Archive for the ‘Lotus Drivers’ Category
Heikki Kovalainen drives Classic Lotus F1 cars
Saturday, June 12th, 2010
Elliot Moss drives a Lotus 18
Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010It seems appropriate that on the day Elliot Moss, Stirling’s son, drives a Lotus 18 for the first time, courtesy of Classic Team Lotus, Stirling was winning the 1960 Monaco Grand Prix, the first Formula 1 win for Lotus, exactly 50 years ago. This was also the first time Elliot had ever driven a single seater let alone a race car on a race track, so the timing and type of car driven was very fitting.
The reason for Elliot driving is to demonstrate the Lotus 18 at the Classic Team Lotus Festival on 20th June 2010 at the Snetterton Race Circuit, along with 33 Formula 1 cars from the Lotus’s Formula 1 history. The festival will also feature the newest Lotus Formula 1 car on track, the T127, and its drivers Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli.
As Stirling is still recovering from the injuries he sustained from his accident back in March, Elliot will drive the Lotus 18 in a demonstration run, alongside a other Lotus Formula 1 cars around the Snetterton track. Stirling’s son did not follow his fathers professional career path, he is a trained chef and now run’s the family’s property business with his wife Helen who was present at Hethel to witness a little bit of Lotus and Moss history being made.
[via stirlingmoss.com]
Tyler McQuarrie Pole-Setting Lap from Long Beach
Wednesday, April 21st, 2010As we posted a few days ago, Tyler McQuarrie qualified on pole and won the GTS class at the SCCA World Challenge Event at Long Beach. He has just posted this video of his qualifying lap online – enjoy!
Tyler McQuarrie Qualifying Lotus for World Challenge from tyler@tylermcquarrie.com on Vimeo.
Eighteen F1 World Champions
Sunday, March 14th, 2010Eighteen of the living F1 World Champions attended the 2010 F1 Championship opener this weekend. The only missing ones being Kimi Raikkonen and Nelson Piquet. See how many you can recognize in this picture
Back row: Fernando Alonso (2005, 2006); Sir Jack Brabham (1959, 1960, 1966); Michael Schumacher (1994, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004); Emerson Fittipaldi (1972, 1974); Lewis Hamilton (2008); Mika Hakkinen (1998, 1999); Damon Hill (1996).
Middle row: Niki Lauda (1975, 1977, 1984); Keke Rosberg (1982); Mario Andretti (1978); Sir Jackie Stewart (1969, 1971, 1973); Alain Prost (1985, 1986, 1989, 1993); Jacques Villeneuve (1997); John Surtees (1964).
Front row: Alan Jones (1980); Nigel Mansell (1992); His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Bernie Ecclestone, Jody Scheckter (1979); Jenson Button (2009).
UPDATE: F1 Fanatic just posted a much nicer official photograph
Back: Alain Prost, Alan Jones, Nigel Mansell, Mika Hakkinen, Jacques Villeneuve, Keke Rosberg, Jody Scheckter, Michael Schumacher, Damon Hill.
Front: Fernando Alonso, Jenson Button, Niki Lauda, Bernie Ecclestone, Mario Andretti, Jeat Todt, Michelle Yeoh, Jack Brabham, Jackie Stewart, John Surtees, Emerson Fittipaldi, Lewis Hamilton
[via Joe Saward]
Perkele
Friday, February 19th, 2010MTV Advert for the upcoming F1 season with Heikki Kovaleinen:
Perkele refers to Satan and is a common swearword in Finnish.
Heikki Kovalainen visits Lotus
Friday, January 29th, 2010
F1 driver Heikki Kovalainen visits the home of Lotus Cars to meet the Lotus family and choose the scheme for his personalised Lotus Evora.
It was a real thrill for the Lotus workforce to see Lotus F1 Racing Driver Heikki as he was given a personal tour of the production facilities yesterday, and even more exciting for those few employees who got a rare chance to be driven by the F1 star as he tested the Lotus Evora on Lotus’ own test track for the first time.
During his day with Lotus Cars Heikki was given a special tour of the Classic Team Lotus workshops by Clive Chapman, son of Lotus founder Colin Chapman during which he chatted to Clive and Engineer Bob Dance about their first hand experience of some of the most successful and iconic F1 racing cars of all time. The tour was steeped in Lotus history and included some of the F1 cars that helped Lotus to achieve 79 GP wins, seven constructor’s titles and 6 drivers’ championships, including Emerson Fittipaldi’s Type 72.
Dany Bahar, CEO of Group Lotus plc said, “Group Lotus is very proud of its racing pedigree and we are all very excited to share our story with Heikki. It was our honour to welcome Heikki to Group Lotus and we wish him and the Lotus F1 Racing team every success for the 2010 F1 season.”
Dany Bahar continued, “We take great pride in the sports cars that we produce at Hethel and Heikki’s visit provided a great opportunity to show off the multi-award winning cars that we produce and the advanced niche production facilities at Hethel.”
Heikki was not on Lotus soil long before he was behind the wheel of the Lotus Evora trying it on for size on Lotus’ own test track and commented “The Evora was everything I expected, Lotus is famous for fantastic sports cars and the Evora did not disappoint. The power to weight ratio gives the car a real racecar feel and allowed me to really push the car round the track. I enjoyed every lap and had fun sliding it sideways!”
He went on to say, “The day has been great, I was really excited to see so many happy, motivated people and the support of the Lotus workforce is very much appreciated, I really got a sense of the passion the people have for the Lotus brand.”
Heikki concluded, “I’d really like to thank every one at Lotus for a great day, it was an honour to meet Clive Chapman and learn more abut his legendary father and to see Lotus’ classic F1 cars. I’m really keen to drive one of the JPS cars and maybe will be at Lotus again sometime soon to drive the Type 72!”
F1 Driver Jarno Trulli Sits In His First Lotus
Thursday, December 17th, 2009F1 driver Jarno Trulli straight from being announced as driver for Lotus F1 Racing in Malaysia made the trip to the home of Lotus at Hethel in England, visiting where Lotus history was made.
It was an exciting day, with Jarno enjoying a visit to the production facilities, meeting Lotus staff and driving the new Lotus Evora – the first Lotus he has ever driven!
Jarno was also given a special tour of the Classic Team Lotus workshops by Clive Chapman, son of Lotus founder Colin Chapman. During the visit to Classic Team Lotus Jarno viewed some of the most successful and iconic F1 racing cars of all time. The tour was steeped in Lotus heritage and included some of the F1 cars that helped Lotus to achieve 79 GP wins, seven constructor’s titles and 6 drivers’ championships, including, Emerson Fittipaldi’s Type 72, Graham Hill’s Type 49 and Jim Clark’s Type 25.
Dany Bahar, CEO of Group Lotus plc said, “The family gets bigger with the arrival of Jarno. It was very special to host Jarno at Group Lotus, he is an exceptional driving talent and we wish him and Lotus F1 Racing every success for the 2010 F1 season.”
Dany Bahar continued, “We take great pride in the sports cars that we produce at Hethel and Jarno’s visit provided a great opportunity to show off the multi-award winning cars that we produce and the advanced niche production facilities at Hethel.”
Jarno had a fantastic time driving the Lotus Evora and visiting the home of the iconic Lotus marque, commenting, “Gino Rosato and I come from the same region of Italy, Abruzzo, we have been close friends for years and it was always a dream of ours to work together. Claudio Berro and Dany Bahar are also old friends and I honestly never thought that I would get the opportunity to work with these great people.”
He went on to say,” It was a great occasion and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the fantastic Classic Lotus F1 cars and new Lotus models. The facilities at Group Lotus are very impressive and I was amazed at the dedication and craftsmanship that goes into the production of Lotus cars. The Lotus Evora lived up to all my expectations of what a Lotus would be like to drive. It is clearly a very well engineered car that provides an exceptionally rewarding drive and I am looking forward to Lotus’ exciting future.”
[press release from Lotus]
Jim Clark – The Quiet Champion
Monday, April 20th, 2009An hour-long documentary on Jim Clark, 2 time Formula 1 champion and arguably the greatest Lotus driver of all time.
Jim Clark – The Quiet Champion from Juha on Vimeo.
[via Axis of Oversteer]
Commemorating Graham Hill
Sunday, February 15th, 2009
Graham Hill in the Gold Leaf Team Lotus 49 at the 1968 German Grand Prix. Photo by ProRallyPix
Today is the 80th anniversary of the birth of Graham Hill (February 15, 1929 – November 29, 1975), a two time Formula 1 World Champion and the only man to win the Triple Crown of Motorsport. He drove for Team Lotus for three seasons including the 1968 season where he pulled the team around him to win the championship after the untimely death of Jim Clark. He was also the father of the 1996 F1 World Champion Damon Hill.
His notable victories include:
Formula 1 World Champion (1962, 1968)
Indianapolis 500 (1966)
24 Hours of Le Mans (1972)
5 wins at the Monaco Grand Prix (1963, 1964, 1965, 1968, 1969)
BRDC International Trophy (1962, 1971)
[thanks to ms355 on LotusTalk for the video pointer]
