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?
Ahead of our Hall of Fame event next Tuesday (February 15), the Motor Sport team sent out a survey to everyone registered on our website.
Usually these things are well beyond my pay grade, but this time I managed to get a quick glimpse of the results. Some were quite predictable – Jim Clark was voted the greatest Formula 1 driver of all time ahead of Ayrton Senna and Juan Manuel Fangio – but others weren’t.
Here are some of the results…
Which is the most memorable F1 car of all time?
1) Lotus 72
2) Maserati 250F
3) 1988 McLaren MP4-4
What was the best ever rivalry between F1 drivers?
1) Alain Prost vs Ayrton Senna (with a staggering 68.5 per cent of the vote)
2) James Hunt vs Niki Lauda
3) Juan Manuel Fangio vs Sir Stirling Moss
Which circuit in 2011 do you expect to produce the most exciting F1 race?
1) Spa-Francorchamps
2) Silverstone
3) Montréal
Which will be the most improved team on the F1 grid in 2011?
1) Mercedes
2) Williams
3) Lotus (quite a good call, although even if its cars are comparatively three seconds a lap faster than they were at the end of last season they’ll still be a second off the pace)
Out of the rookie drivers new to F1 for 2011, who do you think will excel?
1) Paul di Resta (should be right on the pace)
2) Pastor Maldonado
3) Sergio Pérez
Which team do you think will be the main contender for the constructors’ title in 2011?
1) Red Bull
2) McLaren
3) Ferrari
Which driver would you tip to win the 2011 drivers’ championship?
1) Fernando Alonso (with the above answer in mind, it doesn’t say much for everyone’s view on Massa!)
2) Lewis Hamilton
3) Sebastian Vettel
So there you have it. What are your thoughts? Do these answers really represent what you think?
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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