On paper, it sounded affordable sufficient: Lola T97/30 chassis, Ford Zetec-R V8 engines and, most significantly, main company backing from Mastercard.
However F1 groups don’t race on paper, and the truth was a complete catastrophe.
The driving force of the venture was Mastercard’s eagerness to launch the ‘F1 Membership’ for card holders that was presupposed to fund the group. It meant that the venture was horribly rushed – mainly one 12 months sooner than initially deliberate. Banking rival HSBC was becoming a member of F1 with the brand new Stewart Grand Prix group, which had a full 12 months of preparation below its belt and a long-term works help take care of Ford.
The automotive was desperately undercooked, and gave drivers Vincenzo Sospiri and Ricardo Rosset little probability of creating the beginning grid for a lot of causes…
Vincenzo Sospiri, Lola T97/30 Ford
Photograph by: Sutton Pictures
The IndyCar-based chassis hadn’t been designed for the Ford V8 engine, as Al Melling was presupposed to be growing a V10 Lola-badged engine in-house – however that by no means acquired to see the sunshine of day.
The Ford buyer provide got here from the Forti group, which had folded in ’96, and the group had struggled with reliability – even struggling a failure straight-line working on the Santa Pod dragstrip. Plus, there’d been no time for windtunnel testing both!
Vincenzo Sospiri, Lola T97/30 Ford
Photograph by: Sutton Pictures
Ricardo Rosset and Vincenzo Sospiri, Lola
Photograph by: Sutton Pictures
Former FIA Formulation 3000 champion Sospiri gave it his greatest shot in qualifying, however fell method wanting the 107 per cent cut-off required to make the race.
Moderately fatefully, Lola founder Eric Broadley had mentioned on the automotive’s launch in London: “The 107% rule is definitely fairly a big margin. If we are able to’t try this, then we shouldn’t be in it.”
Eric Broadley, Lola Group Principal, a visitor, Ricardo Rosset, Lola and Vincenzo Sospiri, Lola
Photograph by: Sutton Pictures
Oddly, Sospiri blames Jacques Villeneuve for the actual fact he’s by no means began a grand prix…
“If he hadn’t achieved that improbable pole lap, I’d have certified,” he claims of JV’s pole time, which was some 1.75secs away from the opposition. Nearer evaluation reveals that Sospiri’s time was virtually 12secs slower than Villeneuve, and that Arrows’ Pedro Diniz was in truth the unlucky soul who solely simply missed the 107%.
However, after some arguing from Tom Walkinshaw, Diniz was allowed to race anyway as a consequence of his pace in free follow, not like the tardy Lolas, which have been method off the tempo.
Ricardo Rosset, Mastercard Lola T97/30
Photograph by: Sutton Pictures
“Ricardo was 1.5secs slower than me anyway,” shrugs Sospiri, who at the very least might take solace in that. “The automotive was not the very best to drive.
“We had achieved 12 laps [of testing] at Silverstone, that’s all. It was very troublesome to deal with within the corners, and lacked aerodynamic grip. Even in a straight line it was going left and proper! No-one appeared to know why.”
Rosset summed up his expertise thus in Autosport: “It has been exhausting, as I knew it could be. We’ve had a whole lot of issues. We’ve acquired an absence of downforce and an excessive amount of drag. The largest drawback is that we don’t have a primary setup for the automotive, so we guessed on the settings and after they have been fallacious we panicked just a little.”
Ricardo Rosset, Mastercard Lola together with his group mate Vincenzo Sospiri, Mastercard Lola
Photograph by: Sutton Pictures
Vincenzo Sospiri, Lola T97/30 Ford
Photograph by: Motorsport Pictures
Ricardo Rosset, Lola T97/30 Ford
Photograph by: Motorsport Pictures
Ricardo Rosset, Lola
Photograph by: Sutton Pictures
Issues got here to a head earlier than the following race, the Brazilian GP at Interlagos. All set to attempt to qualify once more, Sospiri’s F1 dream fell aside in comical circumstances. Not solely was there no tempo within the automotive, there was no cash within the financial institution both!
In reality, the venture was £6million in debt and despatched your complete firm into receivership a couple of weeks later.
“I truly discovered the group was over from a Brazilian newspaper on the Thursday morning earlier than the grand prix,” he says. “The paper mentioned ‘Lola is out’ so I assumed, ‘What’s happening?’ and phoned Ricardo [above right], and he mentioned it was true. He was within the truck, and mentioned it was about to be locked up, so I requested him to get my stuff and my helmet too!
“I went to the observe, and every part was sealed. It was throughout.”
The Lola Mastercard Group withdrew their automobiles from the race
Photograph by: Sutton Pictures
Regardless of having beforehand examined for Benetton, Ligier and Simtek, Sospiri’s F1 profession was over after only one failed try at qualifying.
He displays: “It sounded such an excellent deal, I left my check position with Benetton and signed up for 4 years. That they had plans to make their very own engines the following 12 months, however the finances was by no means there.
“The whole lot they’d informed me wasn’t true. In F1, when that occurs, it doesn’t take lengthy to search out out.”
As a substitute, he turned to America, the place he raced IndyCars (beginning on the entrance row of that 12 months’s Indy 500 behind solely Arie Luyendyk and Tony Stewart) and sportscars – the place he had nice success driving the Ferrari 333SP – earlier than hanging up his helmet and shifting into group and driver administration, most notably with Luca Filippi.