19 Facts About Team Lotus

Team Lotus was the motorsport sister company of English sports car manufacturer Lotus Cars.

Under the direction of founder and chief designer Colin Chapman, Team Lotus was responsible for many innovative and experimental developments in critical motorsport, in both technical and commercial arenas.

Team Lotus achieved rapid success with the 1953 Mk 6 and the 1954 Mk 8 sports cars.

The number of top drivers seriously injured or killed in Team Lotus machinery was considerable – notably Stirling Moss, Alan Stacey, Mike Taylor, Jim Clark, Mike Spence, Bobby Marshman, Graham Hill, Jochen Rindt and Ronnie Peterson.

New Team Lotus 72 was a very innovative car, featuring torsion bar suspension, hip-mounted radiators, inboard front brakes and an overhanging rear wing.

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Team Lotus took the championship by surprise in 1972 with 25-year-old Brazilian driver Emerson Fittipaldi, who became at the time the youngest world champion, a distinction he held until 2005, when 24-year-old Fernando Alonso took the accolade.

Team Lotus won the F1 World Championship for Manufacturers for a sixth time in 1973.

The first Formula One car in this livery was Graham Hill's Team Lotus 49B entered at the 1968 Spanish Grand Prix in Jarama.

Midway through 1983 Team Lotus hired French designer Gerard Ducarouge and, in five weeks, he built the Renault turbo powered 94T.

Senna's skills attracted the attention of the Honda Motor Company and when Team Lotus agreed to run Satoru Nakajima as its second driver a deal for engines was agreed.

Brazilian moved to McLaren in 1988, and Team Lotus signed Senna's countryman and then World Champion Nelson Piquet from Williams.

Team Lotus showed in 1988 that it took more than a Honda engine to win races.

Team Lotus 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.

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.

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.

In September 2009, reports emerged of plans for the Malaysian Government to back a Team Lotus named entry for the 2010 championship to promote the Malaysian car manufacturer Proton, which at that time owned Team Lotus Cars.

On 15 September 2009 the FIA announced that the Malaysian backed team Lotus Racing had been granted admission into the 2010 season.

Group Lotus later terminated the licence for future seasons as a result of what it called "flagrant and persistent breaches of the licence by the team".

On 27 May 2011, Justice Peter Smith finally made his verdict public in High Court, giving permission to Tony Fernandes to naming his F1 team Team Lotus after purchasing the rights to the name from previous owner David Hunt.