A Blast From The Past!

Reflections by Nigel Mansell on the return of the iconic Black & Gold livery made famous by one of Lotus' greatest drivers!

Message from Nigel Mansell:

I am delighted to see the return of Group Lotus to Formula One through their acquisition of an equity stake in Renault F1. It is particularly pleasing for me to see the union of Lotus and Renault again and the return of the iconic Black & Gold colours as driven by the late greats Ayrton Senna and Elio de Angelis, Johnny Dumfries and of course, myself in the 80's. I have particularly fond memories of this combination as I drove a Lotus-Renault to its first podium at the 1983 European GP. Ayrton followed that up with an incredible maiden win in Portugal in 1985.

I remember the Lotus-Renault agreement was signed in the middle of the '82 season and provided sufficient turbo-charged engines for only one car – the new Type 93 intended for Elio de Angelis. As a result Colin engineered a second car designed to make the most of the normally aspirated Cosworth-Ford engine for me. In true Lotus innovative style, Colin decided to incorporate the new and pioneering 'active' suspension system into my Type 92 which had been on the Lotus drawing board for months in a brave attempt to equalise the performance of my car with that of the Renault powered version. However, the bold move didn't quite pay off for me, as it perhaps was introduced slightly prematurely, and was removed after a couple of races. However, I know that this technology continued to be developed successfully for road car use and is a great example of how Lotus innovation on the race track translated into road use. No doubt this new venture in F1 will prove equally beneficial in their future road car development.

I am extremely grateful to Lotus and especially to Colin Chapman, who was so inspirational and almost like a second father to me and have been watching with great interest the developments that have been taking place recently at Hethel with their ambitious race and road car projects. I am really delighted to see that Lotus is back where it belongs competing with the best in the top echelons of Motorsport made all the better with the revival of the traditional livery that adorned my cars for so many years and really wish them the best of luck in the future.