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Forgotten Legends: Ayrton Senna's thirsty, brittle Lotus-Renault 98T

Michele Lupini25.02.2020

Some say that had the Lotus 98T not been so brittle and its potent Renault turbo V6 so thirsty, Ayrton Senna would have been Formula 1 World Champion already in 1986. 

Others contend that because Prost was such a cunning contender and Piquet's and Mansell's nimble Williams FW11B Honda V6s were so frugal, then perhaps Senna and the Lotus-Renault did not deserve the title. Either way, Senna proved mighty in the 98T.  

Having hired the brilliant Frenchman Gerard Ducarouge as design chief, the team had started to find its feet again, four years after Lotus founder Colin Chapman's untimely death in 1982. Add monster Renault turbo power and Senna, and the iconic Hethel team was finding its back way to the sharp end in Formula 1.

Renault had bravely pioneered Formula 1’s 1.5 litre turbo option in 1977, enduring all the snide, sneering and derogatory comments as the works team struggled to overcome the challenges of that new technology. Much of turbocharging’s potential lay in overcoming the significant heat that the little engines produced, never mind the radical and neck-snapping turbo lag those pioneering and immensely specifically powerful Renault V6s suffered.

By 1980, the yellow Renaults were fastest of all Formula 1 cars, their principal advantage being great torque developed at low revs to deliver tremendous acceleration out of the corners, but the turbo engines still lacked reliability. By 1981 however, Ferrari and Alfa Romeo had ditched their normally aspirated 3-litre engines and rushed to join Renault with 1.5-litre turbos, with Honda and BMW soon joining the fray too. Then Renault pulled its works race team to rather supply Lotus, Tyrrell and Ligier with its by then dynamite and well-developed turbo V8 engines.

Its rivals had however taken great advantage of the turbo tech that Renault had developed alone — to a team they quite literally strolled in to turbocharger suppliers Garrett and KKK Turbolader and bought the technology Renault had gone to great expense, trial and tribulation to pioneered off the shelf, bolted the now proven boost devices to their engines and gone racing. The turbo war was however well and truly on and would soon lead to those tiny 1.5-litre motors developing a dizzying 1300bhp-plus.

Ever since his top-rate Ligiers, Gerard Ducarouge had been among F1’s leading designers of that that same early-‘80s era. Roll on a few seasons and his splendid JPS-Lotus 98T was typical Ducarouge fare — much like the cars John Barnard penned, the Lotus was beautifully integrated, aesthetically smooth and pleasing to the eye thanks to finely resolved detailing that also delivered efficient aerodynamics, good mechanical handling and balance. 

Formula 1 was at the height of one of its glorious eras by the time the Lotus-Renault 98T-Renault debuted in the second round of the season at Rio in '86, where home hero Senna wasted no time to put his new charge on pole position. Ayrton charged off from the get-go and looked set for victory, but to the disgust of all of Brazil, their hero's fuel readout showed low, so he slowed to b sure to finish second to Nelson Piquet's Williams-Honda.  

The next race in Spain was perfect: Ayrton won from pole and he was on pole again in San Marino, but retired following a wheel bearing failure. Then he raced to third at Monaco, where he could not match the McLaren-Porsches, before finishing second to Nigel Mansell's Williams-Honda at Spa. Senna won again from pole at Detroit, before crashing in France, and then he came home second to Piquet at Hockenheim once again with his eye on the fuel gauge in an F1 era where like today, refuelling was not allowed.

Senna retired in England, Austria, Italy and Australia, leaving Alain Prost to come from behind to steal his second world title by two points for McLaren after Mansell retired in Australia. Piquet was a further point behind in third, with economy mode Senna a lonely fourth. Teammate Johnny Dumfries, drafted into the team at Senna’s behest, endured a torrid season and only scored three points en route to a title 13th — the young Scotsman was entrusted to do much of the development of Lotus’ troublesome new 6-speed gearbox, while Senna raced with the trustier old 5-speed ‘box.  

Senna's eight poles and many laps in the lead through the season however clearly demonstrated the Lotus 98T’s sheer speed, but its Renault turbo V6's heavier fuel consumption and a litany of technical glitches just as obviously inhibited the Brazilian's ultimate progress. Ayrton had to heed a low fuel reading on the dash and back off towards the end of several races he should perhaps have won in a most frustrating for season for the fastest driver on track.  

So Prost stole the 1986 Formula 1 World Driver's Championship, winning four races including the finale to pip Mansell, who retired in Australia to the post, 72 points to 70. Mansell won five races through the season but was just a point clear of teammate Piquet, who also won four grands prix that year. Senna's two wins helped him to fourth, while seventh in the title, Gerhard Berger won the remaining race in Mexico for Ferrari as Williams-Honda took a dominant Constructor’s Championship from McLaren-Porsche, with Lotus-Renault way back in third.

Statistically speaking and considering pure pace, if one takes the drivers out of the equation, the Lotus-Renault 98T turns out to be the fastest F1 car 1986 at average of six seconds a race faster than the Constructors Championship-winning Williams-Hondas. Even more surprisingly, the Lotus-Renault had over a minute a race advantage over 1986 F1 World Champion Alain Prost’s McLaren-Porsche, over a full race distance throughout that season!

Assuming identical cars to rate the top four drivers in 1986 on pure speed, Alain Prost proved on average six seconds a race faster than Ayrton Senna, with Nigel Mansell a further 18 seconds adrift ahead of Nelson Piquet. So it soon becomes clear why 1986 was such a closely fought  season — the Lotus-Renault was the fastest car from the Williams-Honda on pure pace, but Alain Prost so craftily overcame both his rival teams to snatch the Driver’s title in spite of his McLaren-Porsche’s minute-a-race pace deficit.  

1986 also proves beyond any doubt that pure speed alone, is not enough to win a Formula 1 World Championship. Reliability and the comfort of being able to race flat out over and entire race distance every race of the season without having to bother about the fuel gauge, in this case proved the more important championship-winning qualities for Prost.

A double race winner that carried Senna to eight of the 16 pole positions of the ’86 season, the Lotus-Honda 98T still goes down as a great car in F1 history. In truth however, its powerhouse Renault V6's drunkard fuel use and never-ending electrical and transmission troubles prevented Ayrton Senna and the 98T from taking an ‘86 championship in only his third F1 season against Prost at the peak of his form in his sixth year in Formula 1, Mansell and Piquet. (Text & illustration Input by Patrick O’Brein)

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