Video: Nick Padmore dominates Monaco in Lotus 77

11th May 2024

Ethan Jupp

When it comes to 1970s Formula 1 cars, if you want pace, there’s no substitute for just grabbing the thing by the scruff of the neck, bullying some heat into the tyres and absolutely sending it. Happily, absolutely sending historic F1 cars is Nick Padmore’s bread and butter.

So here we are at Monaco, watching historic F1 cars race and who would know it, Nick Padmore has a drive in a Cosworth DFV-powered Lotus 77. So of course we now have an absolutely stonking lap to show you.

Hot off the back of setting a monstrous 1:32.8 lap, he goes for another seemingly not letting off, even though there was no one to chase. The way he dances this brute around is something else, absolutely perfecting the art of sliding out of a corner and on to the exit line. How he loses zero pace from the traction loss that we can fully hear as the Lotus hits its limiter, we have no idea.

Padmore in this car – an Andretti race winner – when it’s fully on song, is simply unstoppable. Stuart Hall ended up pipping him to pole, with Padmore unable to respond due to traffic. That race start should be fun, then…