After a break of more than a decade, the legendary racing car manufacturer “Lola” will return to the international motorsport scene, which in cooperation with “Yamaha” has created a new project for starting in the “Formula E” championship.
The new project was announced in Tokyo, where another round of the Formula E series will take place this weekend. “Lola” will compete in the championship next year.
“Lola Cars” has historically had a close connection with motor sports. The company based in England has also started and achieved success in such high-level competitions as “IndyCar” and Le Mans.
The “Lola” factory was founded in 1958 by Eric Broadley, in 1997, after an unsuccessful attempt to enter the F1 championship, it was bought by Martin Birren, but in 2012 the company went bankrupt and ceased operations. The right to use the name “Lola” was purchased in 2022 by the British businessman Til Bechtolsheimer, who also took over the technical center. Even then, he announced that he would try to bring the legendary name back to motorsport within a few years.
“Lola” once also competed in the F1 championship. The last attempt, however, suffered a major fiasco. In 1997, with the financial support of “MasterCard”, the team of the “Lola” factory unsuccessfully tried to qualify for the first stage, after which the sponsor ended the cooperation and the project had to be put to an end. There were a couple of efforts later as well, but they did not materialize. “Lola” has been supplying various small teams with its chassis since the sixties of the last century. However, there have been no high successes, apart from individual points finishes and in 1990 “Larrousse” team pilot Aguri Suzuki’s third place at the Japanese GP.
This will be Yamaha’s return to motorsport for the first time since 1997, when the Japanese manufacturer supplied engines to the Arrows F1 team.
The joint project between Lola Cars and Yamaha Motor Company is likely to become a partner for the existing Formula E team Abt, which plans to end its partnership with Mahindra after this season. As early as next year, the advanced “Gen3.5” electric cars will be used in the race.
