In the course of 1994, Eric Broadley, founder of the car manufacturer Lola Cars, which builds racing cars at its factory in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, prepared a Formula 1 single-seater with the goal of entering the 1995 World Championship. The historic English brand’s presence in Formula 1 spanned a full 30 years, starting in 1962 with the Mk4 models, continuing in the late 1960s with chassis built for Honda, then through the mid-1970s with chassis for the Embassy-Hill cars, into the 1980s with the Haas team, and concluding in the early 1990s with Larrousse.
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| LOLA T95-30 Allan McNish Silverstone dec.'94 |
The last single-seaters produced by Lola were the T93/30 models in 1993, used by BMS Scuderia Italia during that year’s championship. Despite this long-standing participation in the top tier of motorsport, the British manufacturer’s track record is rather limited: just one pole position, no victories, and only three podium finishes. Broadley believed in the potential of the T93/30 project, which he thought was hindered by the Ferrari engine that didn’t allow the chassis to generate the necessary aerodynamic load. For this reason, he planned to enter Formula 1 with his own team, no longer acting merely as a chassis supplier, but as a full constructor. However, all of this was contingent on securing a good engine supplier and attracting a major sponsor. Lola’s financial situation was rather precarious, and the funds available were certainly insufficient to support the substantial investment required to run a Formula 1 team.
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| LOLA T95-30 Allan McNish Silverstone dec. '94 |
Lola's director, Mike Blanchett, who considered this attempt a waste of time and money, nonetheless hired Bredd Trafford as marketing director in a bid to attract new investors. Trafford had previously held the same role in Formula 1 with the Jordan and Benetton teams. Julian Cooper, a former engineer at Benetton Formula, and Chris Saunders, a former aerodynamicist with the Williams F1 Team, were tasked with designing the new Lola T95/30, based on the older T93/30, which was over two years old and originally designed to accommodate electronic aids that had since been banned by the updated regulations. The new T95/30 was presented to the press on December 8, 1994.
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| LOLA T95-30 Allan McNish Silverstone dec. '94 |
The chassis, as was customary for all Lola single-seaters, was a monocoque made from carbon fiber and aluminum panels. The suspension system remained the same as the T93/30, featuring double wishbones in a push-rod configuration. The rear section of the car displayed at the presentation featured the classic diffuser, while the test car used in a series of runs at the Silverstone circuit in December 1994, driven by young Scottish driver and British motorsport hopeful Allan McNish, was extremely rudimentary. It lacked the standard diffuser and the traditional airbox located above the engine. This was because Lola was unable to secure a suitable engine supplier for the upcoming season, and the team’s limited resources didn’t even allow them to purchase a modern 3.5-liter Formula 1 engine. As a result, a dated 3-liter Ford-Cosworth ED V8 was installed in the T95/30.
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| LOLA T95-30 Allan McNish Silverstone dec. '94 |
Although South African driver Stephen Watson was hired as a test driver in mid-February 1995, it seemed increasingly likely that the Silverstone outing two months prior would be the T95/30’s only track appearance. No further test sessions were planned, and the car was clearly not ready to compete in the first race of the 1995 season, especially considering that Lola did not pay the $500,000 entry fee to the FIA. The debut of the English team was therefore postponed to 1996, and Eric Broadley justified this delay by saying he wanted to field a car capable of competing at a high level, something that, up to that point, was still far from reality due to the extremely limited budget, which remained wholly inadequate to achieve that goal.
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