LOTUS / CATERHAM: F1's Worst Teams?

[@BMPHF1]

Lotus didn’t realise they had the greatest driver lineup of all time in Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen

[@FP1Will]

No they obviously didn't 😂😂

[@imHxriZyN]

8th and 9th fastest drivers XDD

[@sorandoes]

@@imHxriZyN it isn't that bad considering Catheram/Lotus was a backmarker team

[@Jimaybob]

@@FP1Will for a team of that quality, that’s a great lineup. Heikki was far too good and far too young to ever drive for a back marker and it killed his career

[@MietoK]

Yeah, I was really sad to see what happened to Heikki. Luckily he has had quite successful career at Japan after F1

[@davidjamesnoble3170]

The problem with the teams is they were basically lied to from the start. They entered very much on the understanding that a cost cap was going to happen. The cosworth engine was basically reintroduced for them and was going to be the cost cap option for teams complying with the budget cap...but it never happened and we ended up with 3 teams having a championship all of their own. It's fair to say none of those teams would've entered F1 in the first place if they'd know the cost cap was never going to happen.

[@FP1Will]

Yeah agreed, there was then a new idea about the top teams sharing info with them but I'm not sure if this actually happened or not... They were all doomed to fail from the start...

[@DPW864]

@@FP1Will this was all about the 40million cost cap. These teams were built from the ground with that in mind and when it never came to fruition they had to scramble to adjust their business model to fall in line with the other teams and they never managed to do it. The Cosworth was also a good engine, Williams used it too and were regular points finishers.

[@sulphurous2656]

And then the hybrid engines were introduced after lobbying from Renault and Mercedes, which resulted in drive train development costs quadrupling and also erasing the cheap Cosworth engines from existence. And only now are we seeing a cost-cap introduced, albeit at a significantly higher value of 125 million rather than 40 million. Too little too late, considering that Honda is also exiting again due to excessive development costs, whilst other manufacturers remain uninterested due to the same reason and a lack of road relevant technology on the grid.

[@Duval-In-The-Wall]

And F1 would have only had 18 cars It’s a scumbag move from the sport

[@Toro_Da_Corsa]

@@sulphurous2656 It was the other teams stupid fault for voting to approve these insanely expensive power units. Now we are stuck with it

[@LaurenceGill2000]

I don't know if it's just pure blind nostalgia because I started watching F1 in 2011. But I quite miss crap teams like Caterham/Virgin/HRT/Marrusia. I quite like a healthy bunch of back markers running at the back and making sure there are plenty of seats on the grid. Even if they struggle to ever get points

[@FP1Will]

I do agree. I think it was alright cos they could at least fight eachother. Unlike last year where Williams were just on their own

[@LaurenceGill2000]

@@FP1Will Yea I really enjoy seeing a really talented driver get what they can out of a bad car. Like Ocon in his few races for the dying Manor team or Charles in the Alfa Romeo, although that wasn't really a 'backmarker' so to speak. So as a general rule I prefer more cars

[@FP1Will]

@@LaurenceGill2000 Same! The fact that people like Hulk and Wehrlein have fallen off of the grid shows that we need more seats openin the sport!

[@biscuitcase83]

Only good thing ever about Marussia was Jules Bianchi

[@DonRaynor]

We have Haas and Williams.

[@mrdraw2087]

Lotus/Caterham were making progress until mid-2012. Then the decline started. For some reason they chose to start the 2013 season with a barely-revised 2012 car and they immediately got humbled by Virgin/Manor/Marussia, which cost them the very important 10th place in the constructors championship. Monaco 2014 was the nail in the coffin.

[@sycior]

Lotus/Caterham looked very promising at the beginning. They've had good drivers line-up, very expierienced, so they could help in car development. They quickly realised that Cosworth engine and hydraulics from xTrac is worthless, so they claimed a deal with Renault and Red Bull in 2011. 2013 was a disaster, and engineers complained that Pic and Van Der Garde are giving poor feedback about the car, so they had to put Heikki for some practice sessions. In 2014 team were so underfunded, that they had problems with spare parts. In one of the races, suspension parts were reapaired by ducktape, and Kobayashi said that he is afraid of driving that car.

[@Duval-In-The-Wall]

They should have never let Kovalainen go Also, it’s really a shame what happened to him, looked like he had a promising midfield career at least until 2010

[@vjollila96]

well at least their liveries looked nice

[@FP1Will]

Very true, the 2010 one was one of my favourites of the decade

[@braylon6496]

@@FP1Will I personally love the 2013 Caterham. The green 😍

[@quzz0345]

Yesssss

[@WinstonSmith685]

I might be in the minority but I always loved the 2011 HRT livery. The "Please sponsor us!" messages were a bit cringy but the white/grey with a small flash of red was really nice looking, a bit like the 2009 Brawn.

[@m.sydneyvern2260]

@@braylon6496 Agreed that metallic green is nice to look at and i also like the team was sponsored by Airbus and AirAsia

[@samcastevens8044]

The funny thing is that Caterham are a company that makes replicas of the Lotus Seven!

[@joeogle7729]

i just googled this now and i am questioning everything. 🤯

[@LotsOfToubleUsuallySerious]

Lotus sold the license to the Lotus 7 due to financial troubles, and so Caterham now has a whole array of Sevens, all of wich have an almost identical design to the old car (in all fairness i love that car. This one, the Elise and Exige were the cars that got me interested in Lotus)

[@LotsOfToubleUsuallySerious]

​@@joeogle7729they actually do this legally

[@ornis1895]

I always rooted for these teams, I have always supported the teams with less money. Always make me happy when these kinds of teams score themselves some points.

[@LotsOfToubleUsuallySerious]

Supporting these is less boring than supporting Red Bull at least 😂

[@spoilershow8593]

Trulli and Hekki were World class for lotus. For Force India Decent. For Red Bull okay. Showing how stupid that AWS rankings. They were lucky that it didn’t Receive more backlash

[@FP1Will]

Yeah i agree... Don't know why someone didn't look at those rankings and just stop them going out there because they're ridiculous...

[@tinusferreira6815]

They tried their best OK

[@FP1Will]

In fairness they did! Just never had the money

[@leahjohnston2148]

@@FP1Will in my opinion they were a good team just had crap facilities

[@Yoshiman2024]

@@leahjohnston2148 The FIA screwed them though... There would have been a budget cap in 2010 so they joined but the FIA just forgot about it and the 3 teams already invested in those plans.

[@TheOzelot11]

I want the actual Lotus to come back. Their cars were always beautiful. I also really liked the Caterham/Malaysia Lotus colours.

[@FP1Will]

the liveries were nothing short of fantastic!

[@Toryscout]

I'm from Malaysia.. same to you I love Caterham Lotus Color.

[@Duval-In-The-Wall]

Lotus and Virgin 2010 were stunning, if only they were fast :/

[@LotsOfToubleUsuallySerious]

During the period where Caterham was called Team Lotus, they raced under Renault, assumed control from 2012 to 2015, and then Renault took back the team for 2016, becoming Alpine The Backmarker recently

[@johndoep2346]

Bro your channel is unreal! Can’t believe you only have 3k subs

[@FP1Will]

Thank you man!!! Comments like these mean so much!!

[@marguskiis7711]

The worst teams are those which have a lot of money, proper guys but no results. The worst of all times probably was Haas Lola from 1980s: tons of money, supergroup team (Ross Brawn, Teddy Mayer, Neal Oatley), champion driver Alan Jones BUT only results were 6 points within 2 years.

[@FP1Will]

Will be adding those names to the series soon don't you worry!

[@tamaslosoncz4297]

Tesla was also terrible! In 1996!

[@LotsOfToubleUsuallySerious]

Like Alpine? They were a major team, even partnering with the official Team Lotus in the early to mid 2010s, only to make a completely black and STILL overweight car in 2024

[@BadgerOff32]

I have a soft spot for that Lotus team, mostly because they were the team I chose on the 2010 F1 game (I even won championships with them too lol), partly because their livery looked cool, but also because of the off track rivalry between those 3 crap teams at the time. It was almost like a 'mini-championship' for the back markers. It was quite fun to have a crap 'underdog' team to cheer on. You also had the added stakes of Virgin and Lotus both being owned by Airline tycoons (Richard Branson and Tony Fernandes), and they had a bet going with each other during the first season. Whichever team won that 'mini-championship' (finish 10th), the loser would have to be an air *stewardess* on their rivals airline for a day. Tony Fernandes' Lotus won, so Richard Branson had to become an Air Asia stewardess for a day lol

[@swire6984]

lol i searched the air stewardess thing and its real lmao

[@juhosten3463]

In all honesty this isn't even that bad. The catastrophe of 10s teams and how badly Williams are run now makes it feel pretty decent. They just didn't have the recourses. Other than that they were fine. Good line ups and fine design. Kinda like Minardi of old

[@astralgary.]

Yes I always supported Minardi late 90's early 00's. Marc Gene etc.

[@juhosten3463]

@@astralgary. Yep. Badoer and Gene in 99 might have been the best they had. It's funny cause now with the top ten scoring Williams still haven't been able to score points in years but even with the top 6, Minardi and arrows rarely went a year without scoring

[@patrickracer43]

I won a championship in the 2010 Lotus... I mean it was in the F1 2010 video game and the AI was set to easy, but a title is a title

[@astralgary.]

Yes I did similar in the HRT

[@patrickracer43]

@@astralgary. I won titles in the HRT and the Virgin as well

[@NeerajBaid007]

@@patrickracer43 Congratulations! 👍🏼

[@LotsOfToubleUsuallySerious]

Yeah i got pole with Lotus in F1 2011, first place in my third ever race (note: damage on and no assists other than the racing line) and won the constructors championship with Toro Rosso in F1 2012. A title is a title

[@Alan-ej6wb]

I just wish we had more teams, having 24 or 26 cars on the grid would be so cool, or do they have a limit? It would just be great to see more involved

[@ryanjackson4004]

The true Lotus team is one of the greatest f1 teams in F1 history. Its Caterham that's a load of shite

[@plasma9839]

Yup

[@kevinbell9255]

To be fair, all the new 2010 teams were lied to by Bernie who told them a $40 million cost cap would be brought it, which would have allowed them to be competitive. When the cost cap was dropped, the new entries had no chance, spending well beyond their means just to keep up. Admittedly HRT never deserved their place when entries like Lola and Prodrive were turned down, but Virgin/Manor and Lotus/Caterham could well have become decent midfield teams if the cost cap had been enacted in 2010 as promised.

[@Andopop]

I lived 2 minutes away from the Lotus factory in Hingham, Norfolk and have some of the official team wear worn by the crew

[@FP1Will]

im jealous, the teamwear and livery were amazing!

[@Scamuel31]

Original Lotus were so amazing but 'new lotus' was disastrous!

[@LotsOfToubleUsuallySerious]

There was the real Lotus under the Renault name during that period, 2012 to 2015 they would be Lotus again and Renault would take back the team Like, i commented this some 5 times by now

[@F1god04]

The T127 was a gorgeous car though.

[@ΚωνσταντίνοςΚωνσταντίνου-θ1ψ]

It looked like a shoe with an engine for gods shake...

[@MNA5715]

Top 10 best looking f1 cars for me personally

[@LotsOfToubleUsuallySerious]

The CT05 was gotgeous too 🤣 In all seriousness, the E20 (real Lotus' car for 2012) and both of the pre-caterham cars looked beautiful for the unoficial Lotus

[@craigmoy5457]

Their factory/office is now featured on abandoned buildings, some of the old kit from the cars is still there.

[@FP1Will]

Yeah I've seen the videos! Really quite sad if I'm honest

[@V0lCANIC]

Yep I agree with all of it! 😂 great video will as usual mate :D

[@FP1Will]

Thanks man! Appreciate the support!

[@chrisdavidson911]

That they managed to maintain a consistent performance gap to the Red Bulls shouldn't go unmentioned. Their budget of $10 million per year being expected to somehow create a car competitive with RB's $15.8 million per race (19 race season, $300million), was utter madness, yet somehow people expected it. The new teams were set up to fail. They didn't have much time to get the cars sorted out, or their infrastructure in place, and a few years later the hybrid engines were brought in, which would have eaten more of the already insufficient budget. It was like Mastercard Lola all over again, almost. The Cosworth engines weren't terrible, but there wasn't going to be any money to develop them.

[@Duval-In-The-Wall]

That’s crazy, they operated on just 5% of the budget of the top teams A cost cap was WAY overdue, good thing F1 has fixed that now

[@YLFNFB]

In 2010-11, Lotus signed a 16 year old Nabil Jeffri, the youngest test driver in F1 history. Then, in 2018, Nabil and his fellow Malaysian teammate somehow won the WEC 6 Hours of Fuji in LMP2 category, making them the first Malaysian to win in any FIA competition.

[@AGG1982]

I actually own a marrusia f1 cap, been looking for a caterham, manor cap aswell, havent found any yet,.

[@tombardsley3081]

I wouldn’t say the worst but the most disappointing. They had the best drivers and team personnel out of the 3 new teams from 2010 to 2012, were making assurances that they would be more competitive from 2011 onwards with their upgrade packages and also being the first of the new teams to run KERS in 2012 yet that improvement in performance failed to materialise . Heikki Kovalainen was outperforming that car the vast majority of the time in those year. They were incredibly fortunate to get 10th in the constructors 2012 with that final race in Brazil and then everything went downhill from 2013 onwards especially when Marussia got those 2 points in Monaco 2014 as that pretty much sealed their fate.

[@sybvanleeuwen4096]

Now i want a episode about Manor/marussia

[@FP1Will]

That is definitely in the pipline! I just want to spend some more time on that one so I get the tone right given everything that happened in 2014 with Bianchi...

[@saifulaimran8022]

Never knew that abysmal worked for Caterham lol

[@FP1Will]

Ah yes... 'abysmal' I like that one haha

[@maxhutchinson1685]

enjoyed the hell out of that video.

[@FP1Will]

Thanks bro!!! Glad you liked it!

[@jonathanregan5682]

Well, their management was so bad(Read Karun Chandok story about the team). Feel really sorry for the staff because they even said that Fernandes walked on them.

[@FP1Will]

Yea management is what killed the team unfortunately. Really underprepared from the word go...

[@jonathanregan5682]

@@FP1Will Well, Fernandes was really really viral during 2011-2013, because he was an Asian entrepreneur that founded AirAsia(Asian Ryanair basically), QPR and Caterham F1. Everyone really looked at him

[@nrrizki86]

Can you give me the link to Chandok's story? Or maybe the name of the site

[@Duval-In-The-Wall]

Tony Fernandes man, look what he did to QPR at the time…

[@TruffleMayo_]

Wait, but there were two lotus teams at the same time? What about kimi and our friend romain? They had a decent car for a few seasons, even winning races, at least as I can remember between 2010-2015 (and after that it became renault ¿?)

[@FP1Will]

Yea so the lotus I'm talking about started in 2010. Though there was an argument over rights and then Renault rebranded for 2011 as Lotus Renault. So for 2011 we did have two teams with pretty much the same name. It all went to court and then lotus Renault became just lotus (the team who then took on Kimi) and the other lotus, who I'm talking about became Caterham. Hope that clears it up!

[@TruffleMayo_]

FP1 - Formula Podcast One Thanks m8, got it now! Good idea for a video to talk about lotus Renault, if you haven’t done it already...

[@arfived4]

All three of the 2010 intake were privateers in an age where corporate money had put privateers in an untenable position. Nobody was going to have a Jordan style debut season. Their failure was systemic, and somewhat inevitable. None was an Andrea Moda, Coloni or Life

[@oxcart4172]

How exciting it must've been to be one of those 4 people though

[@FP1Will]

Haha very true

[@F1Dornie]

I love an underdog story...

[@FP1Will]

Except this one didn't necessarily have a happy ending 😂

[@aakashranade1195]

Good F1 content . Keep it up👍

[@FP1Will]

Thanks man! Glad your enjoyed!!

[@taylordudley3673]

Ahh Lotus, the only F1 team to ever be on Can't Pay, We'll Take it Away :D

[@riley420]

to be honest, Lotus/Caterham should've given itself at least 2 years before entering f1, rather than just entering almost as soon as they opened their factory.

[@simonhart9325]

Is there a chance of a feature on Simtec or Pacific please?

[@ΚωνσταντίνοςΚωνσταντίνου-θ1ψ]

At least these Lotus cars did not took someones life...like Simtec and Marussia....sorry for being rude.

[@aciej123]

I think you forgot about MasterCard Lola!

[@FP1Will]

I'll get round to them don't worry

[@brianglennon3452]

And Life, Andrea Moda, Eurobrun, need i go on

[@thijsrooijakkers7427]

Spyker, hispania

[@Rayuzan_M]

Forti

[@sierraacharlie]

Midland?

[@TheNecromancer6666]

Caterhams worst crime is, that they prevented Lotterer from ever driving a competitive F1 car. Because in the 2011-2016 period he was full stop the best driver outside F1, he is one of the best sportscars and racing drivers period and By his 2014/15 form I am certain he could have won at least races in a top F1 car. Just for reference, his 2014 Audi was faster in a racelap then Caterham was in Quali.

[@LilTwix81]

It’s funny because lotus entered Indy Car around the same time and literally had the same result

[@arposkraft3616]

@7:30 that was totally what I expected though

[@JohnBoyAdvance]

Those 3 new teams were screwed from the start.

[@FP1Will]

They really were, Bernie promised them a lot but very little of that come to fruition...

[@stake-harley]

...thanks Ferrari, no one asked for your veto-

[@xaviergordon1343]

I think the Caterham car in 2014 really summed up their time in the sport

[@FP1Will]

🤣🤣🤣

[@xaviergordon1343]

@@FP1Will I found a great F1 channel today and you got yourself a new subscriber

[@FP1Will]

@@xaviergordon1343 thank you man!!!!

[@thenoobdestroyer100]

when you said lotus im like wait a minute lotus had a really good couple of seasons in 2012 and 2013 but then caterham came along then i was like yeah they really were dog shit

[@thewavybridgegyratingcater747]

Hang on... I thought that Sauber was still oficially called BMW Sauber in 2010 tho. How did that come about?

[@FP1Will]

I'd need to check, but perhaps just on the entry list, the BMW blue was removed for 2010 and though the main livery elements were there the partnership was pretty much dead. Need to look back at my research to be sure

[@FP1Will]

Yea so Peter sauber re purchased the team at the end of 2009 but didn't apply for the name change in time. So they remained BMW sauber for one more year

[@thewavybridgegyratingcater747]

@@FP1Will ok thanks mate

[@bobbishop9339]

Lotus has not done anything since Colin died, that was in the 80's. All other efforts were nothing more than ads on the track, not for winning. BTW Lotus was the first to do ads on their cars.

[@Primenumber19]

Can you imagine if the Charlotte bobcats or Jacksonville Jaguars had been like you know what? This nba or nfl thing isn’t working out for us. Let’s just go out of business! Millions of minds in america would just spontaneously explode from the shock.

[@FP1Will]

I'm a big Jaguars fan so I'm quite happy they haven't called it a day hahaha

[@Primenumber19]

FP1 - Formula Podcast One they never will, they might even move to London one day. Teams don’t fold because revenue sharing in the states is so big with sports leagues, they just get sold and sometimes move.

[@FP1Will]

If they moved to London... Yes please 😁👍

[@petermitchelmore2592]

I remember Kobayashi earned himself the nickname Kobabashi.

[@aciej123]

Just a small question, who is TheBaracadeMan???

[@FP1Will]

Ahahaha someone's been doing their research, now where did you find that name?

[@aciej123]

@@FP1Will Hmm, Idk, maybe somewhere on your old "new" youtube channel? It's a real mystery for sure.

[@FP1Will]

Haha I spotted it and subsequently deleted that post 😂 nah it was my old channel from 2012... That's all you need to know😉😂

[@TheVargr]

I wouldn't say there were the worst. Yea they ended up not great, but they did try and managed for most of the early seasons to beat the other two back marker teams. Really their main flaw was on race strategy, they never took any chances whereas Manor/Marussia/Virgin. The big mistake was hiring Cyril as team principle as he failed in the final car they built. Yes the Renault engine was underpowered, but the car was far to bulky in the side pods and had too much cooling. It looked more like the 2010 car in shape and I knew it was a bad omen.

[@ReeseBBeckerTCG]

I wish they were around now. Drive to Survive would eat this up

[@budiman1990]

0:37 till 2015 then renamed to renault so the Team is still there which is now alpine

[@FP1Will]

Your mixing them up with the other lotus team based in endstone.

[@juliataylor2623]

only Andrea Moda and Mastercard Lola were truly diabolical.

[@Ikcatcher]

As a Malaysian, this really hurts me

[@FAT8893]

I feel you.

[@AlwaysRM_]

The worst? You have never seen MasterCard Lola.

[@FP1Will]

Just the name of the series, lola will get an episode at some point i'm sure

[@ierbutza21]

Hmmmmmm Jaguar Lotus/ Team Lotus Caterham and now Aston Martin,they have 2 things in common and the results(jag & aston to a certain point so far) are somewhat the same.British car manufacturer + br green are cursed when used at the same time.

[@imibuks-replit]

the lotus in the 1960's made by colin was the REAL lotus that was amazin

[@jakubmatusek5006]

we need 1-2 new teams in f1

[@jean-paulrinne6313]

Awesome video! Can you Spyker F1

[@FP1Will]

Definitely will do at some point!

[@karmaspcs]

you missed the russian gp where they used ducktape to fix a broken axe on kobavashis car

[@Rsv4rr-r]

This team and the other two shambolic teams that started in 2009 with them were the fault of the FIA and FOM, favoring British teams and whoever paid them off, at the end of 2008 there was a possible Serbian entry, Stefan F1 they had secured the stillborn 2009 Toyota F1 cars complete with engines and somehow I have a feeling that they would have been more successful then, Lotus/Team Lotus/Caterham, HRT or Virgin.

[@FP1Will]

I need to look into that story again and will probably do a video on it by the end of the year, but I feel like they would have been more competitive in the beginning but fallen away over the years

[@Rsv4rr-r]

FP1 - Formula Podcast One Maybe they would have fallen away, but they would have had a better chance of being around today, they would have started with a competitive car and with that would have been better able to secure sponsors. As I remember Toyota was willing to continue technical support, so there may have been a Renault, Lotus, Renault/Alpine kind of situation with that and could have provided an opportunity for Toyota to come back into F1.

[@anto-mac]

Are we talking about the same lotus team that won podiums with kimi and showed how good roman was in a good car they weren't that mad they had a good spell

[@FP1Will]

That was a different team which operated at a similar time

[@Oblio1942]

the only thoughts I have, having watched f1 since the 90s when I was born and watching tons of older races from ye olden times, is why was lotus lotus but also not lotus and renault became lotus when there was another lotus but also was still kinda called renault until 2012 until 2015 when it was renault again and now alpine?

[@indiekiddrugpatrol3117]

Because the Team Lotus name (the og F1 team) is owned separately from the Lotus Road car company which ran the Lotus/ Renault F1 team in the 2010s

[@joeogle7729]

Well i think they're safe from that title, lets not forget that Mastercard Lola and Andrea Moda existed...

[@FP1Will]

Andrea Moda have already been covered and Lola will get an episode soon haha

[@ImnotCadenyt]

Ahh yes the posh bois are back

[@ScuderiaInspire]

Lots Of Trouble Usually Serious

[@Pandatoofu]

Top Gear Quotes are the best xD

[@ash2mess]

Is this not the same lotus team Kimi drove in 2012 and 2013?? If yes....with whatever I remember ...those two years were really good for them

[@FP1Will]

No so team lotus are what the Renault team is now, I'm fact they bought out they rebranded in 2011, so for a while we had two teams under the name lotus and the FIA had to change the rules

[@ash2mess]

FP1 - Formula Podcast One , I thought lotus caterham became lotus Renault in 2012 and had nothing to do with Team lotus where Graham hill , Ayorton Senna, Nelson piquet and Mika Hakkinen raced

[@ash2mess]

FP1 - Formula Podcast One ...and I dont remember seeing two lotus teams in 2012 and 2013

[@ash2mess]

FP1 - Formula Podcast One ....yeah there were atleast two caterhams from 2010 till 2012, HRT and Lotus

[@ash2mess]

FP1 - Formula Podcast One....I may be totally wrong.... hope your response will definitely be information to me

[@aryaman_joshi]

What about virgin/marussia mate?

[@FP1Will]

There will defo be an episode on them soon, but I want to take more time with it and make sure I get the tone right when it comes to Bianchi

[@untossableboi5140]

What I thought when you said lotus was the team kimi was with

[@dominicbarden4436]

In fairness, Kovalainen and Trulli formed easily the strongest lineup of the three new teams in 2010; they were race winners and reasonably quick (though I have no idea how AWS came up with the numbers that placed them so high in their rankings; I kind of get Trulli because he was usually really good in qualifying, especially with the one lap format used from 2003-05, but Kovalainen I'm not so sure. I think he was decent, don't get me wrong, but in 2008 and 2009 he had the disadvantage of being teammates with Lewis Hamilton, which I think skews people's perception of how good he is (rather like Valtteri Bottas at the moment); he is a Super GT champion after all). With Virgin and HRT that year the only other decent driver who wasn't a rookie was Timo Glock. Yes, Lotus/Caterham were rubbish but they did have some decent drivers on their books: Kovalainen, Trulli, Kobayashi, even Ericsson wasn't the worst pay driver ever to grace the F1 paddock (he's had a pretty solid season in IndyCar this year, and there are some very good drivers in that series.). A retrospective on their main rivals Virgin/Marussia/Manor could perhaps be an idea, if you haven't done that already.

[@FP1Will]

yeah I think heikki never got easy teammates, was he not partnered with alonso at renault for a year as well? I am going to get round to a virgin episode soon, but want to spend a bit more time so I get the tone right given what happened with Bianchi in 2014... thanks for watching!

[@dominicbarden4436]

@@FP1Will No problem! Take all the time you need with the Bianchi part. Kovalainen's teammate at Renault in 2007 was Giancarlo Fisichella, who yes, was no Alonso but was absolutely no slouch either. And Kovalainen ended up ahead in the championship at the end of the year.

[@FP1Will]

Ah yea that was it, was when Alonso was at McLaren. That could warrant a video as well come to think of it...

[@dominicbarden4436]

@GT012345tube That's true.

[@NextGeneration9501]

i know now why they failed. because during that time, probably some of the team's funds go straight to the 1mdb scheme! 🤣

[@cooltyrese4252]

Pleease do super aguri or marussia

[@FP1Will]

Marussia is on the roadmap, will add super aguri now!

[@stake-harley]

Super Aguri wasn’t bad tho-

[@hockeengieng2941]

Caterham is more likes a tool for Tony uses for marketing instead of become a serious racing team. A serious race team wasn't build in a day and required serious commitment, more resources and more times. I wish Tony never creates this team because manage a F1 team isn't easy like manage football team.

[@FP1Will]

Yeah completely agree here! In fairness to them their entry was confirmed very late on but you'd think they would have done some preparation beforehand anyway...

[@hockeengieng2941]

As Malaysian, I feel proud with Petronas contribution to F1 and I feel ashamed with Caterham result at the same time.

[@hockeengieng2941]

Tony basically want the European to know AirAsia through Caterham first and after purchased QPR, they switched their focus to QPR and let Caterham die. Hopeless

[@hockeengieng2941]

In the nutshell, Caterham tak boleh.😂

[@tiadaid]

Tony think he can bamboozle his way in F1 they way he did with AirAsia. But in the end it was him who got bamboozled by F1. And he got caught extorting a bribe from Airbus just to fund the team.

[@erisporter6956]

2:57 “tenty ten”

[@ventisette.]

A crap, poorly managed team from the start. They should have been fighting Williams and TR, instead did worse than Marussia with significantly more budget.

[@FP1Pod]

👀👀👀

[@aciej123]

New Channel?

[@FP1Will]

@@aciej123 hahaha maybe, don't know what to do with it yet

[@mikerodrigues2906]

2011 was a close season aswell

[@TheMotorMouthPodcast]

*Ferrari has entered the chat* Nice video mate!

[@FP1Will]

Thanks 👌👍

[@fergusmckie4336]

Lmao will please cover Ferrari 2020

[@FP1Will]

End of the season oh just you wait....

[@EnerJohn94]

Do video on Mastercard Lola. Should only take about 30 seconds.

[@FP1Will]

Hahaha I'll #shorts it XD

[@billygray8863]

kamui, not kaumi

[@Calilasseia]

Wouldn't call them the worst, they were simply one of several teams that failed because of lack of money and only mid-tier talent in a sport requiring top-tier talent just to keep up with the Ferraris and McLarens of this world. They did manage 10th in the constructors two years in a row, which for a financial minnow isn't bad. At least their demise didn't involve gangsters, dark money, a de facto plot to murder one of its drivers and actual criminal charges, like Andrea Moda. Which on those grounds alone has to be the worst F1 team ever by a margin that's a yawning chasm.

[@motorsportfanboy7769]

I mean at least they’re not a Lola Mastercard or Andrea Moda 😂

[@FP1Will]

haha very true, covered andrea moda earlier in the series and lola will defo get an episode at one point!

[@motorsportfanboy7769]

FP1 - Formula Podcast One Yeah at least Lotus/Caterham can actually built a car (that is ofc faster than Lola Mastercard) and not actually tried to kill one of their drivers

[@FP1Will]

ahahahaha yeah...

[@asepbasreng5300]

At least they have beautifull livery...

[@FP1Will]

That is very true... Loved the 2010 one I'm particular

[@Georgekar007]

Was Caterham the worst team of the modern era? HRT: My time to shine

[@thatayrellguy3023]

Bruh in F1 2013,this team is actually have a speed of a midfield....but holy shit the anount of downforce i have,this car is stiff as fuck,in F1 2013,i have get a podium wkth every car except Caterham

[@gdkey8025]

...and you thought the early mid 90s Lotus was bad!

[@gopr3117]

Nonsense. How can you possibly say Caterham? HRT were the worst of the 2010 season

[@FP1Will]

It's a series, hrt have been covered already

[@DPW864]

There was nothing wrong with the Cosworth engines, not sure where you got the info that they were anything near awful, because they weren't. Williams used then just fine

[@FP1Will]

And Williams were back of the midfield in 2010... Before switching to reumalt in 2011

[@DPW864]

@@FP1Will no, you're thinking of 2011 then switching to Renault for 2012. In to 2010 they finished 6th and had that pole with Hulk in Brazil. The engines were subject to a development freeze and were considered at least on the level of the Toyota and Renault at that point. Look up the season.

[@FP1Will]

@@DPW864 okay but either way 6th isn't great, and that pole was more down to hulk getting the best out of a drying track, less about the engine itself. Williams also finished 9th in 2011 with those cosworth engines, so it's not really helped your argument haha

[@DPW864]

@@FP1Will I think it has, considering Williams pace and positions in the years surrounding 2010 6th was about right and the Cosworth engine was performing well. Just Google it, there's numerous articles. Even articles deriding the new teams for squandering the engine!

[@Crocodebil]

Trulli and Kovalainen ahead of Vettel :D :D :D

[@gonnaleaveamark]

If u read my previous comment, never mind, I didn't read carefully

[@Blueflag04]

Probably faster than Ferrari

[@FP1Will]

ouch 😂😂😂

[@dologongpoloponobonotongpo235]

didn't cosworths produce the highest horsepower during that era?

[@FP1Will]

I highly doubt it given the performance of the teams who ran it

[@Nassyy]

Far from worse. Did they make the Lotus team's worst cars? Probably. Part of it is down to management (cronism).

[@FP1Will]

Yea agreed they weren't the worst by far. The series just aims to cover some of the worst from specific eras of the sport 😊

[@Dozminty]

is manor is really bad?

[@FP1Will]

There will be an episode on that team soon, I want to make sure I get the tone right though with Bianchi

[@gordonblues843]

So you mean the Lotus brand is just vaporware..?

[@blazeyt843]

Bro but grosjean and raikkonnen were amazing in Lotus

[@FP1Will]

That was a different lotus team that raced at the same time

[@TimmyTickle]

Weren't Caterham sponsored by a small English pub in their final race?

[@EL1AS_]

Windmill Inn. The owner donated money to the crowndunding for the last race in 2014 and thus got their logo on the car.