THE TEAM THAT WAS ONE AND DONE! The Story of the MasterCard Lola Team

This was one of the first ever motorsport history videos I did. While popular, it's badly made and needs an update with some extra tidbits you might not have known. And have more history of the actual Lola cars.

So with that, here's a Story Time video fit for 2023.

Enjoy! And remember to like and subscribe for more!

AFFILIATES:

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Instagram: amillward67
Twitter: Aidan_Millward
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[shawnmungur]

Don't sell yourself short! Those early storytime videos is why I subscribed to this channel.

[battleofwills]

I do miss the days of smaller teams pulling off an excellent result.
Minardi, Leyton House, Tyrell, Arrows, Jordan, Ligier.

[AdamTheMan]

To add even further salt to Lola's wounds MasterCard became a secondary sponsor to the Jordan team during the 1997 season

[pher]

Lola nearly also came back in 2010 and should have been given an entry

[samuelgt]

Fun fact: On the bring back v10's episode the race did on Lola's disastrous 1997 F1 effort, it was revealed that the T97/30 had less downforce than the F3000 cars of the time

[Holden]

Fun Fact: Lola literally had nothing to do with the Team Haas of the mid-1980s other than team boss Carl Haas being the main Lola importer to CART at the time. Haas named his cars Lola's (THL1 and THL2 - THL being Team Haas Lola) and Eric Broadley was named as the chief engineer, but the truth was the cars were designed and built by FORCE (Formula One Race Car Engineering), a company the team had set up on an industrial estate near Heathrow that included employees such as Chief Designer Neil Oatley and a young designer/aerodynamicist named Ross Brawn.

Lola was only there in name only.

[la]

When I think of Lola. I think of the mighty Lola T332 Formula 5000 cars of the 70s.

Absolute brutal, ground shaking, beasts of things that were the staple of the Australian and New Zealand premier open wheel series and Grand Prix at the time.
I remember seeing them as a kid and just being awestruck by them. The look, the noise, the whole package.
I still have a 1/18 model of the one Jones raced .
Thats how I like to remember Lola.

[samiraperi]

Needed money so went to F1? A move that has historically worked well. /s

[palm]

The Lola 1997 T97/00 CART car was an equally atrocious machine, their time in F1 I think might have had a knock-on effect on their CART program. It was so bad in pre-season testing that teams that had used the (quite excellent) T96/00 the previous year either rapidly switched chassis to either Reynard or Swift (Forsythe actually using a 1996 Reynard briefly until a 97i could be built for them) or switched to Reynards mid-season. Tasman's Adrian Fernandez stuck with the car(with the great Firestone/Honda combo at least), becoming it's development driver for the season;


"When Lola tested its T97/00 in the Williams wind tunnel towards the end of the 1997 CART season the results were said to have revealed a calibration error in the Cranfield wind tunnel, which had been used by Lola for many years, and which it had assisted in upgrading in 1995. The error was found to be of such magnitude that, far from generating downforce comparable with that of the rival Reynard 97I, the T97 was found to be greatly in arrears.

"Furthermore, the aerodynamic package was found to be unstable, with the centre of pressure able to migrate excessively along the underside of the car under acceleration and braking, but most particularly in cornering. The effect was sufficient to induce a condition in which front and rear end grip became unpredictable."

'[The] rear end instability manifested itself early on in the development of the T97/00. this was initially suspected to be due either to a mechanical problem with the suspension geometry, or an insufficiently stiff rear section of the car. Updates to stiffen the rear end, including new gearbox castings and suspension revisions, were made. But this fundamental handling fault seemed to resist all attempts at a remedy - and almost resulted in Lola's extinction as a CART constructor. By the end of 1997, all its customers had switched to alternative chassis suppliers - a heavy blow for a company which, only five years before, had had the entire customer car market to itself."


The car was finally fixed for Fontana, the final round of the 1997, where Tasman finished 3rd. It was all for naught though, come 1998 there would only be a single Lola on the grid. The B98/00 was a much improved car, but unfortunately only Davis Racing ran it with Arnd Meier on worthless Goodyear Tires and a Ford engine that was deficient to the Honda.


However by 1999 a few other teams adopted it (including Penske) and it was on Firestones with Hogan. 2000 Came around and it was equal to the Reynard, especially with the Toyota engine. Oddly Reynard's time in F1 with BAR effecting their CART program.

[y_fam_goeglyd]

Glad you're redoing the old videos. They're memory lane trips for some of us and undoubtedly news to more recent fans. The best way to turn a new fan into an old one is to give them the knowledge of the past to help them enjoy the future. So please carry on with your excellent work!

Btw, where are all the Moreno fans? Get more subs or we're never getting that video!

[benbenneyworth]

"It had the aerodynamic propities of John Prescott" 😂😂

[MaxScheibenpflug]

With a paintjob like they had, I wish they would have made it. Such good-looking cars!

[simonolsen]

Never once have I caught myself silently singing, "Da La La La Lara" to myself.

[pher]

Fact error: MasterCard did not pull their funding. They had a contract to fund the team through their club but still paid £300, 000 deposit. MasterCard had guests in Brazil that Jordan looked after. Broadley pulled the plug because then team was heavily in debt in the short term and this sponsorship money would not come till later

[TL]

lola could've at least stuck around and be a chassis maker like reynard did with BAR in their early years

[stevehageman]

Well, I did learn two things. 1) Lola worked with Ford on the GT40, 2) Lola worked on the Honda F1 car. Sad end to Lola, but you know what they say: "How do you make a small fortune in F1? You start with a large fortune!"

[Artelowet]

About the missing airbox: I remember there had been talks about forbidding airboxes for '95 to reduce power. The Forti FG01, in its basic form, was also missing an airbox. Best visable from the front or from above.

And I once read, that John Barnard designed the Ferrari 412T2 originally also without an airbox, but it was quickly added short before the design process was completely finished.

[pher]

Broadley was also keen to enter in 97 as he had tried to in 96 and 97 and had hired Keith wiggins in 96 to make it happen

[thehdgaming]

Lol... Lola is the name of my husky.. My dad always refers to the markings on her back as her "racing stripes"... 😂😂😂

Edit: Total kudos for the hat... Go Jays Go!!! 🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦

[GWFires]

In 94 it was considered to ban airboxes for 95 (thats why at 8:10)
I dont remember any prototype for 94
*sigh*
Mastercard saw that the direct bank competition "HSBC" was starting in 97 with Stewart. So they pushed Lola for 97, as they would withdrawn otherwise. (Start Nov 96, season start 4 months later.) I would also like to add that the T97/30 was a modified T95/30. Which was already outdated in 95.
Also they used qualy fuel in the first practice sessions, other teams ran race simulations with more fuel.

P.S. If i remember correctly it was said in 92, after seeing the miss managment of Andrea Moda. That other back markers would fight for points with this car, as it was well built and designed. Tbh the BMW S192 wasnt a bad design.