Lotus in my opinion is like his legend, Jim Clark. Fast, smoth, and legendary. But shame we cant have it for too long.

Maybe they weren’t the most renowned but they had so much impact on the racing world today.

You forgot to mention how Lotus won the Indianapolis 500. That was a pivotal moment in motorsport history. Prior to this many believed the world's most foremost form of motor racing with the finest drivers and finest cars was the American USAC series (what we call Indycars today). Lotus's and Jim Clark's win ushered in the mid-engine revolution in American USAC racing and pretty much made British chassis manufacturers such as Lotus, Lola, March, McLaren and Reynard as the measure stick the following decades. Even Penske had their chassis designed in Britain in the 80's and 90's. It also proved that the world's most technically advanced cars were found in Formula 1, not in USAC. From that point onward this has never really swung back or in another direction - except for maybe the Can-Am cars of Group 7 racing which pretty much was top dog in 1966-1973. Colin Chapman famously said that:"The Indy roadsters are designed using racing technology from the 1930's and nothing much had happened there since then." How prophetic that turned out to be. Lotus's Indy 500 win also made Ford finance the famous Cosworth DFV V8 for Lotus to use from 1967 - the most successful engine in F1 history. The DFV is also the only engine ever to win the Indy 500 (in its turbocharged DFX iteration) and the 24 Hours of LeMans (in detuned form) in 1975 and 1980.

You have explained the reason why there were 2 different Lotus teams competing at the same time very well!

Quite honestly, Lotus just wasn't set up to be a major company. If you look at Ferrari and factors like major investment/investors (a la FIAT) along with a very major road car business and an organisation that essentially ran the company since the 70s: they were always going to survive even without their founder. Lotus had none of that and relied solely on Colin Chapman and the sporting success actively keeping the cash flow coming. Lotus demise is very much steeped in the failure of Colin not building an organisation and company structure that could stand on its own: Lotus was Chapman and Chapman was Lotus. Williams is an odd duck, for a while (90-05) they had the chance to do something similar to Ferrari but instead kept relying on Patrick Head (and Newey somewhat) and along with a poor company structure and losing vital partners they went the Lotus way of just crumbling down for a decade until they finally gave up. Mclaren in my opinion was close to starting a similar decline, I commend them for avoiding tipping over after the multiple failed championship bids and the disastrous recent Honda era. Shame it's too late for Lotus and Williams to learn from them...

Aldas: Making a fantastic video on Lotus Also Aldas: Casually forgetting to mention Mario Andretti

2:38 So many champions you sadly missed out Mario Andretti - World Champion in a Lotus in 1978. And Jochen Rindt THE ONLY DRIVER TO BE posthumously awarded the Formula One World Drivers' Championship.

Sad and incredible that Colin Chapman died at only 52. Incredible eye for driving talent and recruitment. Andretti, Peterson, Hill , Clark, Fittipaldi,Rindt, Mansell, Senna, De Angelis

Modern f1 would not be what it is without the genius that was Colin Chapman

It is sad that many people don't even know about Lotus

My F1 memory goes back to 1970 when my old man took me to Watkins Glen for the USGP. Lotus was most definitely a top-tier team of that era. Always loved the Black and Gold JPS Livery. One of the best in motorsports. Great video.

Lotus "is" the British Ferrari; they won F1 10 times. Made some of the finest racecars ever made. Advanced the technology. Had the best philosophy. It would have been enough not to sell the company to Asia, and supply investments instead, to have the british Ferrari for good.

I was a Club Team Lotus member since 1983 and I still have my membership card with Ayrton Senna autograph ...Great times!!! Many thanks for the video!

The series that made this channel has returned...

Damn when you describe the downfall from innovators to bottom of the grid reminded me of Williams going through the same thing

Contrary to popular opinion, Lotus was NOT the first team to introduce title/naming sponsors in F1 GP racing. It was actually Team Gunston, at the South African GP on Jan 1 1968, when TL still ran in green and gold. Lotus changed its livery and title sponsorship for the Tasman Series in 1968, which Jim Clark won. He then went on to race in that livery only twice more, namely in F2 races in Barcelona and Hockenheim. Of course, Lotus went for title sponsorship at Indy much earlier, 1966 if I am not mistaken. Rare 1968 footage can be seen occasionally of Clark testing the STP Lotus at Indy, but he sadly never got to race there that year.

You could say that Lotus and Ferrari were in the same boat after the deaths of Colin and old man Enzo, except old man Enzo had the foresight to setup someone to run the team and company... although to be fair, Colin didn't have that luxury given that he died of a heart attack

There were so many great drivers in Lotus making it impossible to mention them all, or just half of them. My favorite was the late Ronnie Peterson. He passed away in 1978 at Monza

Without doubt, Colin Chapman was a pioneer in F1, being the first to introduce the sport to the monocoque chassis (Lotus 25), using the egine as a stressed member [using the engine to form part of the overall strength of the car] (Lotus 43) and introduced the sport to Ground Effect (Lotus 78). Although, for every innovation that worked, there were others that didn't, the Lotus 56 (1971), for example, that was powered by a gas turbine egine, the Lotus 63 (1969) that had the engine mounted back to front with the gearbox in the middle of the car and the fuel tank where the gearbox would normally be, at the back to accommodate 4 wheel drive, the Lotus 80 (1979) tried move Ground Effect aerodynamics to the next level, by not needing wings, but didn't work or the twin chassis car, the Lotus 88, that Chapman was convinced would enable the team to get round the Skirts being banned regulation of 1981, but was banned before it could race, much to the shagrin of Chapman and relief of Elio De Angelis

Now, I understand the 2010-11 seasons with two seperate Lotus teams. I could never quite figure that out, until now. Great Video!!

Thanks, looking back historically together with Jim Clark and Colin Chapman they were and remain my favourite F1 team. I owned a Lotus Seven in the late sixties

Fantastic video Aldas! Team Lotus brings back so many memories and so much passion for Britain's innovative spirit in F1 and aeronautics in general. Will always be proud of them and I hope and pray to see them back in F1 again one day. You are so right that they were Britain's answer to the great Ferrari team. Such a pity Colin passed away far too soon and no one could help save the squad. Really smiling you made this for us 😂

Fantastic video. Explained the Lotus history very well. I always have wondered what Lotus would have become in the 80's had Chapman lived when Ayrton Senna arrived. I'm sure it might have been another era of Lotus domination.

I've really enjoyed watching this and the trip back in history. Thanks Aldas.

Lotus are, and will always remain, a legend in my book. Colin Chapman was so far ahead of his time, a true visionary. And I loved the last Lotus team (which turned into the Renault works team), Kimi racing in that car was just... EPIC!

Wow, just shows what a good leader can achieve and what can happen when he is gone and no one close to replace him!

This feels like foreshadowing of Williams. Without Frank they haven’t been the same and it makes one wonder if they will fold.

Jim Hall put a wing on the Chaparral 2E, two years before Lotus.

McLaren, Williams, Brabham and Lotus. These guys were legendary in their day. It would be good to see them back on top.

Absolutely fantastic work on this. Thank you for providing such rich F1 content! 👍

Your videos are fantastic. Thank you. The evolution of the class is an amazing story.

I totally enjoyed every second of this video. Thank you for making it. Made me nostalgic even tho I wasn't even born.

Thanks for a brilliant insight into Lotus and the engineering genius of Colin Chapman. Arguably CC lived fast, died too young, like so many of his drivers. We can always wonder what 'might have been' with the likes of Jim Clark, Ayrton Senna and so too of Colin Chapman. Perhaps you might usefully have referenced Johan Rindt - uniquely famous for being the only posthumous winner of the WDC. Nonetheless an outstanding and informative video which deserves wider viewing. Possibly even the basis for a 'nerds' documentary that could even interest the BBC. Maybe one day Colin Chapman may be as celebrated a 'British engineer as has become the case with IKB - Izambard Kingdom Brunel ( different eras and engineering genres)? Discuss? Also the vital importance of having a 'worthy' successor to carry forward the founders pioneering excellence, as happened with Enzo and his talented (in management) successor, Luca di Montezemolo. In terms of Ferrari F1 team managers, also worth noting two of longer serving - Jean Todd and Stefano Domenicalli who, with Ferrari on their CVs, went on to become 'power players' in world motor racing today as President of FIA and CEO of Formula 1 respectively.

The last 2 pictures at the 5:50 point aren't from the same season. The single high wing car is from 1968, and there was a 2-wing (front and rear) version in 1969. Accidents from wing failures on both Lotus cars in the 1969 Spanish Grand Prix led to an immediate ban of high, suspension-mounted wings. The low wing car was a 1969 car from after the ban.

A great video on Lotus. But the question above was not tackled at all, let alone answered. For that it would have required a fundamental comparative assessment of both Chapman's and Enzo Ferrari's philosophies, team management, etc.

Your content is always so high quality as well as super interesting

I hope this video gets to the 1 million + views , the way you explained the history of the team and the 2 lotus team disaster is simply amazing.

What an absolutely stellar video by you Aldas!! Hats off!

Lotus failed at keeping 2 drivers: Carlos Alberto Reutemann AND Ayrton. The first was a heck of a in-race tester/developer. The last was THE ULTIMATE DRIVER.

Amazing how many legends drove under that banner.

Great content as always Aldas!

greatr video. thank you for bring back a lot of memories from my youth, watch these cars on the track

Excellent video on Colin Chapman. Well done. Enjoying seeing many of these actual cars being featured at Goodwood.

An excellent video overall but, as so many others have pointed out, this merits a revision to include Andretti, the Indy 500, and Rindt-gaps too big to ignore

great video!!! Very insightful

Strange to make a video about Lotus without even mentioning Ronnie Peterson.

Loved this video mate. Well done.

Thank you for this very well done and informative video.

Lotus also won the Indy 500 , huge achievement.

Jack Brabham also built but also drove his own cars to world championships

Great vid! Enjoyed a lot.

Interesting video, but there were some errors. Especially Lotus Cars didn‘t purchased the Renault team, but Genii Capital, among Gerard Lopez did. They had a licence agreement from Lotus cars.

I went to my first F1 race in 1973 ( Zandvoort). Lotus was the number one team in those days. Not only was it the best car that year, in my opinion the black JPS lotus was the most beautiful F1 car ever. Colin Chapman was a genius.

9:00 May be only a soft spot of my own my I would throw in the McLaren Mercedes West livery from 97 to 04-ish. Just love it.

Aldas, I appreciate your work! 😊🙌🙏

How in blue blazes were you able to make this video without mentioning Jochen Rindt?

Excellent History Lesson.....Please continue to produce more!!

Excellent video. As i mentionned in a previous comment, i felt in love with Lotus at the Monaco grand prix in 66, 67 & 68, especially because of the Gold Leaf look and the first wings used during the practice in 68 but banned for the race. This being said, i don't believe that Lotus and Ferrari are comparable. In my view, the Ferrari brand has a broader and deeper reach for a combination of reasons: time and age (it is a much older brand than Lotus), breadth of car racing (Endurance in addition to F1, with legendart cars and fights with other brands) as well as the much more important production of street cars than Lotus. This in no way diminishes the aura of Lotus and of the genius of Colin Chapman.

Great doco 👍 Elio was a very underrated driver that went through the normally aspirated era to the turbos

Just to answer the video title, there are a couple of reasons: 1. Loosing their creator and major force behind the team before his time so there were no plans for succesion in place. 2. Even if being the most succesfull of the bunch, it never managed to become THE national team among a sea of British teams (BRM, Tyrrell, Cooper, Mclaren and later Williams in the 80's) like Ferrari could for Italy, even if it shared the early spotlight with Lancia and Alfa Romeo. 3. Not diversifying outside open wheeled categories into sports cars like Ferrari did with Le Mans, which added another layer of success and pedigree and served as a middle ground between consumer car technology and F1. 4. In that vein, their most successful period came during an era where drivers were still heroes and considered more important than the cars (even if that wasn't true), so you could always point to Clark or Hill for Lotus success in F1. By never diversifying they couldn't show their engineering prowess like Mclaren did in Can-Am or Ferrari and Jaguar at Le Mans for example. 5. Never selling out and having the support of a major car manufacturer like Ferrari had with Fiat, which allowed Ferrari to live through the lack of success in F1 during the 80's. Lotus just couldn't afford not to be succesful, same fate of recently sold Williams after trying too long to stay independent while costs raised exponentially. 6.The collapse of the British car industry during the late 70's and 80's under British Leyland basically meant the death of almost all English car brands, and those which still had value were poached by overseas car makers. Basically Ferrari had better business sense (ironic, considering Chapman had brillant ideas like bringing sponsors into F1, but those could easily be adopted by others), and didn't fear selling out the car manufacturig arm if that allowed him to keep the F1 team alive. Lotus always felt like Collin's team and pet project, and whoever was left afterwards either lacked the vision or know how to keep the name alive.

This history lesson was good, Aldas. I'd welcome more.

Brilliant video. Please do more of these!

Superb video, love the JPS Team cars and the way Lotus changed F1

Was a big fan of Lotus back in the 60s. Lotus Elan, the car Emma Peele of the Avengers drove, was above my Sunbeam, MG, and Triumph pay grade. I was watching The Saint series on KZfaq recently, and in an episode the mate said, "Who do you think you are, Jim Clark"? It all started flooding back then, Team Lotus was a great player in the day.

That was an excellent bio of the Lotus racing team! Thank you very much.

Still my Favorite F1 Team of All Time as is driver Jim Clark!

Great video, I learned a lot, especially about the Lotus street car brand.

Since Caterham is known for continuing to produce old Lotus road car designs, it was perfect that the F1 team switched it's name from Lotus to Caterham.

Would love to see a video about Jochen Rindt🙏❤️

This video is definitively on the TOP 3 Aldas' Videos.

Brilliant video. Well done

Top notch video. Thanks.

Sadly, really radical innovation in F1 today is stifled by over regulation. All the cars now look so similar because so much of the design is done by computer within strict parameters and dimensions.

Great video. Don't forget Jochen Rindt only f1 champion to be posthumously awarded the drivers championship, and one of the main voices for Improving f1 safety back in the late 60s. Aiden millward done a video on him recently really worth a watch.

Kimi was so good in the Lotus, he made them go almost bankrupt

Great video 🤩

Lotus innovations off the top of my head; - monocoque (DFV Cosworth) - Wings - Sponsorship Livery - Ground Effect - Active Suspension (Williams gets most credit thought the McLaren may have been most advanced before outlawed) - Carbon-fiber chassis (McLaren gets most of credit) - Tire Blankets - Jet turbine 4wd - Senna? What did I miss?

Hi Aldas. I gave you a thumbs up. Well researched and presented. I have a question though. Are you Italian? It's just that you put an "a" at the every thing you say?

But the black and gold livery is soooo.... Nostalgic ❤️❤️❤️

Excellent video 🏎

11:05 "...When Chapman passed away, there was no one like that..." Hearing that, all I can think is that if Gordon Murray wasn't hired by Brabham instead of Lotus for which he came to England for and as long as Chapman and Murray didn't develop any personal issues, Lotus would have rivalled Ferrari and still would to this day.

Yes, it make me sad. I didn’t know all the history, but I did know some of the innovation. I forgot that in 2011 it was 2 “lotus teams”. Thank you 🙏 for the video!

Thataah was greataaah, bro! ;)

Amazing and well told story on Lotus. Thank you. I think you may fin Brabham did the work of Chapman and drove the car. Is that right? Brabham deserves one of your productions.

It's amazing that no has made a movie about Colin Chapman.

Anyone who knows cars & or motorsports knows the name Lotus & Colin Chapman to some degree. They are legendary!

2:53 Pastor Baldonado aswell lol

Ha, the images of the Golf Leaf lotus at the virage de l'ancienne gare (way before it became the virage du Loews) in Monaco, in 67/68. I was there as a child. Wonderful souvenir, at a time where it was possible to walk all around the circuit with a (very cheap) circulaire ticket.

Jack Brabham. CEO, chief designer and lead driver..

Yo, I think you mean 1958-94, mate.

Superb , Thank you

a simple answer: there was a lot of competition, mclaren and williams and lotus pushed innovation to the extreme, beating the common enemy, Ferrari; but, in the long run, they also harm each other.

Enzo Ferrari just had more time to prepare his legacy to go on without him. Chapman almost certainly did not expect to die as early as he did, thus he had not handpicked an equivalent to Ferraris di Montezemolo to take over Lotus F1 once Chapman had passed on.

great video! can you make one about tyrell or brabham? they were both innovative

Nice video - I just miss Jochen Rindt as one of the iconic driver and his tragic end

Brilliant Video

One of the prettiest road cars Lotus ever built was the Elite from back in the early 1960"s.

I am a Lotus fanatic and own an Exige S260, but Colin Chapman did not invent or first use many of the things he employed. That would go to Jim Hall of Chaparral instead. Jim was perhaps the first to use or to successfully use a composite monocoque, side mounted radiators, tall, articulated rear wing and active ground effects. Nevertheless, Colin was brilliant and ahead of the class of team owners and designers in F1. It also would have been great if Mario Andretti had been mentioned with other famous Lotus drivers.

A good potted history of Lotus although failed to mention the links between Tony Fernandes and Group Lotus (Group Lotus being a Malaysian owned company via government owned Proton) and that the Caterham Car company bought the rights to continue to manufacture the Lotus 7 using their own racing name as the brand. The Lotus 7 having evolved from Champman's earlier racing cars that were initially based on Austin 7s where his innovative suspension system resulted in the 750cc Motor Racing rules to be changed as Chapman was winning everything.

Great content on one of the most iconic F1 Teams ..EVER ‼🇬🇧 At around 5 :35 minutes in , you show 4 images of LOTUS 49 3 of the 4 images are of 1968 car. The one with Graham Hill getting " Some AIR " with Rear wing mounted low behind engine is actually the 1969 49C at the German GP Nurburgring. This is confirmed when at 6:41 minutes in you show 2 images side by side comparing 1967 to 1968 F1 grid at Nurburgring. You can clearly see HIGH WING on LOTUS 49 as well as other cars ETC..