Lotus, once an iconic F1 team in the Formula 1 world championship, disappeared on January 17, 1995, when they announced their layoffs to their employees.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Team Lotus was either Mercedes or Red Bull Racing in today’s F1. The team has the best drivers, the best cars and the best designers of all time leading the team to Grand Prix wins and clockwork world championship success.
Between Jim Clark’s first title in 1963 and Mario Andretti’s last success in 1978, Team Lotus won the drivers’ title six times and the constructors’ title seven times. Machine coloring such as John Player Special’s black and gold and camel’s yellow are still popular.
In addition, it is familiar to Japan because it is equipped with Honda’s F1 engine and has appointed Satoru Nakajima. Even during his downturn, he was sponsored by several Japanese companies, including Tamiya Model, Komatsu, and Shionogi.
Forty-five years after its last success, only Ferrari, McLaren, Williams and Mercedes are still ahead of Lotus in the championship.
But after the death of Colin Chapman in 1982 came the beginning of the end for Lotus.
The mid-to-late 1980s saw more Grand Prix wins by the likes of Ayrton Senna and Nelson Piquet, but after the death of Colin Chapman the team could come nowhere near championship success.
As F1 entered the high-tech, commercialized 1990s, Lotus staggered into 1994, left behind as a relic from Grand Prix racing’s glorious past.
However, due to severe financial difficulties, the team announced on 17 January that it would not race in 1995, ending the saga of one of the greatest teams in F1 history.
In 2010, the Lotus name returned to F1, but this time it was run by Malaysia and had little in common with the original title-winning team. They failed to score any points and were rebadged as Caterham, leaving F1 at the end of 2014.
In 2011, however, there was an odd situation with two teams operating under the name ‘Lotus’.
In addition to the Malaysian effort, Lotus’ road car division chose to become the title sponsor of the Renault F1 Team, hence the name ‘Lotus Renault GP’.
This particular Lotus-badged team (later Renault and now the Alpine F1 team) enjoyed more success with Kimi Raikkonen taking two wins with the black and gold team in 2012 and 2013. I got
