Quite often when an F1 team hangs on to a colourscheme for a long time, people get a little bored. Ferrari notwithstanding, of course. From the Silver Arrows of Mercedes, to the red and orange over dull blue of Red Bull, to even the Marlboro of McLaren way back when, unless a livery is utterly beloved, it can age in the eyes of onlookers. But some… some just don’t. Those are the truly great liveries.
Is John Player Special the most iconic F1 livery of all time?
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One of them, we’d argue, is the John Player Special era at Lotus. Beginning in 1972 with the 72, the black with gold scheme came to unequivocally define Lotus in F1. The two were seemingly inseparable for 16 years. In fact, it's one of very few cases where some start to know the livery more than the car, with many knowing this family of machines more as 'the John Player Specials', than Lotuses.
Between the 72 and the 98T of 1986, Lotus glazed 15 of its cars in these colours, winning three constructor’s championships and two drivers’ championships. A good number of these cars were here at the 2024 Monaco Historic Grand Prix, racing in several classes. There was of course also a JPS Lotus featured in the Ayrton Senna celebration demonstration. The Brazilian of course was on the Hethel books from 1985 to 1987.
So we thought we’d compile a batch of shots from over the course of the weekend of the JPS cars, to see if we can make a case for being the all-time-great icon. It’s certainly a scheme that spanned many of F1’s best eras and featured in some of the best F1 battles of all time. Let us know what you think.
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