To face the 1979 season, after winning the world title the previous year, Team Lotus found itself with the difficult task of further improving the already successful "79." Martin Ogilvie, Peter Wright, and Geoff Aldridge, under the technical direction of Colin Chapman, sought to take another step forward compared to the competition, believing that the new car should be designed as a single ground-effect system, starting just behind the nose and extending to the rear of the car, beyond the rear wheels. They aimed to integrate this aerodynamic concept into the nose as well, creating a venturi channel beneath it and effectively transforming the entire chassis into an aerodynamic device.
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| LOTUS 80, Mario Andretti Brands Hatch, Race of Champions 1979 |
In theory, this should have generated an enormous amount of downforce, leading to the redesign of the chassis with a stiffer structure compared to the previous "79." Furthermore, given the increased downforce generated by the car, the "80" no longer required wings, either front or rear, which allowed for a higher top speed. The brilliant Chapman immediately approved his engineers’ idea, and in a short time, the new Lotus 80 hit the track. Following the departure of the JPS sponsor, the new car appeared resplendent in the classic British racing green, accented by the red/blue/light blue stripes of its new sponsor, Martini.
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| LOTUS 80, Mario Andretti Montecarlo, Monaco GP 1979 |
The "80" also introduced, for the first time, the bottle-shaped sidepod design, which narrowed inside the rear track and continued to the edge of the rear wing, enclosing the entire rear end, an innovation that would become familiar in the 1980s. However, during testing with Mario Andretti, a serious issue emerged: the Italian-American driver reported that at high speeds, the car performed well, but as the speed decreased, it suddenly and alarmingly lost downforce, only to regain it unexpectedly. This was the "porpoising" effect, the continuous bouncing of the car due to rapid shifts in downforce. The problem was exacerbated by the track surfaces of the era, which were not perfectly smooth and featured high curbs.
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| LOTUS 80, Mario Andretti Brands Hatch, Race of Champions 1979 |
To address this issue, which caused dangerous oscillations in corners, the Hethel-based team’s engineers added wings to the car, but with little success. Both Lotus drivers, Mario Andretti and the new recruit Carlos Reutemann, preferred to start the season with the older "79." It was only at the fifth race of the season that Andretti decided to use the new Lotus 80, while Reutemann refused, considering it too dangerous. Even Chapman admitted that the "80" was not the marvel he had hoped for, and after a third-place finish in Spain and disappointing performances in Monaco and France, the team reverted to using the 79.
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| LOTUS 80, Mario Andretti Jarama, Spanish GP 1979 |
However, the season ended poorly, with only 39 points for the British team, just 6 of which were scored with the "80." The aerodynamic solutions introduced on the "80" would later be refined and incorporated into the next model, the "88," which, however, would only see the track after the season finale.
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