Jan Lammers Reunites With Lotus Type 79 Before Dutch Grand Prix
As the 2025 Dutch Grand Prix approaches, former Formula 1 driver Jan Lammers returned to historic ground last week. At Lotus’s test track in Hethel, Norfolk, he drove the legendary Lotus Type 79 Formula 1 car, the machine with which Mario Andretti won the 1978 Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort and secured both the drivers’ and constructors’ world championships. In 1979, Lammers himself tested a Lotus Type 79 chassis as he sought a seat with the Formula 1 team.
The Lotus family welcomed Lammers warmly in Hethel. Several mechanics and engineers who worked with him during his Lotus days gathered to greet him. Seeing the Lotus Type 79 Cosworth again, this example in the iconic black and gold John Player Special livery used by Andretti for his 1978 title, stirred vivid memories of a period when Lotus dominated the Formula 1 scene.
Lotus pioneered innovations that still shape today’s Formula 1 cars. In 1957, the team adopted sequential gearboxes. In 1966, it made the engine a stressed part of the chassis. In 1979, it introduced the rear diffuser. In 1981, Lotus debuted Formula 1’s first carbon fibre monocoque. Lotus also initiated the now commonplace use of sponsor logos on cars. Its best-known breakthrough remains ground-effect technology, first seen on the Type 78 and perfected on the Type 79. The principle accelerates airflow beneath the car, which effectively ‘sucks’ it to the track surface and boosts downforce.
The Type 79 proved the full potential of this approach. On its 1978 debut at Spa-Francorchamps, Mario Andretti won immediately and then went on to claim five more victories that season. Among them, the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort stood out when Andretti’s team-mate Ronnie Peterson finished second to complete a Lotus one-two. That campaign delivered the drivers’ championship for Andretti and the constructors’ title for Lotus.
On 24th and 25th October 1979 at Paul Ricard, Lotus prepared the same Type 79 chassis for Jan Lammers in familiar ‘Martini’ livery. He tested the car for the factory team in a bid to secure a coveted Formula 1 seat, but the drive ultimately went to Italian racer Elio de Angelis.
Lammers revisited those first laps with Clive Chapman, Colin Chapman’s son and owner of Classic Team Lotus. To his surprise, Classic Team Lotus had carefully preserved his original handwritten notes from the 1979 Paul Ricard test. To mark the occasion, Clive Chapman presented Lammers with a painting that commemorates Lotus’s famous one-two at Zandvoort. The day also delivered action, as Lammers took to the track in the John Player Special car for several memorable laps.
“It was great fun to be reunited with the people at Lotus, whom I know both from my Formula 1 days and from the GT programme,” said Jan Lammers afterwards. “The fact that a top-dominant Formula 1 car from that era and the modern Lotus Evija hypercar of today are hardly inferior to each other in terms of performance and handling is indicative of the evolution of the entire automotive industry.”
Although Lotus has long since left Formula 1, the marque remains one of the most successful at Zandvoort with six victories. Jim Clark still holds the outright record at the circuit, with four wins in 1963, 1964, 1965 and 1967. In 1970, Austrian Jochen Rindt added another Zandvoort success for Lotus before Mario Andretti triumphed again in 1978.
Jim Clark achieved much of his success in the Lotus Type 33, in which he became Formula 1 world champion in 1965. In the same year, he also won the Indianapolis 500, an achievement still unmatched. Lotus has recently fully restored the very Type 33 and made it roadworthy again, and it naturally stood out as a highlight for Lammers during his visit to Hethelt.
The Type 79 was not the only machine Lammers experienced at Hethel. Lotus also handed him the keys to the new Evija hypercar, which produces 2,039 PS and ranks as the world’s most powerful series-production electric car. With acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h in under three seconds and a limited top speed of 350 km/h, the Evija delivers extraordinary performance. It provided the perfect tool for several electrifying laps of the Hethel track, leaving Lammers deeply impressed.
