Everything happens so fast ……

1994 was an incredibly challenging year for Formula One. Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenburger dying at Imola , followed only two weeks later with Karl Wendlinger suffering a major accident at Monaco, and the sport was literally on its knees. The early 1990’s also saw world wide economic pressures making a sport heavily reliant on sponsorship an incredibly challenging financial environment for all but the most established teams.

Team Lotus was one such team. On a downward spiral on almost every level since team founder Colin Chapman passed away in December 1982, with the exception of three years with Ayrton Senna at the wheel, 1994 saw the team field a development of their 107 model, originally used in the 1992 season, this time powered by a Mugen Honda engine. In this day and age the thought of a team using a car for more than one season would be highly unusual, and in the early 1990’s it was the exception rather than the rule for teams to do so.

However this is the situation Team Lotus were in, an evolution of the car with Japanese power in the form of an engine derived from a Honda first used by McLaren in 1990, and subsequently used by Tyrrell and Footwork /Arrows (designated the MF351H in case you need to know). Slightly overweight compared to other engines on the grid, the motor was not cutting edge by 1994 standards, and the teams performances over the first few races of the season were on a par with 1993, minus any scoring of points.

A new car, the 109 was introduced for the Spanish Grand Prix, an evolution rather than a revolution (but in the context of tight budgets a new car full stop was positive!), but for the following few races the Lotus 109 driven by Johnny Herbert and Alex Zanardi continued to qualify near the back of the grid and deliver finishes just outside the points, if the car managed a full race distance.

As a fan of both Team Lotus and Johnny Herbert, and a Formula One fan who really felt the pain of the loss of Ayrton and Roland at Imola, the season was far from an enjoyable experience as a fan. In fact I was struggling to see a positive situation on the horizon for team or driver by the time we got to August.

However sometimes Formula One sees rapid change, and as the teams practiced for the Italian Grand Prix, at the famous Autodromo Nazionale di Monza on the second weekend of September the Lotus 109 was transformed in the form of a new engine, the Mugen Honda ZA5C . Lighter than its predecessor and producing more power Johnny Herbert qualified the car a season best 4th place, and out of nowhere there was suddenly hope in both the Team Lotus camp and for me.

Come race day, September 11th, and the prospects of a strong race and even a points scoring finish seemed tangible as I settled down to watch the race on the telly. The Italian fans were also incredibly optimistic as their beloved Ferrari’s peddled by Jean Alesi and Gerhard Berger were on the front row of the grid, Damon Hill in third and as the race started the grid screamed down to the first chicane where Eddie Irvine in the Jordan made contact with the back of Johnny Herbert’s Lotus, spun him around and brought out the red flag.

An accident at the beginning of the Italian Grand Prix is common place , especially at the first chicane, the Rettifilo chicane (a left right corner at the time) where cars would be approaching at close to 190 miles per hour, but in the blink of an eye a potential strong Lotus finish had ended in a gravel trap. Red flags meant the race had been stopped and would be restarted, which felt like great news as long as the car could be repaired……if not then the spare car could be rolled out for the restart.

In theory this would of simply been case of the race being reset, and Johnny could have a second bite at Monza 1994. Hope is very often what has the biggest impact to sport and fans in particular, because although Johnny resumed on the restarted grid in 4th place the replacement car wasn’t fitted with the newer engine, instead it was powered by the older unit. On an unforgiving track where top speed / horsepower is the most important ingredient what could have been a significant result ended in a mediocre race performance and retirement for car and driver on lap 13.

In the space of little over half an hour the promise of a podium finish (I’m an optimist……I thought at the time Johnny might win the race!) became a retirement due to an alternator failure; two races later Johnny’s contract had been bought by Ligier; a race later he was a Benetton driver once again and Team Lotus disappeared from the grid before the start of the 1995 season. Everything moves so quickly in Formula One.

Roll forward 12 months however and Johnny, retained by Benetton for the 1995 season to partner a certain M Schumacher, claimed his second win of the season at Monza, which in a tiny way was a form of vindication after the disappointment of the 1994 Italian Grand Prix.

However Monza 1994 is a classic case of what might have been……and maybe it was typical of the season we'd endured where even the title winner only claimed his crown by taking out his only other rival in a wholly unsatisfactory manner around the streets of Adelaide.