# Who is the greatest Lotus Formula 1 driver of all time?

> Colin Chapman built cars that made champions and broke hearts, often in the same season.

*By YPB Team · Published August 19, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/who-is-the-greatest-lotus-formula-1-driver-of-all-time*

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## Current results (5 votes)

1. **Jim Clark** — 80% (4 votes · score 1000/1000)
   Won two titles and 25 grands prix for Colin Chapman's team, plus the 1965 Indianapolis 500.
2. **Ayrton Senna** — 0% (0 votes · score 619/1000)
   Won six grands prix for Lotus between 1985 and 1987, including his first at Estoril.
3. **Mario Andretti** — 20% (1 votes · score 524/1000)
   Developed the ground-effect Lotus 78 and 79 and won the 1978 title with them.
4. **Mika Hakkinen** — 0% (0 votes · score 512/1000)
   Broke into Formula 1 with Team Lotus in 1991 and 1992 before McLaren and two titles.
5. **Johnny Herbert** — 0% (0 votes · score 468/1000)
   Scored points on debut for Lotus in 1989 with feet still healing from a Formula 3000 crash.
6. **Romain Grosjean** — 0% (0 votes · score 419/1000)
   Took ten podiums for the black-and-gold Lotus of 2012 and 2013.
7. **Innes Ireland** — 0% (0 votes · score 363/1000)
   Scored the works team's first championship victory at Watkins Glen in 1961.
8. **Graham Hill** — 0% (0 votes · score 299/1000)
   Took the 1968 title for Lotus weeks after Clark's death.
9. **Emerson Fittipaldi** — 0% (0 votes · score 299/1000)
   Became the sport's youngest champion to date with Lotus in 1972.
10. **Stirling Moss** — 0% (0 votes · score 299/1000)
   Gave a Lotus its first grand prix win at Monaco in 1960, in Rob Walker's privateer car.
11. **Ronnie Peterson** — 0% (0 votes · score 226/1000)
   Lotus' brilliant number two, killed after the 1978 Monza start crash.
12. **Jochen Rindt** — 0% (0 votes · score 226/1000)
   Lotus' 1970 champion, crowned posthumously after Monza.
13. **Gunnar Nilsson** — 0% (0 votes · score 226/1000)
   Won the 1977 Belgian Grand Prix in the wet before cancer ended his career.
14. **Elio de Angelis** — 0% (0 votes · score 140/1000)
   Gave Lotus its 1982 Austrian Grand Prix win by two hundredths of a second.
15. **Nigel Mansell** — 0% (0 votes · score 140/1000)
   Made his Formula 1 debut for Lotus and spent five seasons there before Williams.
16. **Kimi Raikkonen** — 0% (0 votes · score 140/1000)
   Won twice for the Enstone team that raced as Lotus in 2012 and 2013.

Tags: formula 1, drivers, motorsport, lotus