Lola

Interesting facts

Eric Broadley founded Lola Cars in 1958, and the company made its Formula One debut in 1962, supplying chassis to Reg Parnell's Bowmaker-Yeoman team; on the car's debut, John Surtees claimed pole position with it. For decades, Lola was present in the field not as a works team but as a chassis supplier: after the early Parnell era, names running Lola chassis included Graham Hill's Embassy Hill and the Beatrice Foods-funded Haas Lola, with Alan Jones and Patrick Tambay at the wheel. In 1967, Lola's design office helped create the Honda RA300, nicknamed the 'Hondola' by fans, which won on its very debut, at the Italian Grand Prix. In the late 1980s, the Lamborghini-powered Larrousse & Calmels brought the brand credibility, and in the 1993 season the Ferrari-powered Scuderia Italia gave a Lola chassis a try. Time and again during this era, Lola's chassis proved that the respected British design house never found its way to a works victory at Formula One's top level, its successes instead coming elsewhere, in sports cars and at Indianapolis. Lola raced in Formula 1 from 1962 to 1993, across 10 seasons as a British team. The team scored a total of 27 constructors' championship points.