Not that long ago i found in my archive some small article about Lola in 1993. It wasn’t about their disappointing Lola T93/30 design as you may expect. It was about the team’s perspective for the future and their plans to appear once again as a team on the grid. They were ready or should you say they were done with the way it went. Therefore, it seemed that Eric Broadley and the board of Lola had made a decision. The decision to at least investigate if it was workable and doable for the team to return in 1994 on the grid.
This small article gave a huge trigger. A trigger that flew me back to the stories about the Lola T94/30. I wrote about it twice before as it was misinterpret by some media. There was not such a car. Yes, I did wrote about it that the T95/30 was supposedly to be the T94/30. The misfit car based on a mix of 1994 and 1995 regulations. However, in didn’t really came across information that Lola was working on their return that early.
In 1993, they supplied BMS Scuderia Italia for the first time with a design, after they used Dallara for years. It was also the last chassis they would serve BMS, as they would simply disappear from the grid due to the horrible results with the car. BMS merged with Minardi and Lola was left without a team to supply their chassis for. While there were the plans for a T94/30 they did not materialise.
It is interesting to randomly come across the info that they were working on plans for 1994. Sadly, I can’t unveil much about their plans. As already said there seems to have been talks about the company’s future in the Formula One and if it would be possible to enter as team again. Which Lola did eventually in 1997 with the quickly build Lola T97/30 forced by MasterCard who let the team fall even quicker then they appeared with their sponsor money.
What I could find I believe it states that Lola was indeed looking to enter in 1994. However, it is questionable if they would be able to bring a car on the grid to start with. Taking the Lola T95/30 as example. The car looked more like a CART and lacked a proper testing program nor did it seem that they company believed in the car. Not mentioning the misfit of 1994 and 1995 regulations such as lacking the engine cover.
I believe that the intentions were there at Lola to try to enter in 1994, if possible. Eventually the decision was taken not to focus on 1994. Though to focus on 1995. Due to the horror weekend in Imola and several other horrible accidents the FIA announced measurements to improve the safety of the cars. It meant that Lola’s new design became what it became.
