywoodsey]

Enzo's famous quote is very ironic considering Ferrari spent 89+ with a fat, heavy, unreliable and slow V12 and when the car was bad they'd blame the areo department.

[@321-Gone]

Tesla's EV converted Lotus. Yes, there's a Lotus in space.

[@fredyicey]

1:05 tbh this is why i always say Ferrari is a pile of nothing and would be nothing without Schumi and Lauda. I would go as far and say F1 need to gets rid of them. They archive nothing with their mentality

[@solitaryclusterofneurons598]

bros tryna get banned from italy

[@LewisSkinner]

The Delorean Scandal. There's one to cover!

[@AidanMillward]

Already did!