Every driver that is lucky enough to make it to Formula 1 had their hero growing up, whether it was Lewis Hamilton for Isack Hadjar or Michael Schumacher for Max Verstappen.
For three-times Le Mans winner Andre Lotterer, his hero growing up was the great Ayrton Senna and he was lucky enough to watch him with his father during the 1991 Belgian Grand Prix.
Lotterer had got into motorsport having been raised in Belgium by going through the junior formula ranks and eventually landing a test/reserve role seat with Jaguar.
The Jaguar outfit was struggling by the time he made it to them in 2001 and while he would have been on the cards for a race seat, he was eventually overlooked in favour of Brazilian Antonio Pizzonia.
Lotterer left the team in 2002 when he went to Japan to compete in Formula Nippon (now Super Formula), before racing in the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Audi and latterly Porsche.
After success in Le Mans, the opportunity to drive in F1 came around again in 2014, although it would be a shortlived dream for Lotterer.
Andre Lotterer’s shortlived F1 dream with Caterham
Midway through the 2014 season, the Caterham F1 team was a struggling outfit. Having not scored any points it was looking increasingly likely the team would be sold off or heading into administration.
Although no specific reason was given, driver Kamui Kobayashi was sat out of the Belgian Grand Prix in favour of running Lotterer at what was effectively his home race.
Lotterer’s call-up was so late that he turned up to the track without any race boots, instead having to rely on his Audi-branded boots. His weekend would get off to a great start when he out-qualified teammate Marcus Ericsson with a lap time that was a second quicker to start 21st on the grid.
He was feeling confident about making progress in the race. However, his dream would be short-lived. On the opening lap, Lotterer hit one of the high kerbs at Spa Francorchamps which caused an electrical issue to manifest in his power unit.
It was an F1 debut that lasted all but 20 corners, but for Lotterer he managed to live out the dream he set to achieve when he was nine years old watching Senna climb Eau Rouge.
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What happened to the Caterham F1 team?
Caterham was one of the intakes of teams that joined the grid in 2010 along with Manor Racing and HRT. At the end of the 2013 season HRT had dropped out due to lack of funding, and with the switch to expensive power units in 2014, it effectively sealed the fate of the other two teams.
Caterham continued through the 2014 season but when it became clear they would not score any points and finish behind Manor, their owners put the team up for sale.
After potential buyers Engavest failed to meet the conditions of the sale, Caterham was plunged into administration towards the end of the season.
After missing races in the US and Brazil, they returned for a final race in Abu Dhabi at the behest of creditors having auctioned off sponsorship and agreed an arrangement for Will Stevens to drive alongside Kobayashi.
Caterham would fold at the end of 2014, having competed in five full seasons without scoring a single point.
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