Why unloved Lotus 76 may be Colin Chapman's most significant car
A wide variety of Lotus cars are often proffered as the ultimate F1 game-changer – but was the Lotus 76 an unusual candidate which trumps them all?
It seems like only a few months ago that we recorded our 2010 Formula 1 season review in our local pub, the Chelsea Ram. But a full 12 months have passed, and to change things around a bit for this year’s season review we decided to ‘upgrade’ to the Bluebird restaurant. This may just seem like a good excuse to enjoy the food and wine this Chelsea establishment has to offer, but there was more to it than that.
Built in 1923 as the Bluebird Garage for Sir Malcolm Campbell, this Art Deco building was the place where in 2005 David Coulthard introduced Adrian Newey to Red Bull team principal Christian Horner. The negotiations that meant Adrian would leave McLaren and join the ranks in Milton Keynes came at a later date, but the seed had been sown. It’s this partnership that has been a major factor in Sebastian Vettel’s two World Championships and so – good food aside – it seemed a fitting place to record our last podcast of 2011.
Our latest issue includes a full season review, taken from this recording, as well as Nigel Roebuck’s top ten drivers and an exclusive interview with 2011 runner-up Jenson Button. Want to know who Jenson thinks is the most aggressive driver on the grid? Look out for the February issue on UK newstands on December 30.
In the meantime, from all of us on the podcast team, a very happy Christmas and thank you for listening. It’s been a great year for the podcasts and we hope you’ve enjoyed them. We’ll be back in the new year with a great guest to kick us off. The first recording will be on January 19 so look out for the podcast soon after that. At the risk of sounding like a BAFTA Award winner, I would just like to thank Alan Hyde for looking after the sound so brilliantly (it’s not easy making a bunch of smokers sound good) and Nigel Roebuck, Damien Smith and Rob Widdows for providing the content. More of the same in 2012, please…
A wide variety of Lotus cars are often proffered as the ultimate F1 game-changer – but was the Lotus 76 an unusual candidate which trumps them all?
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