One of the most unfortunate rankings to have as either a motorsport team or race driver is to be the least successful member of an elite series, as the bright lights of the biggest stages magnify the lack of success.
Teams such as Hispania Racing Team, Minardi and Arrows are very capable teams that managed to race to a competitive standard, but their relative lack of success has had them branded as amongst the worst teams ever created.
However, arguably the team that suffered this fate the most was a team that on paper featured a very capable driver and former International Formula 3000 champion in Vincenzo Sospiri and the technical support of the legendary American manufacturer Lola, best known for creating IndyCar racers.
Team Principal Eric Broadley announced his plans in late 1996 after some early testing with Allan McNish in 1995 demonstrated promise. Everything changed, however, when Lola received title sponsorship from MasterCard.
In what became a poisoned chalice that would ruin the lives and careers of everyone involved, MasterCard’s main condition was that Lola had to race a year ahead of schedule in the 1997 Formula One World Championship to compete with the HSBC-backed Stewart (now Red Bull Racing) team.
This meant that, instead of having a year to prepare for a raft of technical changes and get started on the right footing, MasterCard Lola had less than three months to get a car that would pass technical inspections ready, with no time to test motorsport gears or any other components.
To their credit, they did manage to get a car manufactured, with the Lola T97/30 making it to Melbourne for the first Formula One weekend of 1997.
It took just a few laps to realise that the cars were hopeless in a straight line and around corners. Neither car would come close to the 107 per cent cut-off from the pole position time that was required for qualifying.
After MasterCard withdrew support, the team folded before the second Grand Prix weekend at Interlagos, Brazil.