Lotus' Incredible discovery that revolutionised F1

Maximum Down Force Minimum Drag: Clive Chapman son of Lotus founder and F1 legend, the late Colin Chapman, describes how a chance discovery changed F1 forever. Featuring the Type 78, the title winning Type 79. Mario Andretti won the F1 title in the Type 79 and the first time he drove this type of Lotus, described it like being painted to the track.

[Treetop]

Lotus 78 - ground effects.
Lotus 49 - engine as a stressed structural member.
Lotus 25 - fully stressed monocoque chassis.

Fickin' Lotus, man.

[VigneshBalasubramaniam]

And the FIA sees this innovation and subsequently bans it. Now, the FIA complains about inability of the cars to follow each other, and the answer was found by Lotus in 1977! Its ground effect! Bring back ground effect FIA, it literally solves all the issues that Formula 1 currently has!

[Circuitsofthepast]

Great video. The ground effect era has allways fascinated me. Hard to say if it's the most important discovery in F1. At it's time it was a revolution, but after 5 years it was banned. I think aerodynamics in general is one of the most important discoveries in F1. It has increased the corner speeds enormous. Another very important discovery is kevlar, which made the cars lighter, stronger and much safer.

[GoodwoodRR]

Is this the most important discovery in the history of Formula 1? Let us know in the comments

[chompette_]

funny how one of the most revolutionary f1 cars and one of the most revolutionary locomotives, the Gresley A4, both had some of their key features created through a lack of robustness in the plasticine wind tunnel models!

[bigeddrive]

Not only those cars are technologicaly great but they also very pretty, I love these Lotuses in JPS livery

[trxlt]

Imagine the ground effect of the late 70's with the turbo engines of the 80's and the electronics of the early 90's. The perfect F1 car.

[alanshepherd]

Lotus 79. The most beautiful formula 1 car ever!!😁😁🇬🇧

[No.Handle]

Team Lotus where the greatest pioneers in F1 history. They created F1 cars as we know them. Colin and Lotus will be sadly missed.

[KevinACarter]

Fantastic! More videos like this please.

[Miklos]

Loved the shots of the 79's with their stand-in drivers @ Goodwood. Brings back some very pleasant memories.

[FAT]

Came from the final episode of Top Gear Season 27, and I'm not disappointed at all! What a machine.

[jacktaber]

Genius, I love this stuff, it gets me so fired up and intrigued.

[thearsenalmisfit]

Most important discovery was moving the engine behind the driver.

[tonyfranklin]

Lotus also made Chris Bordman's monocoque track bike, an absolute beauty of engineering!

[marinjeam]

Agree and the mid 70, s up to the mid 80, s F1, s are my favorite, s anyway

[mattosbourne]

Great car, but Lotus F1 was 7 years late with vacuum side skirts. Jim Hall and his Chaparral 2J in 1970 used side skirts (flush to the track surface) to maximize negative pressure below the chassis. The aero technology was so good that the SCCA banned it the next year.

[markom]

Lotus is a traditional British team. It is noteworthy that there have been many legends in Lotus, such as Ayrton Senna, Jim Clark, Ronnie Peterson, Graham Hill, Nigel Mansell, Mika Häkkinen, Kimi Räikkönen etc. But also many Finnish drivers. Mika Häkkinen (1991-1992), Mika Salo (1994), Heikki Kovalainen (2010-2011), and Kimi Räikkönen (2012-2013).

[caribstu]

such a beautiful car. couldn't help notice at 46 seconds, two Lotus in formation, but with 'Ronnie' ahead of 'Mario'. the irony being of course that Ronnie wasn't really allowed to pass Mario was he? Wasn't there some contractual agreement around sponsors that Mario would be number one driver so Ronnie spent most of that season following along behind. If my memory serves. Such a good driver, and a tragic loss, i'm sure Mario must know in his heart he inherited his title.

[nicholasjohnson]

JPS and Lotus rock! They had some amazing drivers, Hill, Clark, Andretti, Rhindt, but Elio was my fav. Always finished, though not the fastest. Elio/JPS/Lotus should have one world championship under its belt.