The brilliant Graham Hill took his second F1 title on this day in 1968 at the wheel of the iconic Lotus 49. It won out in Motor Sport's hotly contested Race Car of the Century vote. Of all the competition machines made during our 100-year history, the 49 is the true diamond. Karun Chandhok takes Graham Hill's chassis R10 out for a few laps at Lotus's sacred space – Hethel
The era that made me fall in love with Formula 1 was the late 1980s and early 1990s. People often ask me about my favourite F1 cars at which point the Williams FW14B, the Ferrari 641 and the McLaren MP4/4 come to mind with the beautiful curves of the Jordan 191 pushing it into that bracket. I guess we've all got a 'first-touchpoint bias' when answering the question.
However when I take off the rose-tinted glasses and look at the history of the sport more objectively there is no doubt in my mind that the Lotus 49 is the most significant car in F1 history. This firmly puts it on the bucket list of cars to drive for any racing driver who is a true fan of motor racing. I've been fortunate to drive an F1 car from every decade of the sport going back to the 1930s, right up until the 2019 hybrid-powered Mercedes that took Lewis Hamilton to the world championship title that year. The list includes 12 world championship-winning cars and this has given me the wonderful opportunity to appreciate the evolution of the sport from the cockpit.
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