Lola T93/30 - Legacy

Legacy

The T93/30 was a conventional car that was on reflection too conventional. Its aerodynamic performance was poor and resulted in unwieldy handling, whilst the Lola engineers failed to extract the potential power of the Ferrari V12 engine, instead finding that its torque was limited in low and medium-speed corners. The T93/30 was also handicapped by its lack of electronic driver aids. Indeed, Scuderia Italia was the only team not to be using any such devices by the time of the 1993 Canadian Grand Prix.

The T93/30's performance was a great disappointment to both Scuderia Italia and Lola, both of whom agreed that the undertaking had been a serious misjudgement in retrospect. Following the conclusion of the 1993 season, Lucchini opted to amalgamate his remaining sponsorship and facilities with the Minardi outfit, an Italian team which manufactured its own cars but was perennially short of money. The active association lasted for a further two seasons, with Lucchini winding down his involvement in 1996 before selling his remaining shares in 1999. Although Scuderia Italia continues to exist in motorsport, the T93/30 was the final car to be raced by the team in F1.

Meanwhile, Lola elected to begin a full F1 programme without input from an existing team. In 1995 the team produced a T95/30 chassis which was tested by Allan McNish, but never raced in F1. Two years later, Lola entered into a financial partnership with MasterCard to form the MasterCard Lola F1 team. However, the construction of its T97/30 chassis was rushed and neither of the team's drivers qualified for the 1997 Australian Grand Prix. MasterCard Lola withdrew from the 1997 championship thereafter, meaning that the T93/30 is also the last Lola chassis to compete in an F1 race to date.

In January 2009, the motorsport magazine Autosport ranked the T93/30 in fifth position as part of a "top ten rubbish F1 cars list".