Barry Manilow wrote in 1978 a song dedicated to Lola. Lola was a showgirl, little did he know the song would reflect perfectly on Lola’s last two attempts to design a F1 car. The Lola T95/30 was a nightmare dressed like a daydream, a hybrid stuck between 1994 and 1995 regulations. The Lola T97/30 was sweet, hot but 100% a psycho. A definition of these cars you probably never heard
I assume you are familiar with the Lola MasterCard team from 1997. Lola only came in November 1996 with the news that they would enter the Formula One in just a few months. Somehow, they managed to appear with their newest challenger the Lola T97/30 in the paddock of Australia. A car that was 11 seconds slower during qualifying. Only to appear in Brazil to close their garage doors for
You can’t imagine it now though there was a time a lot of drivers tested in the Formula One. Or teams tested in between races to test new aerodynamics or new engines. Or just to cash extra money by letting unknown drivers, who will never arrive, experience the Formula 1.As many of these drivers are long forgotten, and there isn’t a real overview of the test drivers, its all bits
Yes the title seems to tell this is a article written by an critical Formula One journalist with a different view on what happened with the Lola Mastercard Formula one Team in 1997. The team went bankrupt after the Brazilian Grand Prix, where the T97/30 stayed in the pit box. Eric Broadley knew it was too early to enter the Formula One, but he had no other option to deploy
