Lotus 49

The Lotus 49 was a Formula One racing car designed by Colin Chapman and Maurice Philippe for the 1967 F1 season. It was designed around the Cosworth DFV engine that would power most of the Formula One grid through the 1970s. It was one of the first F1 cars to use a stressed-member drivetrain to reduce weight, and the first to be widely copied by other teams.[5]

Lotus 49
CategoryFormula One
ConstructorLotus
Designer(s)Colin Chapman
(Technical director)
Maurice Philippe
(Chief designer)
PredecessorLotus 43
SuccessorLotus 63 / Lotus 72
Technical specifications[1][2]
ChassisAluminium monocoque
Axle track1,524mm (60in) front and 1,549mm (61in) rear[3]
Wheelbase2,413 mm (95.0 in)
EngineFord Cosworth DFV, 2,998 cc (183 cu in), V8, NA, mid-mounted
TransmissionHewland-Lotus 5-speed manual gearbox
Power420-440 hp @ 9,000-10,000 rpm[4]
Weight501 kg (1,105 lb)
FuelEsso (9 GP), Shell
TyresFirestone, Dunlop
Competition history
Notable entrantsGold Leaf Team Lotus
Rob Walker Racing Team
Notable drivers Jim Clark
Graham Hill
Mario Andretti
Jochen Rindt
Jo Siffert
Emerson Fittipaldi
Debut1967 Dutch Grand Prix
RacesWinsPodiumsPolesF/Laps
4212231913
Constructors' Championships2 (1968, 1970^)
Drivers' Championships2 (Graham Hill, 1968 / Jochen Rindt, 1970)

Jim Clark won on the car's debut, in 1967, and it would also provide him with the last win of his career, in 1968. Graham Hill went on to win that year's title and the car continued winning races until 1970.

Concept

After a difficult first year for Lotus in the three-litre formula, Chapman went back to the drawing board and came up with a design that was both back to basics, and forward-thinking. Taking inspiration from earlier designs, particularly the Lotus 43 and Lotus 38 Indycar, the 49 was the first F1 car to be powered by the Ford Cosworth DFV engine, after Chapman convinced Ford to build an F1 power-plant.

The 49 was an advanced design in Formula 1 because of its chassis configuration. The specially-designed engine became a stress-bearing structural member (seen earlier with the H16 engine in the Lotus 43 and BRM P83, and prior to that in the front-engined Lancia D50 of 1954),[6] bolted to the monocoque at one end and the suspension and gearbox at the other. Since then, virtually all Formula 1 cars have been built this way.

The 49 was a testbed for several new pieces of racecar technology and presentation. Lotus was the first team to use aerofoil wings, which were introduced at the 1968 Monaco Grand Prix. Originally these wings were bolted directly to the suspension and were supported by slender struts. The wings were mounted several feet above the chassis of the car for effective use in clean air, however after several breakages which led to dangerous accidents, the high wings were banned and Lotus was forced to mount the wings directly to the bodywork.

Racing history

Jim Clark being congratulated by Colin Chapman after winning with the 1967 Dutch Grand Prix, the Lotus 49's first World Championship race

In testing, Graham Hill found the Lotus 49 easy to drive and responsive, but the power of the Ford engine difficult to handle at first. The V8 would give sudden bursts of power that Hill had reservations about. After his first run in the car, he said in typical witty fashion, 'It's got some poke! Not a bad old tool.'[7] However, Jim Clark won its debut race at Zandvoort with ease and took another three wins during the season, but early unreliability with the DFV ended his championship hopes. It had problems in its first race for Hill, and it had spark plug trouble at the Belgian Grand Prix, held on the 8.76 mile (14.73 kilometer) Spa-Francorchamps. Clark and Hill fell victim to its reliability issues at the French Grand Prix, held at the Le Mans Bugatti Circuit (a smaller circuit using only part of the track used for the Le Mans 24 Hours), and lost to Jack Brabham. Clark then ran out of fuel at Monza during the Italian Grand Prix. Mechanical failures cost Lotus the championship that year, but it was felt that 1968 would be a better year after Cosworth and Lotus perfected their designs, which were clearly the way forward.

A Lotus 49 with Ford V-8 engine drawing

Clark won the first race of the 1968 season, the South African Grand Prix and the Tasman Series in Australia, but was killed in an F2 race at Hockenheim. Hill took over as team leader and won his second World Championship title, after clinching three Grand Prix wins - including the fourth of his five Monaco Grands Prix. Jo Siffert also drove a 49, owned by Rob Walker, to win the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch that year, the last time a car entered by a genuine privateer won a championship Formula 1 race.[8] The 49 also took Jochen Rindt to his first victory, in 1969, at Watkins Glen, New York, before he drove the type to its last win, in the 1970 Monaco Grand Prix.

The 49 was intended to be replaced by the Lotus 63 midway through 1969, but when that car proved to be a failure, an improved version of the 49, the 49C, was pressed into service until a suitable car could be built.[9] The 49 took twelve wins and contributed to two drivers' and constructors' world championships, before it was replaced by the Lotus 72 during 1970. The final appearances of the 49C were in 1971, with Wilson Fittipaldi finishing ninth in the 1971 Argentine Grand Prix, and Tony Trimmer finishing sixth in the Spring Cup at Oulton Park.[9]

Of the twelve 49s built, seven remain. Chassis R3 (driven by Hill, then sold to privateer John Love) is the only example of the original 1967 cars still in existence, and is on display at the National Motor Museum in Hampshire.[10]

Complete Formula One results

Championship results

(key) (results in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Chassis Entrant Tyres Driver 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 Points WCC
1967 Lotus 49 Team Lotus F RSA MON NED BEL FRA GBR GER CAN ITA USA MEX 44 2nd
Jim Clark 1 6 Ret 1 Ret Ret 3 1 1
Graham Hill Ret Ret Ret Ret Ret 4 Ret 2 Ret
Eppie Wietzes DSQ
Giancarlo Baghetti Ret
Moises Solana Ret Ret
1968 §Lotus 49
Lotus 49B
Team Lotus F RSA ESP MON BEL NED FRA GBR GER ITA CAN USA MEX 62 1st
Jim Clark 1§
Graham Hill 2§
Gold Leaf Team Lotus 1§ 1 Ret 9 Ret Ret 2 Ret 4 2 1
Jackie Oliver Ret§ 5 NC DNS Ret 11 Ret Ret DNS 3
Mario Andretti DNS Ret
Bill Brack Ret
Moises Solana Ret
Rob Walker/Jack Durlacher Racing Jo Siffert Ret§ Ret§ 7§ Ret§ 11§ 1 Ret Ret Ret 5 6
1969 §Lotus 49
Lotus 49B
Gold Leaf Team Lotus F RSA ESP MON NED FRA GBR GER ITA CAN USA MEX 42 3rd
Graham Hill 2 Ret 1 7 6 7 4 9 Ret Ret
Jochen Rindt Ret Ret Ret Ret 4 Ret 2 3 1 Ret
Mario Andretti Ret
Richard Attwood 4
Rob Walker/Jack Durlacher Racing Jo Siffert 4 Ret 3 2 9 8 11 8 Ret Ret Ret
Ecurie Bonnier Jo Bonnier Ret
Team Gunston D John Love Ret§
Pete Lovely Volkswagen Inc. F Pete Lovely 7 Ret 9
1970 §Lotus 49
Lotus 49B
Lotus 49C
Gold Leaf Team Lotus
Garvey Team Lotus
World Wide Racing
F RSA ESP MON BEL NED FRA GBR GER AUT ITA CAN USA MEX 59^ 1st^
Jochen Rindt 13 1 Ret
John Miles 5 DNQ
Alex Soler-Roig DNQ DNQ
Emerson Fittipaldi 8 4 15
R.R.C. Walker Racing
Brooke Bond Oxo Racing/Rob Walker
Graham Hill 6 4 5 Ret NC 10 6 Ret
Brian Redman DNS
Scuderia Scribante Dave Charlton 12
Team Gunston D John Love 8§
Pete Lovely Volkswagen Inc. F Pete Lovely DNQ DNQ NC DNQ
Points were awarded on a 9-6-4-3-2-1 basis to the first six finishers at each round, but only the best placed car for each make was eligible to score points. The best five results from the first six rounds and the best four results from the last five rounds were retained in 1967 and 1969, five from the first six and five from the last six in 1968, and the best six results from the first seven rounds and the best five from the last six rounds were retained in 1970.
Formula Two cars occupied fifth to tenth positions in the 1969 German Grand Prix, but were not eligible for championship points. The points for fifth and sixth were awarded to the drivers of the eleventh and twelfth placed cars.
^ Total points scored by all Lotus-Ford cars, including 45 points scored by drivers of Lotus 72 variants.

Non-Championship results

(key) (results in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Chassis Entrant Tyres Driver 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1967 Lotus 49 Team Lotus F ROC SPC INT SYR OUL ESP
Jim Clark 1
Graham Hill 2
1968 Lotus 49 Gold Leaf Team Lotus F ROC INT OUL
Graham Hill Ret Ret
Lotus 49B Ret
Jackie Oliver 3
Lotus 49 Rob Walker/Jack Durlacher Racing Jo Siffert DNS Ret
1969 Lotus 49B Gold Leaf Team Lotus F ROC INT MAD OUL
Graham Hill 2 7
Jochen Rindt Ret 2
Rob Walker/Jack Durlacher Racing Jo Siffert 4 11
Pete Lovely Volkswagen Inc. Pete Lovely 6 Ret
Ecurie Bonnier Jo Bonnier DNS
1970 Lotus 49C Gold Leaf Team Lotus F ROC INT OUL
Jochen Rindt 2
R.R.C. Walker Racing
Brooke Bond Oxo Racing/Rob Walker
Graham Hill 5 9
Lotus 49B Pete Lovely Volkswagen Inc. Pete Lovely Ret 13
1971 Lotus 49C Gold Leaf Team Lotus F ARG ROC QUE SPR INT RIN OUL VIC
Wilson Fittipaldi Ret
Tony Trimmer NC
Lotus 49B Pete Lovely Volkswagen Inc. Pete Lovely DNQ

Racing colours

A Lotus 49 presented as it would have appeared in the early part of the 1968 season, just prior to the introduction of Gold Leaf Team Lotus colours

From its introduction in 1967 works Lotus 49s were painted in Lotus's traditional British racing green with yellow centre-stripe. Over the following 16 months the design gained increasing numbers of sponsor patches and large driver name strips, while retaining the traditional base scheme. However, for the 1967-1968 Tasman Series races Team Lotus's 2.5 litre engined 49s were painted red, cream and gold — the colours of Gold Leaf cigarettes — after Chapman signed a lucrative sponsorship deal. This colour scheme was introduced for the 1968 World Championship at the second race of the season, the 1968 Spanish Grand Prix, making Lotus the first works team (second only to Team Gunston entering a private Brabham car at the 1968 South African Grand Prix) to paint their cars in the livery of their sponsors.

Lotus 49s were also run by the Scottish privateer Rob Walker Racing Team, who painted their car in the Scottish national racing colours (dark blue with white nose band), and the American privateer Pete Lovely team, whose car (chassis R11) was painted in the American national racing colours of white with a blue centre-stripe.

References

Footnotes

^ Total points scored by all Lotus-Ford cars, including 45 points scored by drivers of Lotus 72 variants.

  1. "STATS F1 • Lotus 49". Statsf1.com. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
  2. "Lotus-Ford 49". grandprixhistory.org. 14 February 2011. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
  3. "1967 Lotus Type 49 technical and mechanical specifications".
  4. "Engine Ford Cosworth • STATS F1".
  5. John Krewson (May 2013), "Fast, Present, Future: 1967 Lotus 49 vs. 2013 Corvette ZR1", Road and Track, retrieved 13 June 2013, It used its drivetrain as a stressed member, being not the first F1 car to do so but the first to apply the technique so well that everyone copied it.
  6. "1955 LANCIA D50". Motor Sport magazine. September 2006. p. 47. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
  7. Jennings, Charles (12 August 2014). Burning Rubber: The Extraordinary Story of Formula One. ISBN 9781623655372.
  8. "8W - What? - R R C Walker Racing Team". Retrieved 19 April 2008.
  9. Pritchard, Anthony (1986). Directory of Formula One Cars: 1966-1986. United Kingdom: Aston Publications Limited. p. 223. ISBN 0946627029.
  10. "The National Motor Museum Trust". www.nationalmotormuseum.org.uk. Retrieved 15 July 2017.

Sources

Further reading

  • Oliver, Michael (2004). Lotus 49: The Story of a Legend. Veloce Publishing. ISBN 978-1901295511.
  • Wagstaff, Ian (2014). Lotus 49:1967–1970 (all marks): Owners' Workshop Manual. Haynes. ISBN 978-0857334121.
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