Сәтсіз жарыс командасы: MasterCard Lola Formula One

Defunct racing team

The MasterCard Lola Formula One Racing Team, often known as MasterCard Lola or simply Lola, was a British Formula One team that contested only one race in the 1997 Formula One World Championship. It quickly withdrew from the sport after failing to qualify on its debut at the 1997 Australian Grand Prix, where the cars were more than 11 seconds off the pace in qualifying.

After years of providing chassis to other teams such as Larrousse and Scuderia Italia, team principal Eric Broadley planned a team that would compete solely under Lola ownership. A prototype chassis was first tested in late 1994 and early 1995 with Allan McNish and in late 1996 Broadley announced the team's participation in the near future. The team had originally intended to enter F1 in 1998 when the regulations on car designs were set to be overhauled, but entered a year early in 1997, Broadley saying that this was due to commercial pressures from the team's sponsors, primarily from title sponsor, MasterCard. This was due to MasterCard's ardour to launch its "F1 Club" for card holders to provide funding to Lola. Lola founder and designer Eric Broadley stated in late January/early February 1997 that the target of Huntington based team for the 1997 season was for Lola to be ahead of the other new Formula One team entrant for 1997 Stewart Grand Prix, with Broadley also citing Arrows, who had signed then reigning champion Damon Hill for 1997 as a benchmark for Lola in their first season.

The Lola chassis, dubbed the T97/30, was based on most of their CART technology yet never saw the inside of a wind tunnel and barely had on track tests. This was mainly because the design of the engine fell behind schedule.

The engine, the responsibility of Al Melling, was originally planned to be an in house Lola V10, designed specifically to take into account the rear streamlining of the car and the underneath of the car in the area of the diffuser. However, the engine was not developed in time and Lola were compelled to use the Ford ECA Zetec R V8 engine, the same specification V8 as used by the defunct Forti team in the F1 season of 1996 season.

Vincenzo Sospiri, an International Formula 3000 champion and Formula One test driver with Benetton, and Ricardo Rosset were signed to drive.

On 26 March 1997, the Wednesday before the Brazilian Grand Prix, Lola announced it was withdrawing from the Brazil race due to "financial and technical problems". Lola's staff, who had already travelled to Interlagos, returned to the team's base in Huntingdon, England. Shortly afterwards, Lola withdrew from the World Championship outright. In its short existence as a Formula One constructor, Lola had incurred £6 million in debt; the company went into receivership several weeks later. Irish entrepreneur Martin Birrane purchased the company and oversaw a revival in the company's fortunes; however, Lola has not been involved in Formula One in any capacity since. Rosset would go on to race for Tyrrell in 1998, but the promising Sospiri would never compete in Formula One again.

On 22 April 2009, Lola announced its intention to launch a full scale works effort for the 2010 FIA Formula One World Championship. The team said that they had to re examine their position after the plans to introduce a budget cap of £30million were raised to £40m but insisted it was "an opportunity not to be missed". However, on 17 June, Lola announced it had abandoned the plan after failing to secure a place on the initial 2010 entry list.