In 1981 I bought a Lotus Elan in boxes and spent the next 30 years putting it back together and stripping it back again. It was finally fully restored and put back on the road around 2015. My interest in the Lotus brand was at its peak when the Formula One team was at its best with Ayrton Senna at the wheel.
April 21 marks a historic milestone in the Lotus and Formula 1 history books—the 40th anniversary of Ayrton Senna’s first Grand Prix victory. To honour this iconic moment, the same Lotus 97T Formula 1 car that Senna drove to his legendary win at the 1985 Portuguese Grand Prix, will return to the Estoril circuit for the first time since that triumph. Driving the car will be his nephew, Bruno Senna, commemorating one of F1’s most defining performances.
The event unites two major celebrations: the 75th anniversary of Formula 1 and the pivotal role Lotus played in shaping its legacy. It serves as a tribute not only to Ayrton Senna but also to the engineers, designers and all the drivers who propelled Lotus to racing greatness.
Ayrton Senna’s victory at Estoril was a masterclass in wet-weather driving, with the Brazilian lapping nearly the entire field to claim the first of his 41 Formula 1 wins. Senna also regarded this performance as the greatest of his career, and dismissed the widely held belief that his 1993 Donington win was his finest drive: Senna was quoted saying: “No way! I had traction control there. It was a good win but compared with Estoril ‘85 it was nothing.”
The Lotus 97T itself was a pioneering race car and was the first to feature vertical aerodynamic devices behind the front wheels for airflow management, which eventually developed into the highly sophisticated bargeboards, which remain in modern F1 aerodynamics.
The three years that Ayrton Senna drove for Team Lotus, 1985 to 1987, was one of the headiest periods in the history of motor racing. Not only were titanic battles raging between the four leading teams – Lotus, McLaren, Williams and Ferrari – in the second phase of the powerful turbo era, rivalry between the top Formula 1 drivers, on-and off-track, was also well documented.
97T Details
Year of Production: 1985
Examples Built: 4
Engine Type: Turbocharged Renault EF15 V6
Engine Size: 1492cc
Engine Power: 780-850bhp
Length/Width/Height: 166/84.5/39.5in
Wheelbase: 107in
Weight: 1188lb/539kg (regulation)