The ever-decreasing competitiveness of Lotus led, at the end of 1988, to the departure of engineer Gérard Ducrouge, the creator of the team's last successful cars. In addition to losing the French technician, Lotus also had to cope with the withdrawal of Honda engine supplies. With the turbo era coming to an end, Honda chose to focus its efforts on a single team: McLaren. Following a reduction in sponsorship funds from Camel, Lotus was forced to opt for a relatively inexpensive engine, the Judd V8, certainly no match for the Honda and Renault V10s or the Ferrari V12. Furthermore, the Judd V8 was supplied to the historic British team in its customer-spec “CV” version, as two teams, March and Brabham, were already contracted to use the more powerful and up-to-date EV version.
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| LOTUS 101, Nelson Piquet Jacarepaguà, Brazilian GP 1989 |
Ducarouge’s departure, followed by long-time Lotus engineer Martin Ogilvie, forced team manager Peter Warr to seek new technicians capable of designing a chassis suited to the new naturally aspirated engine. Former Williams aerodynamicist Frank Dernie was hired as technical director, while Mike Coughlan and Tim Feast, already part of the Lotus team, were promoted to chief designer and chief engineer, respectively. The three designed the new Lotus 101, building a new carbon fiber and Kevlar monocoque chassis featuring pull-rod suspension at the front and push-rod at the rear, with a wheelbase of 2900 mm and a weight of 500 kg. Overall, the car proved to be very conventional and lacked innovation, the result of limited time available for the new technical staff and, above all, of an engine that was not competitive. For this reason, Lotus turned to Tickford, a British automotive engineering company already collaborating with Aston Martin in the Sports Prototype Championship, to develop a new version of the Judd CV V8 fitted with a five-valve-per-cylinder head, aiming to match the power output of the best EV engines.
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| LOTUS 101, Nelson Piquet Phoenix, United States GP 1989 |
With a naturally aspirated engine that no longer required the large cooling elements of the Honda turbo, Dernie was able to create a very sleek bodywork, with compact sidepods and, most notably, a very narrow nose. This was so tight that Italian company Momo, which supplied steering wheels to most Formula 1 teams, had to design a special, smaller-diameter wheel for the 101 to allow the driver’s hands to fit between the rim and the chassis. Despite Tickford’s efforts, the engine still lacked power, and the car’s performance proved rather mediocre. All the initial optimism quickly faded due to the poor results at the beginning of the season. The two drivers, three-time World Champion Nelson Piquet of Brazil and Japan’s Satoru Nakajima, consistently fought in the midfield, scoring their first points only at the Canadian Grand Prix, the sixth round of the season.
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| LOTUS 101, Satoru Nakajima Suzuka, Japanese GP 1989 |
The Chapman family, who were shareholders in Team Lotus at the time, pushed Peter Warr and team director Fred Busher, who was facing trial due to the DeLorean scandal (the car from the film “Back to the Future”), to resign. Tony Rudd, already working for Group Lotus, was promoted to executive director, and the Tickford-developed engine was dropped in favor of the standard CV. These changes led to a brief period of calm, during which things seemed to improve, with Piquet managing to secure three consecutive points finishes.
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| LOTUS 101, Satoru Nakajima Montecarlo, Monaco GP 1989 |
However, the 101 soon fell back into obscurity, suffering the ignominy of both cars failing to qualify for the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, marking the first time since 1958 that a Lotus car did not take part in an official Formula 1 race. Considering the dreadful start to the season and the internal turmoil within the Lotus organization, the 15 points scored in 1989 and the sixth place in the Constructors’ Championship were the best results the 101 could achieve. This would also remain the highest score for the Chapman family's team after the turbo era and before the team's complete collapse at the end of 1994.
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