65 years of Lotus F1 cars — the greatest track tests

Sometimes it’s not what you do, it’s the way you do it. Colin Chapman’s restlessly innovative Lotus team, with brilliance behind the wheel in the form of Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Jochen Rindt, Emerson Fittipaldi, Jochen Rindt, Mario Andretti and many more, represents success in spades, with six drivers’ crowns, seven constructors’ titles and 74 championship race wins.

However, for many, it’s the cars that capture the imagination – drivers and their wins are only part of the equation.

Chapman’s designs – with crucial input from Maurice Philippe, Tony Rudd, Tony Southgate and Peter Wright – were imbued with the personality of someone who didn’t just want to win, but wanted to do it like no-one else.

All of Lotus’s successful competition cars were laden with what are widely viewed as ground-breaking innovations – even if some tentative ideas may have been first tried and tinkered with elsewhere. The old adage that ‘obsolete cars win races’ simply didn’t apply to Chapman.

65 years ago today, at the 1958 Monaco GP, Lotus made its Formula 1 World Championship debut, with Cliff Allison and Graham Hill behind the wheel. It was the first significant step towards decades of success, and to mark the occasion, we’ve compiled our top Lotus F1 track tests.

Lotus 12

Though it may it not have been the competition crusher which other Lotus F1 cars would come to be, the small, cigar-shaped 12 was instantly successful for Chapman and co when it made its debut at the start of 1958.

Competitive in its first two races and scoring points at the third in the hands of Cliff Allison, the 12 furthered the initial reputation Chapman had established when lending an engineering hand at Vanwall.