It took Lola five attempts to win the International Formula 3000 championship in 1989. But its 1987 T87/50 was the first to truly make an impression on the rung below Formula 1 and finished runner-up in the standings with Luis Perez Sala. It therefore was an important machine both for establishing Lola in a battle largely dominated by March and Ralt, and also for the Spaniard who picks it as his favourite car.
Perez Sala mustered a single F1 point for Minardi in the 1989 British Grand Prix, becoming only the third driver from his nation to score a world championship point and the first in over 30 years. But finding the cockpit of the Cosworth-powered M189 and its M188 predecessor cramped and uncomfortable, the 64-year-old struggled to match team-mate Pierluigi Martini and as such he “didn’t find [them] maybe as happy as the Lola”.
