Author: Mathijs Diepraam - Source: Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons CC0 / public domain
We have seen a lot in the past, before ’97, teams joined and left after one race, one of them is the Lola F1 Team.
For decades, Lola built some of the most successful racing cars outside the F1 paddock, in Indy, endurance racing and Formula 3000.
But when it came to F1, their story became one of promise, persistence and heartbreak.
From supplying chassis to others to their own ill-fated attempt at becoming a full fledged constructor, Lola’s journey through the world’s toughest racing series is a fascinating tale of ambition that met its limit on the grid.
Lola F1
In the mid-1990s, after years of providing chassis to other teams, Lola Cars founder Eric Broadley decided its time to bring the famous British brand back to F1 under its own name.
The plan was careful and ambitious, a two-year development program aimed at a full works entry in 1998.
Why Lola failed in F1
Reports suggest that when MasterCard came aboard as title sponsor, they wanted instant results, instead of allowing Lola to prepare properly, the sponsor simply wanted immediate debut, a year early, at the start of the 1997 season, they funded it.
The car, Lola T97/30, was rushed together in only a few months, it shared DNA with the brand’s IndyCar design, used an outdated Ford Cosworth V8 engine at a time when the front-runners ran best possible V10s, and had never even been tested in a wind tunnel, in short, it was a car born too soon!
At the Australian GP in 1997, Lola in F1 fielded two drivers, Vincenzo Sospiri and Ricardo Rosset, both men were seasoned racers, but even they couldn’t perform miracles.
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Qualifying DAY
A day that changed everything for the team, Lola was 11 seconds slower than the pole sitter, they were outside of 107% limit, and couldn’t start the race.
After disappointing race a the Australian GP, Lola withdrew from Formula One before the Brazilian race, one race and over.
Nobody expected, everyone expected them to be ready, but sometimes things don’t go well even for the best teams on the grid, we remember the season of 2009, when no one was ready to battle with Brawn GP during the season.
But Lola in F1, the dream shattered before it had truly begun, so what if they started in 1998? They had the resources and they had the team?
Sadly, it remains one of the shortest-lived F1 teams in history, a single weekend, no starts and an exit that marked the end of an era for Lola in F1.
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What happened to Lola F1 team
Lola’s 1997 failure was not just about a bad car, it was a perfect storm of rushed deadlines, financial strain and misplaced expectations.
MasterCard pulled out immediately, leaving Lola with no backup plan, without funding, the team collapsed and shortly afterward, the company itself went into financial administration.
It was a heartbreaking end for a racing institution that had powered so many others to success, but failed to achieve it under its own name.
Many teams before Lola have collapsed in Formula 1, most of them privateer team.
Early Years… Supplying the Grid
Before the 1997 disaster, Lola was far from an F1 outsider. For decades, the company built cars for other teams and manufacturers, contributing to some of the sport’s most interesting stories.
Lola in 1962 partnered with Bowmaker Racing, providing the Lola MK4, one of the earliest British chassis.
A few years later, Honda worked with Lola to create the RA300, nicknamed ‘Hondola’. That car famously won the 1967 Italian GP with John Surtees driving the car.
However, through ’70s and 80s, Lola continued to supply chassis to smaller teams such as Embassy Hill, Larrouse, BMS Scuderia Italia, these collaborations gave many teams an affordable entry points into F1.
Perhaps most notably, the 1985-86 Haas Lola effort partnership with Carl Haas and Beatrice Foods marked a serious American-backed challenge in F1.
Though the results were modest, the cars, THL1 and THL2, reflected Lola’s perfection to take on massive challenges.
Was Lola the Shortest-Lived F1 Team?
Lola’s 1997 entry certainly ranks among the briefest in F1 history, competing in only one GP weekend, they never made it to the starting grid.
What makes this team special, is that this was not an amateur attempt, this was a respected global constructor with world-class expertise, their fall was not due to incompetence, it was due to circumstance.
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A New Beginning in the Electric Age
After decades of Silence in F1, the Lola name re-emerged in 2024, but not in the same form, the reborn company entered the Formula E in partnership with yamaha, competing as the Lola Yamaha FE team.
This new chapter marks a symbolic return, a blend of British engineering tradition and modern electric racing cars.
While F1 remains a closed door for now, their rebirth in all-electric racing shows that the pioneering spirit of Eric Broadley still lives on.
Lola in F1
Lola’s F1 story is short but its shadow stretches long, it is a reminder that motorsport greatness does not always follow the script, for every dominant team that conquers the grid, there are visionaries who dare to dream and fail spectacularly.
