Top 5 Worst Performing Team Lotus drivers


Top 5 Worst Performing Team Lotus drivers
By: Brian Cotnoir

Team Lotus is one of the most iconic teams in the history of Formula 1.  In their 36 years of existence, the team won 7 Constructors Championships, 6 Drivers Championships, and 74 race victories with some of the greatest drivers of All-Time like Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Mario Andretti, Ronnie Peterson, Emmerson Fittipaldi, and Ayrton Senna.  The team dominated for decades before they eventually had to shut down.  What I find most interesting about Team Lotus’s story is some of the worst performing drivers usually raced along a more successful and better performing teammate, and led to a lot of lopsided performances in the final point’s standings.  These are without a doubt the 5 Worst Performing Drivers in the history of Team Lotus.

5.)  Johnny Herbert, 4 Seasons, 13 Total Points, Best Finish 4th (3X)

Johnny Herbert spent close to 5 seasons driving for Lotus in the early 1990’s.  His first drive with the team driving the last two rounds of the 1990 season, where he filled in for the injured Martin Donnelly (who was involved in one the worst crashes in Formula 1 history).   Over the next 4 seasons Herbert struggled to find success in with Lotus.  His best season was in 1993, where his best finish was 4th Place (3X). Team Lotus unfortunately shut down before the end of the 1994 season.


4.)  Satoru Nakajima, 3 Seasons, 11 Total Points Scored, Best Finish 4th (2X)

Satoru Nakajima made his F1 debut with Team Lotus in 1987, where he was teamed up with F1 racing legend Ayrton Senna.   Nakajima was nowhere near as successful as Senna, and when Senna left Team Lotus he was replaced with another Brazilian racing legend, Former World Champion Nelson Piquet Sr., but Nakajima was never able to match the pace of his much more famous and successful teammates


3.)  Johnny Dumfries, 1 Season, 3 Championship points scored, Best Finish 5th (Hungarian Grand Prix 1986)

This guy is of British nobility of sorts; also known as John Chrichton-Stuart, 7th Marquess of Bute.  This was Dumfries only season in Formula 1, his best career finish was a 5th place, and he would eventually be replaced by the previously mentioned Satoru Nakajima.  Like Nakajima, Dumfries was always racing in the shadow of a more successful teammate, Ayrton Senna.


2.)  Alex Zanardi, 2 Partial Seasons, 1 Championship Point Scored, Best Finish 6th place

Alex Zanardi not only struggled at Williams, but he struggled at Team Lotus too.   Zanardi never ran an official full season for Team Lotus, and only drove for them part-time during their final two seasons.  His Best Finish was a 6th place at the 1993 Brazilian Grand Prix.  It would be the only championship point Zanardi scored in his entire Formula 1 racing career.


1.)  David Walker, 1 Season (1972), 0 Championship Points Scored, 1 DSQ, 2 DNS, Best Finish of 9th Place.

In what was probably the most lopsided Teammate battle of All-Time, in 1972 Australian driver David Walker had an abysmal season compared to his  teammate that year.   Walker's teammate Emerson Fittipaldi easily took the 1972 drivers title and helped his team win the 1972 Constructors Title as well with 5 Wins and finished on the Podium 75% of the time.  Walker had zero wins, zero podium finishes, he was disqualified from the opening race in Argentina for receiving outside assistance from the track marshals.  He was replaced in that years Canadian and Italian Grand Prix’s after Team Lotus found out he tested a Formula Two car for another team.  He did, however, return to race in the final race of the season for the team.  Walker never ran another season in Formula 1 after that….anyone else think it’s kind of strange how many of these Lotus drivers were outperformed by a more successful Brazilian teammate?



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