Lotus E21

2013 Lotus E21

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Paris, France | February 2025

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Things were weird in F1 in the 2010s. In 2010 and 2011 there was a Lotus Racing F1 team that was not directly affiliated with Lotus Cars. It was a Malaysian-owned team that licensed the use of the Lotus name. Their cars were green and yellow.

Meanwhile, in late 2010, the actual Lotus car company purchased part of the Renault F1 team. So, for 2012, that team would been known as Lotus-Renault. Also for 2012, Tony Fernandes, the guy who was running the green-and-yellow Lotus Racing F1 team, also had purchased Caterham, a company that has produced Lotus replicas for decades.

So for 2012, the new Lotus-Renault debuted (with their black and gold cars) and the old Lotus Racing team re-debuted as Caterham F1, with still-green cars. Caterham disappeared after the 2014 season. The Lotus name would continue through the 2015 season, when the team would revert back to Renault branding.

So, the team’s car for the 2013 season was the E21, which would’ve had a 2.4-liter Renault V8 and a KERS system. Output was 750 horsepower. The E21 was kind of a success, winning on debut in Australia. This car is without an engine and is being sold as a roller. This car, chassis E21-04, has the following race history:

  • 2013 British Grand Prix – 5th (with Kimi Raikkonen)
  • 2013 German Grand Prix – 2nd (with Raikkonen)
  • 2013 Hungarian Grand Prix – 2nd (with Raikkonen)
  • 2013 Belgian Grand Prix – 21st, DNF (with Raikkonen)
  • 2013 Italian Grand Prix – 11th (with Raikkonen)
  • 2013 Singapore Grand Prix – 21st, DNF (with Romain Grosjean)
  • 2013 Korean Grand Prix – 3rd (with Grosjean)
  • 2013 Japanese Grand Prix – 3rd (with Grosjean)
  • 2013 Indian Grand Prix – 3rd (with Grosjean)
  • 2013 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – 4th (with Grosjean)
  • 2013 United States Grand Prix – 2nd (with Grosjean)
  • 2013 Brazilian Grand Prix – 22nd, DNF (with Grosjean)

Since then, the car has been retained by the team, which is now known as Alpine. They are selling it. It has an estimate of $365,000-$465,000. More info can be found here.