From a once glorious, then defunct brand to an unlikely rebirth in a fully-fledged world championship, in the space of 30 months, Lola has a remarkable story to tell.
It is one that includes an unlikely canvas when you consider that alongside the fact that there are possibly more Lolas racing in historic competition than any other make worldwide, there is some irony that the sustainable artery of racing – Formula E is where Lola makes its racing return.
Yamaha has returned to car racing alongside the historic marque, and Lola has also taken over Abt's Formula E entry licence.
The new proprietor is Till Bechtolsheimer, who confesses that the journey so far has been so fast-paced it’s been something of a blur.
“I don't really know what I thought it was going to be like, in all honesty,” Becholtsheimer tells The Race.
“Because it was one of those life decisions that you take and you're conscious of it at the time, but you don't really know what you're stepping into, so you just do it.
“I thought it was going to be a more gradual, grassroots return to racing, and a more modest return when I first took on the project."
Bechtolsheimer is a pragmatic and sharp businessman, specialising in private equity, and energy and renewable areas. He’s honest when he says that he “didn’t think Lola’s first race back would be in an FIA world championship event.
“But I think that's kind of the tip of the iceberg, really," he adds. "It's just been a much more significant return, and almost all of that is below the surface that no one would really see, but I think it just starts with the scale and calibre of the team we've built."
Bechtolsheimer made some smart decisions, taking on expertise in and out of Formula E, including key ex-Formula 1 staff and a host of pioneers in electronics too, such as former TAG and Ferrari electronics wizard Dieter Gundel.
Many have been attracted to the Lola re-birth because they have respect for the brand and what it achieved over its first two epochs under founder Eric Broadley and then in the 90s and 2000s under Martin Birrane.
Bechtolsheimer’s pragmatism doesn’t come at the cost of an icy emotional range though. He’s completely melded to the Lola brand values and its history. He has a Mark1 Lola, the first ever productionised, and he savours the power of the gloriously savage T70 that John Surtees, Frank Gardner and Jackie Stewart tamed.
"If I had started 'Till Cars' I wouldn't have been able to hire, I think, a single person that's currently working for Lola because none of them would have had any interest in that.
"But the allure of being part of Lola's return, I think, is really significant."
Why Lola Believes in Formula E
Lola, under Bechtolsheimer's custodianship, had the pick of the racing world in a sense for its return. Endurance sportscars would have been a natural fit with its owner being a competitor himself and being well-known in that world.
But Formula E was chosen and there were some logical reasons behind it. Notably that Lola, while not specifically needing to distance itself from its past, did need to carve a new niche and Formula E was the highest profile and most buoyant option.
The fact that F1 custodian Liberty Global was coming in as majority owner sealed Bechtolsheimer's feel-good factor for its long-term prospects.
“I think we've got really strong tailwinds in Formula E at the moment and probably the most obvious and important one is the move by Liberty to take over,” says Bechtolsheimer.
“I know it's a different part of Liberty, but their ownership of Formula 1 has seen a pretty dramatic upturn. Obviously, there's a very different starting point for Formula E, but increasing the popularity and opening up new markets is clearly an aim now.”
Yet this was no moth to a flame attraction initially. Bechtolsheimer had to be convinced both at and after his first visit to an E-Prix at the 2022 New York City event.
“To be honest, until Lola started on this Formula E journey, Formula E wasn't actually something that I was that focused on myself. It's not something I watched,” he says.
“I'm probably similar to a lot of traditional petrolheads that weren't that excited about watching an electric series. Obviously, I started watching it when this opportunity started to come about and interest became very clear, very quickly.
“I think the technical level of Formula E is probably the thing that is lost on most people, even a couple of the senior members of the Lola technical staff who hadn't had much interaction with Formula E in the past, weren't convinced by it."
But the more time spent on digging into Formula E the more Lola design and engineering staff were “just blown away at the technical level” reckons Bechtolsheimer.
“Yes, there are spec components, the chassis and the battery are all spec, but the technical level of the powertrain and the software is pretty dramatic, and it is really second only to F1," he adds.
“Therein lies the second benefit to Formula E as most international motorsport has gone hybrid, or is going hybrid, and they all seem to be moving towards a 350kW-esque electric motor as part of their overall powerunit.
"Formula 1 is doing that and when you start seeing hydrogen solutions in FIA WEC, it's going to be a similar kind of electric power train as part of those power units. Even NASCAR (it hasn't confirmed a full hybrid switch yet) and IndyCar (introduced hybrids this year) are going hybrid.
“Formula E should actually have a pretty bright future over the next five years. I'd like to think that we're actually just at the beginning of an upward trajectory that can establish Formula E as more of a tier one form of motorsport.”
With so many new elements to the project, there's been a lot to discuss, but this weekend we'll get tangible evidence of how the new Lola Yamaha Abt partnership actually does on track at the season opener in Sao Paulo.
