Founded: 1954
Major titles: 7 Constructors' + 6 Drivers' championships (F1)
Team Lotus was the Formula 1 arm of Lotus, founded by British engineer Colin Chapman, who split the racing team from his Lotus car company in 1954. It became one of the most innovative and successful teams in the sport's history.
Chapman pioneered technologies that reshaped Formula 1, including the fully stressed monocoque chassis, aerodynamic ground effect, and the widespread use of major commercial sponsorship liveries.
The team won seven Constructors' Championships (1963, 1965, 1968, 1970, 1972, 1973 and 1978) and six Drivers' titles, with champions Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Jochen Rindt, Emerson Fittipaldi and Mario Andretti. Clark, twice a champion with Lotus, is regarded as one of the greatest drivers of his era, while Rindt became Formula 1's only posthumous champion in 1970.
Following Chapman's death in 1982, the team gradually declined and folded at the end of 1994. Later entrants using the Lotus name were not a continuation of the original Team Lotus.