Mario Andretti to drive Lotus F1 car at USA GP

[TLF News]

Mario Andretti to drive Lotus F1 car at USA GP | http://www.4lot.us/kbc6

[USAndretti42]

That's great news! Mario is still an iconic figure in the States and to see him reunited with a black and gold F1 car will bring back a lot of good memories. I hope Lotus can use the opportunity to do some marketing around the event, i.e. bring some cars to sell.

[richardvg]

ditto

[jim clark]

Waited along time to see a proper Lotus at a GP, I assume it will be a 79.

Long live Team Lotus

[Gonzo]

Everything Jim Clark said.

- and it's good to see that Andretti has put a TLF banner on his Lotus, under John Player.

[USAndretti42]

While the picture above shows him in a 78, I believe he will be driving one of last year's Lotus F1 cars.

[LotusX180R]

Obviously nobody read the article. There is no mention of driving a Lotus 78 or 79 (which is what I expected since there is a 79 in TX). THe car to be driven is not even a Lotus. It is the Lotus sponsored Renault R30. Mario is to do the first laps of CoTA. In addition to Marion Actor Patrick Dempsey (McDreamy on Grey's Anatomy) and reserve driver D'Ambrosio will do laps as well.

Good for Lotus f1 to get the exposure and see something of the track though. But will it translate into any kind of advantage?

[ramjet]

Why do so many people keep harping on about the F1 cars not being Lotus? We all know that, but for some reason, some seem to care a whole lot more than others.

[LotusX180R]

I f you are referring to my comment I am not harping. I am differentiating. The R30 was not a Lotus as it was built by a team calling themselves Lotus Renault and the nomenclature was still Renault Nomenclature. The current car being run by the same team under the name Lotus F1 is a Lotus and named the E20.

It is perfectly understandable that they are running the R30 as it is last years car and still looks similar - due to the livery - to this years car and F1 strictly limits the running of current F1 cars.

The original point of my post is not to "harp on" the name of the car being driven, but to point out it is not an historic Team Lotus F1 car as the first 5 posters failed to point out and at least seemed to believe to be the car represented.

[jim clark]

Kyle, you are quite right I saw the picture of Mario in the 79 and failed to read the article !

For everyone else out there some of us life long Team Lotus "fans" just can not get passionate about the current F1 team from Enstone calling itself Lotus.

[fmxa]

Who cares, the car says Lotus on it and that's good enough for 99% of the people to think and associate the car with Lotus regardless of who made it and when!

[Iconic Ride]

Exactly so, Paul. It's not particularly unusual for any F1 team to be a combination of many many brands glued together with decal paste, and though it would be nice to see some authentic engineering input from Lotus put into the mix, it is certainly not an absolute requirement for furthering the marque's image in the eyes of the fans.

[NedaSay]

I wonder where the initiative comes from Genii or Group Lotus/DRB!

I'm betting on Genii.

[USAndretti42]

The original point of my post is not to "harp on" the name of the car being driven, but to point out it is not an historic Team Lotus F1 car as the first 5 posters failed to point out and at least seemed to believe to be the car represented.

I did read the article and, rather than harp on about the Lotus/Renault thing, I just said it would be nice to see him in a black and gold F1 car again.

I wonder where the initiative comes from Genii or Group Lotus/DRB!

I'm betting on Genii.

I suspect it was the Circuit of the Americas' idea to get some publicity by reuniting Mario with the colours he ran when he won the world championship.

[LotusX180R]

USAndretti42 , you were correct in your prior posts and I failed to see that you mentioned the R30.

As it turns out the R30 had mechanical problems and did not run. So Paul Rego brought out his 79 and Andretti drove it. So it turns out Mario did drive a real JPS sponsored Team Lotus car that he actually used to win his World Championship. WHich is very cool in my book.

[Bibs]

Very much so

[hedgerley]

Very cool and the track sounds very promising too -

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/103622

FYI, this months F1 Magazine is a Lotus special with some good Q&A with Romain, an analysis of the E20 and an interview with Boulier.

[Iconic Ride]

Let me show these youngsters how it's done...

[LotusX180R]

Both Mario and D'Ambrosio had good things to say about the circuit (D'Ambrosio actually did get the R30 on track)

Very cool and the track sounds very promising too -

http://www.autosport...t.php/id/103622

FYI, this months F1 Magazine is a Lotus special with some good Q&A with Romain, an analysis of the E20 and an interview with Boulier.

Nice find. I started another thread on this so as to avoid jacking this one.

http://www.thelotusforums.com/forums/topic/53987-lotus-featured-in-f1-magazine/

[USAndretti42]

I'm impressed that Mario still fitted in the car. He hasn't raced for some time. Certainly Niki Lauda wouldn't be able to do it, for example.

[hedgerley]

Video of Andretti cutting the tape and the opening lap in his 79. Drool.

(mods - I can't seem to embed it properly. Can you fix?)

And d'Ambrosio giving a lap commentary in the R30.The run UP to the first corner looks awesome. There are places on the track that merit a 'Blind Dip' warning sign!

Edited October 24, 2012 by ramjet

[Moxie]

[hedgerley]

There is a nice commentary from d'Ambrosio in the link I posted in the 'Mario Andretti drives....' thread, including the Lotus 79 lap by Andretti. Which still looks very cool despite its (their) age