Lotus 102
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The Lotus 102 was a
Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...
racing car Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...
designed by
Lotus Lotus may refer to: Plants *Lotus (plant), various botanical taxa commonly known as lotus, particularly: ** ''Lotus'' (genus), a genus of terrestrial plants in the family Fabaceae **Lotus flower, a symbolically important aquatic Asian plant also ...
for use in the
1990 Formula One season The 1990 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 44th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1990 Formula One World Championship for Drivers and the 1990 Formula One World Championship for Constructors, which were conteste ...
and would eventually go on to compete in 37 races spanning three seasons from until .


Development

Using the 101 as its basis
Frank Dernie Frank William Dernie (born 3 April 1950) to James Harold Dernie and Monica Dernie (née Pacey) is a veteran British Formula One engineer with extensive Formula One motorsport experience. Career Dernie was brought up in Lancashire and educated at ...
incorporated the
Lamborghini Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. () is an Italian brand and manufacturer of luxury sports cars and SUVs based in Sant'Agata Bolognese. The company is owned by the Volkswagen Group through its subsidiary Audi. Ferruccio Lamborghini (1916–1993) ...
V12 engine A V12 engine is a twelve-cylinder piston engine where two banks of six cylinders are arranged in a V configuration around a common crankshaft. V12 engines are more common than V10 engines. However, they are less common than V8 engines. The fi ...
that had been used by the
Larrousse Larrousse Formula One was a motorsports racing team founded in 1987 by Didier Calmels and former racer Gérard Larrousse, originally under the name Larrousse & Calmels. It was based in Antony, in the southern suburbs of Paris. It was renamed La ...
Lola team during . Its use made the 102 the only Lotus to race with a V12 engine. The engine had several drawbacks, principally its size, weight and fuel economy. However, it was believed that the increases in power would offset these drawbacks. The engine's size meant it had to be located lower in the chassis, which also had to be designed to its widest permitted dimensions in order to incorporate larger fuel tanks. Furthermore, due to the engine's mass every component on the car had to be scrutinised to investigate whether any further weight reductions could be made elsewhere. The departure of Nelson Piquet to Benetton and Satoru Nakajima to Tyrrell at the end of brought in the experienced Derek Warwick, and promoted test driver Martin Donnelly to fill the other vacant drivers seat. The inclusion of these drivers, who were taller than Piquet and Nakajima, incurred another design compromise as the car had to be taller than was desired. Former boss Peter Warr had been close to negotiating large sponsorship deals with
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and
Castrol Castrol is a British oil company that markets industrial and automotive lubricants, offering a wide range of oil, greases and similar products for most lubrication applications. The name ''Castrol'' was originally just the brand name for com ...
fuels for 1990, but the fallout from the DeLorean scandal nixed those plans, leaving the team underfunded. Team Lotus's manager Rupert Mainwarring confidently predicted that the team would score 40 championship points. By the first round of the championship it was apparent that this confidence was sadly misplaced.


Racing history


1990

Team Lotus were to struggle throughout the season to score three points, its lowest score since . Warwick scored all three points with a 6th place in
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and a 5th-place finish in
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, while Donnelly failed to score at all. More often than not, it was the unreliability of the Lamborghini 3512 engine which cost Lotus in 1990. Ultimately this performance was to witness the departure of the lucrative Camel sponsorship the team had enjoyed since 1987 and almost cost the team its existence. Ironically, the planned use of the Lamborghini V12 was also the major reason why triple World Champion Nelson Piquet chose not to re-sign with the team after 1989 with the Brazilian correctly predicting that the under-developed engine would hamper both his and the team's chances. While the Lamborghini, one of only two
V12 engine A V12 engine is a twelve-cylinder piston engine where two banks of six cylinders are arranged in a V configuration around a common crankshaft. V12 engines are more common than V10 engines. However, they are less common than V8 engines. The fi ...
s in Formula One at the time (the other being
Ferrari Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988) in 1939 from the Alfa Romeo racing division as ''Auto Avio Costruzioni'', the company built its first car in ...
), had shown promise with the Larrousse team in its debut season 1989, it still lagged behind the V12 Ferrari, the V10 engines from
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and
Renault Groupe Renault ( , , , also known as the Renault Group in English; legally Renault S.A.) is a French multinational automobile manufacturer established in 1899. The company produces a range of cars and vans, and in the past has manufactured ...
, and even the
Cosworth Cosworth is a British automotive engineering company founded in London in 1958, specialising in high-performance internal combustion engines, powertrain, and electronics for automobile racing (motorsport) and mainstream automotive industrie ...
built and developed Ford
V8 engine A V8 engine is an eight-cylinder piston engine in which two banks of four cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. The first V8 engine was produced by the French Antoinette company in 1904, developed and us ...
in both power and more importantly reliability. Derek Warwick disliked the car, feeling the engine was poor and the monocoque was unsafe stating: ''I didn't like to drive it. I was scared to be in it.'' The 102 ultimately saw the end of Martin Donnelly's brief F1 career in a crash which almost cost him his life. During the
1990 Spanish Grand Prix The 1990 Spanish Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held at Jerez on 30 September 1990. It was the fourteenth race of the 1990 Formula One World Championship, and the fifth and last Spanish Grand Prix to be held at Jerez (though the circuit ...
at
Jerez Jerez de la Frontera (), or simply Jerez (), is a Spanish city and municipality in the province of Cádiz in the autonomous community of Andalusia, in southwestern Spain, located midway between the Atlantic Ocean and the Cádiz Mountains. , the ...
, Donnelly had a horrific crash during Friday practice when he left the circuit in the fast right hand turn behind the pits and the car hit the barriers at speed. The poor build quality of the car was proven in the horrific impact. The 102 broke in half and the seat of the car broke free and was flung clear of the wreck with Martin still strapped in. Donnelly, who ended up laying in the middle of the track, received serious injuries that took months of recovery. Two races previous in
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, Warwick also had a monumental crash on the first lap of the race at
Monza Monza (, ; lmo, label=Lombard language, Lombard, Monça, locally ; lat, Modoetia) is a city and ''comune'' on the River Lambro, a tributary of the Po River, Po in the Lombardy region of Italy, about north-northeast of Milan. It is the capit ...
when he ran wide on the exit to the Parabolica and clouted the barriers at speed. Although the car overturned and slid down the middle of the circuit upside down, Warwick was unharmed. He climbed out of his car, which following cars avoided, ran back to the pits (where he told the team and reporters that the crash was his own fault for running too wide at the Parabolica) and started the race in the spare car. After Donnelly's career ending crash at Jerez, he was replaced for the final two races in
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and
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by British driver Johnny Herbert. In December 1990, Peter Collins and Peter Wright headed a consortium which bought the team. Due to the timing of the takeover the team were unable to start the season with sufficient sponsorship. In addition, the planned introduction of Dernie's type 103 was shelved, the team instead opting to refresh the 102 to B standards. In a 2014 interview when talking about his time at Lotus and with the Lamborghini engine, Derek Warwick said that the car was poor and that it would "flex all over the place, it would break, it was unreliable" before adding that the V12 engine was "all noise and no go".


1991

The Lotus 102B was Team Lotus's entry to the 1991 season. Despite having over 800 new components incorporated the new car was not sufficiently different from the 102 to justify a new type designation. This continued the precedent set by Lotus 30 years previously, whereby the Type 25 was almost completely redesigned, but was still designated the 25B. The heavy and ultimately unreliable (in Lotus usage at least; the Larrouse-Lola outfit found better results having used the engine since 1989)
Lamborghini Automobili Lamborghini S.p.A. () is an Italian brand and manufacturer of luxury sports cars and SUVs based in Sant'Agata Bolognese. The company is owned by the Volkswagen Group through its subsidiary Audi. Ferruccio Lamborghini (1916–1993) ...
engine was replaced by the Judd EV V8, the successor of the Judd CV V8 that had been used in the
101 101 may refer to: * 101 (number), the number * AD 101, a year in the 2nd century AD * 101 BC, a year in the 2nd century BC It may also refer to: Entertainment * ''101'' (album), a live album and documentary by Depeche Mode * "101" (song), a ...
in 1989. The driver line-up was also changed. Martin Donnelly stated that he was due to be kept on for 1991 as lead driver, but his Jerez shunt put paid to that. Future world champion Mika Häkkinen and Julian Bailey filled the seats vacated by a frustrated Derek Warwick and injured Donnelly. It was apparent that the car was nowhere near the pace setters of the McLaren MP4/6 and the
Williams FW14 The Williams FW14 is a Formula One car designed by Adrian Newey, used by the Williams team during the 1991 and 1992 Formula One seasons. Overview The car was born out of necessity, as the 1989 and 1990 seasons had proven competitive for Willi ...
at the opening round in Phoenix. The quality control was still not up to standard; Häkkinen would go on to describe that during this race his steering wheel actually came off. Bailey's failure to qualify for the
Monaco Grand Prix The Monaco Grand Prix (french: Grand Prix de Monaco) is a Formula One motor racing event held annually on the Circuit de Monaco, in late May or early June. Run since 1929, it is widely considered to be one of the most important and prestigiou ...
prompted his departure and replacement with test driver Johnny Herbert for the remainder of the season. Due to Herbert's International Formula 3000 commitments the German driver
Michael Bartels Michael Bartels (born 8 March 1968) is a German professional racing driver. He is a multiple FIA GT champion and former Grand Prix driver who attempted to qualify for four races in with Lotus. Career Bartels was the 1985 German karting champi ...
raced in his absence but failed to qualify. The 102B enabled the team to equal their 1990 points total of three points. With increased sponsorship and the delay of the
107 107 may refer to: *107 (number), the number *AD 107, a year in the 2nd century AD *107 BC, a year in the 2nd century BC *107 (New Jersey bus) See also *10/7 (disambiguation) *Bohrium Bohrium is a synthetic chemical element with the symbol Bh a ...
it was to continue racing for the first four races of the 1992 season in D specification. The C specification incorporated an Isuzu P799WE ( Japanese edition) V12 engine that had been developed throughout the season but never raced. The new engine produced impressive power, with rumours of around 750bhp reported. In the engine's one and only track test, the car was six seconds off the pace however. Ultimately, Collins decided against a deal to use the unproven engine and Isuzu decided against entering Formula One anyway.


1992

The final incarnation of the 102, was the makeshift 102D that represented Team Lotus's for the start of the 1992 season. Outwardly similar to the 102B, the car had a
Cosworth Cosworth is a British automotive engineering company founded in London in 1958, specialising in high-performance internal combustion engines, powertrain, and electronics for automobile racing (motorsport) and mainstream automotive industrie ...
HB V8 in place of the Judd EV V8. In an attempt to gain exposure a 102D driven by Johnny Herbert broke the
Brands Hatch Brands Hatch is a motor racing circuit in West Kingsdown, Kent, England, United Kingdom. Originally used as a grasstrack motorcycle circuit on farmland, it hosted 12 runnings of the British Grand Prix between 1964 and 1986 and currently host ...
Indy circuit record for the BBC
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programme.


Complete results

(
key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...
) * 11 points scored in using the
Lotus 107 The Lotus 107 was a Formula One car used by Team Lotus. Designed for the 1992 Formula One season, and used throughout most of 1992, 1993 and part of 1994, it brought in a final, short-lived period of competitiveness for the team in Formula One ...
.


References

{{F1 cars 1992
102 102 may refer to: * 102 (number), the number * AD 102, a year in the 2nd century AD * 102 BC, a year in the 2nd century BC * 102 (ambulance service), an emergency medical transport service in Uttar Pradesh, India * 102 (Clyde) Field Squadron, Royal ...