Kimi Raikkonen testing for Lotus in 2012
Active years: 1958-1994, 2010-
Previous identities: Toleman
(1981-1985), Benetton
(1986-2001), Renault (2002-2012)
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History
Lotus was one of the leading outfits of the sixties and seventies when it was run by Colin Chapman. Drivers like Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Emerson Fittipaldi and Mario Andretti won championships in a series of ground-breaking Lotuses.
Lotus made periodic leaps ahead in technology – like the Cosworth DFV-powered 49, the wedge-shaped 72 and the ground effect 79 – which left the opposition reeling.
But they were also prone to producing over-ambitious and unreliable cars. Sometimes Chapman found himself pursuing what turned out to be technological dead-ends for F1 cars such as turbine power or four-wheel-drive. Other times he got into fights with the governing body, such as when he produced the twin-chassis 88 which was banned before it started a race.
By the time of Chapman’s death in 1982 it had already won its last championship. But further race wins followed, most courtesy of Ayrton Senna in the mid-eighties. By the early nineties the team was on its last legs and it collapsed before the 1995 season.
A new Lotus team, run by Tony Fernandes, entered F1 in 2010. However following a dispute with car manufacturer Group Lotus, the name will change hands in 2012. The team which competed as Renault in 2011 will become Lotus, and Fernandes’ team will be rebranded as Caterham.
Results
| 1958 | 1959 | 1960 | 1961 | 1962 | 1963 | 1964 | 1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | 1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974 | 1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979 | 1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984 | 1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | |
| Championship position | 6 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 9 | 5 | 6 | 10 | 10 | |||||||||||||||
| Points | 3 | 5 | 34 | 32 | 37 | 58 | 40 | 56 | 21 | 50 | 62 | 47 | 59 | 21 | 61 | 92 | 42 | 9 | 29 | 62 | 86 | 39 | 14 | 22 | 30 | 12 | 47 | 71 | 58 | 64 | 23 | 15 | 3 | 3 | 13 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||||||||||||
| Wins | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 3 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 5 | 7 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||||||||||
| Pole positions | 0 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 2 | 9 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 8 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Drivers
See the complete list of Lotus F1 drivers.
Headquarters
Renault’s F1 team is based at Enstone in Oxfordshire, in the United Kingdom (above).
Major team personnel
Chairman: Gerard Lopez
Managing director and team principal: Eric Boullier
Chief operating officer: Patrick Louis
Technical director: James Allison
Deputy technical director: Naoki Tokunaga
Chief designer: Tim Densham
Deputy managing director, engine: Rob White
Operations director: John Mardle
Head of aerodynamics: Dirk De Beer
Sporting director: Steve Nielsen
Chief race engineer: Alan Permane
Chief mechanic: Gavin Hudson
Race engineers: Simon Rennie, Jonathan Marshall, Ayao Komatsu and Julien Simon-Chautemps
Lotus featured articles
Lotus latest articles
- 'More mature' Grosjean looking forward to F1 return
- Lotus E20 launch - first pictures of Lotus's 2012 F1 car
- Jerome d'Ambrosio joins Lotus as third driver for 2012
- Kimi Raikkonen continues his F1 familiarisation in Valencia
- Kimi Raikkonen makes his F1 return with Lotus
- Lotus in limbo with midfield out of reach
- Lotus: Beating a Renault "icing on cake" for Fernandes
- 2011 Brazilian Grand Prix in pictures
- 2011 Brazilian GP qualifying in pictures
- Vettel tops final practice session in Brazil
Browse all Lotus articles
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