MasterCard Lola

[AlliotsUsualAccident]

Wow, this thread now has over ten thousand views, with about a tenth of those since about Christmas. Not bad for a thread celebrating a one-qualifying-attempt team from nearly two decades ago.

This thread is what brought me on here! Really a fascinating read all the way through

Welcome to GPRejects

thanks for the warm welcome!

[dr-baker]

With thanks to Simtek in the Reject Research Material Thread, I have found discussions of the Lola T97/30 on the Autosport Nostalgia Forum. Links:

http://forums.autosport.com/topic/16017 ... try5492937

http://forums.autosport.com/topic/19103 ... try6512962

Wow, this thread now has over ten thousand views, with about a tenth of those since about Christmas. Not bad for a thread celebrating a one-qualifying-attempt team from nearly two decades ago.

And now another 1500 views in less than 4 months. I am staggered.

I still plan to get my MasterCard Lola profile done at some point. I promise!

[dr-baker]

Not Lola news, but MasterCard news that covers the period when they sponsored the Lola team.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/item/94a8 ... y&ns_fee=0

Over a 16-year period, it is alleged that MasterCard charged retailers excessive fees when shoppers used their credit and debit cards. You might not realise this, but when you pay by card in a shop, the retailer is required to pay your credit or debit card company a fee for each transaction.

These fees are called ‘interchange’ fees and according to experts, retailers can whack them into the price of the goods, driving up the prices we pay. It’s allegation that we’ve all been paying higher prices due to these fees that is the basis for this case.

In Britain, this case is going to court, and covers the period 1992 to 2008, the period where their logos featured on the Lolas and Jordans. It may cost them £19 billion. Makes you wonder how the story of MasterCard Lola may have turned out differently if some of these alleged excessive fees went to sponsor Lola instead, rather than rely on MasterCard customers being expected to foot the bill directly to pay Lola (albeit planned to be voluntarily).

Additionally, I am just about to add these two photos to the first post in this thread, as it adds some extra detail: a comparison to where fellow new-team-for-1997, Stewart (also with backing from a global/multi-national American giant, Ford) were in late 1996... The photo was taken in Donington Park race track's museum in August 2015, during one of Formula E's public tests.

[dr-baker]

Being at uni again has given me a renewed enthusiasm for trying to complete my profile of the team for the website (currently up to 3000+ words, and I have not got to Melbourne 1997 yet). But as part of my research, I will be adding some F1 Racing magazine articles when I get the chance. (Just obtained a number of issues from 1996 onwards. Should be interesting, given that they were a team sponsor!)

[dinizintheoven]

Looks like it's going to be a job as thorough as that for Sébastien Buemi, race for race at least. That's how far the stakes have been raised.

[dr-baker]

My aim is to get it done before March next year...

[dinizintheoven]

I see what you did there.

I wonder if the Brazilian reject I share a birthday with will be reading?

[dr-baker]

I see what you did there.

I wonder if the Brazilian reject I share a birthday with will be reading?

Ah, I assume you mean the one that I will be mentioning a number of times in my article? The runner-up in the 1995 F3000 championship, driving a Reynard of all things?!

[dr-baker]

Sorry for double-posting, but this is now adding to the research of the first post.

What a great post!

And this thread seems like the ideal place to "spam" my YouTube videos of the Lolas in action! Australia FP1 and FP2.

Look at that! Sosperi was once fourth in a session! Ahead of two other cars!

FP1 times according to midgrid's video above:




It appears to be Pedro Diniz in the second TWR-Arrows that failed to set a lap time in this session.

Times for the session that midgrid above calls FP2 and which formula1.com calls Practice 1:

Pos No Driver Car Time Gap Laps

1 5 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:32.496 27
2 4 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams Renault 1:32.910 +0.414s 27
3 7 Jean Alesi Benetton Renault 1:33.255 +0.759s 27
4 3 Jacques Villeneuve Williams Renault 1:33.371 +0.875s 26
5 11 Ralf Schumacher Jordan Peugeot 1:33.437 +0.941s 28
6 6 Eddie Irvine Ferrari 1:34.157 +1.661s 21
7 8 Gerhard Berger Benetton Renault 1:34.271 +1.775s 17
8 10 David Coulthard McLaren Mercedes 1:34.432 +1.936s 21
9 16 Johnny Herbert Sauber Petronas 1:34.593 +2.097s 29
10 9 Mika Hakkinen McLaren Mercedes 1:34.742 +2.246s 19
11 12 Giancarlo Fisichella Jordan Peugeot 1:34.777 +2.281s 27
12 14 Olivier Panis Prost Mugen Honda 1:34.927 +2.431s 16
13 1 Damon Hill Arrows Yamaha 1:35.073 +2.577s 26
14 19 Mika Salo Tyrrell Ford 1:36.142 +3.646s 30
15 17 Nicola Larini Sauber Petronas 1:36.223 +3.727s 21
16 21 Jarno Trulli Minardi Hart 1:36.392 +3.896s 16
17 18 Jos Verstappen Tyrrell Ford 1:36.716 +4.220s 24
18 23 Jan Magnussen Stewart Ford 1:37.023 +4.527s 14
19 2 Pedro Diniz Arrows Yamaha 1:38.092 +5.596s 9
20 15 Shinji Nakano Prost Mugen Honda 1:39.652 +7.156s 12
21 22 Rubens Barrichello Stewart Ford 1:40.002 +7.506s 6
22 20 Ukyo Katayama Minardi Hart 1:40.947 +8.451s 7
23 25 Ricardo Rosset Lola Ford 1:41.166 +8.670s 14
24 24 Vincenzo Sospiri Lola Ford 1:42.590 +10.094s 22

What formula1.com calls Practice 2:

Pos No Driver Car Time Gap Laps

1 3 Jacques Villeneuve Williams Renault 1:28.594 26
2 4 Heinz-Harald Frentzen Williams Renault 1:30.026 +1.432s 23
3 10 David Coulthard McLaren Mercedes 1:30.305 +1.711s 26
4 6 Eddie Irvine Ferrari 1:30.651 +2.057s 26
5 9 Mika Hakkinen McLaren Mercedes 1:30.674 +2.080s 23
6 5 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:30.682 +2.088s 30
7 11 Ralf Schumacher Jordan Peugeot 1:31.071 +2.477s 22
8 16 Johnny Herbert Sauber Petronas 1:31.197 +2.603s 30
9 17 Nicola Larini Sauber Petronas 1:31.281 +2.687s 21
10 14 Olivier Panis Prost Mugen Honda 1:31.303 +2.709s 26
11 8 Gerhard Berger Benetton Renault 1:31.389 +2.795s 21
12 7 Jean Alesi Benetton Renault 1:31.635 +3.041s 27
13 12 Giancarlo Fisichella Jordan Peugeot 1:32.027 +3.433s 16
14 20 Ukyo Katayama Minardi Hart 1:32.264 +3.670s 24
15 22 Rubens Barrichello Stewart Ford 1:32.826 +4.232s 16
16 19 Mika Salo Tyrrell Ford 1:33.194 +4.600s 30
17 15 Shinji Nakano Prost Mugen Honda 1:33.415 +4.821s 27
18 21 Jarno Trulli Minardi Hart 1:33.588 +4.994s 29
19 18 Jos Verstappen Tyrrell Ford 1:33.679 +5.085s 30
20 2 Pedro Diniz Arrows Yamaha 1:33.693 +5.099s 18
21 23 Jan Magnussen Stewart Ford 1:33.767 +5.173s 21
22 1 Damon Hill Arrows Yamaha 1:34.640 +6.046s 9
23 25 Ricardo Rosset Lola Ford 1:41.416 +12.822s 5
24 24 Vincenzo Sospiri Lola Ford 1:44.286 +15.692s 8

I will merge these times with the first post at some unspecified time in the future. I just needed these times for my team profile, and this is the stage I have got to in its write-up. Approaching 5000 words and counting...

[Izzyeviel]

How do you do a 12 minute lap?

[dinizintheoven]

Ask undoubtedly the best Formula One driver that Grand Prix racing has ever produced.

Or ask Bruno Giacomelli, he'd have been used to that a few years before...

[dr-baker]

How do you do a 12 minute lap?

By driving at a typical urban speed limit by the looks of it! EDIT: Oh wait, that's in kmph, isn't it, not mph? Wow, that IS impressively slow...

Or ask Bruno Giacomelli, he'd have been used to that a few years before...

Well, that's Life, isn't it!

Honestly, if you watch the video, they do show him spinning off into a gravel trap during that session, and he does get lambasted by the commentators for being inexperienced, having only one season of car racing prior to the 1997 season...

And not only have I added to my workload by having the F1 Racing magazines from March 1996 onwards to peruse, but I also have managed to purchase a 1997 Australian GP race programme! Wonder if there is much on the Lola team in there?

[dr-baker]

I have finally gone through my stash of F1 Racing magazines from the first issue in March 1996 to about 1999. A lot of the 1996 articles are about the Bridgestone tyres, which add to the story already told in my compilation of Autosport and F1 Racing articles. But first, I will start with the Australian GP 1997 programme (and I am now wondering what was included in the Brazilian GP programme of 1997, given the timeline of events? Possibly even Argentina and Spain, given the lead times to print the programmes?). (I will eventually add these too to the first post of this thread – a megapost!)










And now onto the F1 Racing magazine articles (a different magazine to F1 News!) (these will be added to the first post in due course):



F1 Racing, March 1996

A quick guide to the new-for-1996 107% rule, in the days when Hill was at Williams, there was only one Schumi and he drove for Benetton, and Forti were in the sport…



F1 Racing, April 1996

Bridgestone announce their plans to enter F1, but in 1998! Bridgestone had such a limited previous presence in the sport at this point, look at the photo they used!



F1 Racing, May 1996

Dome are looking to enter F1 in 1997. They, at this point, are using Goodyear tyres, but one would expect them to enter with fellow Japanese company Bridgestone, wouldn’t one? Namely, for Dome to postpone until 1998 to enter with Bridgestone? Or to encourage them to join a year earlier?



F1 Racing, June 1996

So Bridgestone are looking to join in 1997 after all? But because they have no teams to test with? What about Dome? But in hindsight, they were right about Michelin not being far behind. Just a shame about Goodyear’s future in the category…



And here is a brief interview from the same issue from a driver who had contracts with Simtek, Pacific, Forti and Lola!



F1 Racing, July 1997

Bridgestone are now testing their tyres in a Japanese-powered car on their own Japanese test-track!



There is also a three-page article on the tyre competition situation as seen at the time.







F1 Racing, August 1996

Arrows tie their mast to Bridgestone tyres. It is looking serious for Bridgestone now for 1997 – teams, testing, etc.



But Lola have not yet committed convincingly enough for F1 Racing to predict their engine supply for the 1998 season yet. It’s only 18 months after the publication of this issue of F1 Racing… And no mention here of Richmond Metals Co. of Richmond, Virginia or Al Melling suppling engines.



F1 Racing, September 1996

An interview with Paul Stewart, bringing Stewart GP into F1 in 1997. It is clear from this that Lola’s customer Ford engine was never going to be on a par with Stewart.



F1 Racing, October 1996

Could Lola have ended up with a more competitive engine if this meeting had gone differently? And is this the first mention of current rising star, Mick Schumacher, in the pages of F1 Racing?



Despite missing a significant number of races, Forti have not yet given up the fight to remain in F1!



F1 Racing, November 1996

Stewart now have announced their driver line-up for their debut season.



F1 Racing, December 1996

Bridgestone are now testing wet-weather tyres, and tests being carried out by Ricardo Rosset and Damon Hill.



Another team to use Bridgestone tyres.



And Lola finally get their first mentions in the magazine! After all, the magazine will be sponsoring the team…





F1 Racing, January 1997

More Bridgestone tyre testing news.



Here is a timeline of the set-up of the Stewart GP team for comparison against Lola.









F1 Racing, February 1997

F1 Racing, as a sponsor of the MasterCard Lola team, carried a ‘news’ story of the team having a stand at the Autosport Show with what would have been a T95/30 showcar.



This issue announces Lola’s 1997 driver line-up.



The livery used at the Autosport Show carried over into the advertising that MasterCard Lola were using to promote the team, particularly in the pages of co-sponsor, F1 Racing (this advertisement for the team featured in the February, March, and April 1997 editions of the F1 Racing magazine):



Oh, and Stewart began testing their 1997 challenger around Christmas. Good for them.



F1 Racing, March 1997

I love the first line of this article of an interview with Eric Broadley: “No, I’m not going to tell you what our targets are for this year, because you’ll only come back and tell me I didn’t hit them.” Hmm. And thus the irony of the last quotation at the end! How they thought they could be better than Stewart who had a better Ford Cosworth and longer lead time into the season, I have no idea…







And F1 Racing looked into their “Kristal Baul” for their driver season preview:



F1 Racing, April 1997

F1 Racing’s results tables for the 1997 Australian Grand Prix. Interesting to note that F1 Racing sponsor a Bridgestone-tyred team, while carrying Goodyear sponsorship on their results pages… And Lola of course top the slowest-through-the-speed-trap table! (And I still rather like their pictorial of the grid – it gives an idea of the field spread, albeit without how far Lola were off the back odf the grid!)







And TWR-Arrows’s Pedro Diniz becomes the first to circumnavigate the 107% rule. But Lola didn’t… This brief news article wonders why!



F1 Racing, May 1997

F1 Racing magazine seem quite sure and realistic as to Lola’s future at this point. There’s no holding back. (Don’t forget that towards the end of 1996, they carried a story of Forti talking of attempting to return to F1 after missing a number of races.)







And there is talk of Rosset jumping ship to replace an underperforming driver at another new-for-1997 team!(As well as an administrative change to the sport as a result of what happened to Lola, and presumably to Simtek, Pacific and Forti too over 1995 and 1996.)



F1 Racing, June 1997

An approximate break-down of Lola’s expenditure for their F1 entry. Presumably F1 Racing had access to figures, having been a sponsor of the team?



And there is a response to an earlier article on Eric Broadley in the May issue (above) on the magazine’s letters page:



(As an aside, I would have dared to have called Bernie an ‘old man’! Compared to a teenager, a man beyond retirement age would have been an ‘old man’!)

F1 Racing, August 1997

Wonder how this was financed? (The MasterCard bit…)



F1 Racing, November 1997

Al Melling, with his MCD firm, completed the work on the Lola engine anyway, and tried to find a home for it.



F1 Racing, December 1997

F1 Racing’s readers rated the drivers of 1997 in a poll:





And just in case you wondered which drivers could have been placed between the two Lola drivers?

As voted for by readers of F1 Racing

Code: Select all

19. Pedro Diniz
20. Vincenzo Sosperi
21. Jan Magnussen
22. Norberto Fontana
23. Ukyo Katayama
24. Tarso Marquez
25. Shinji Nakano
26. Gianni Morbidelli
27. Nicola Larini
28. Ricardo Rosset

There were just 28 drivers…

F1 Racing, November 1998

Al Melling was still trying to get his engine company competing in F1. Afterall, if Brian Hart, Cosworth and Mugen could do it…




And finally, some images from these articles:

[dinizintheoven]

That was a cracking read. As for "Damon Hill could still win a race in 1997", if it hadn't been for that 50p washer...

Nice use of Helvetica Inserat in Paul Stewart's team diary as well.

[dr-baker]

That was a cracking read. As for "Damon Hill could still win a race in 1997", if it hadn't been for that 50p washer...

Nice use of Helvetica Inserat in Paul Stewart's team diary as well.

Personally, I would have been intrigued by Damon going to Stewart in either 97 or 98, as teammate to Barrichello. I could imagine him scoring the team's first win, as he almost did for Arrows and actually did for Jordan. Don't know which, just a hunch.

[dr-baker]

Unraced F1 have today put an article online, explaining the difference between the Lola T95/30 and what some in the media have apparently labelled the Lola T94/30. The way I phrased that should give a good clue to the answer, but please go and read it anyway. Added a link here as it seemed relevant to the overall subject.

[dr-baker]

I realised a little while ago that there appeared to be a little bit of confusion in my research how many practice sessions there were for the 1997 Australian Grand Prix, so I have used the Australian Grand Prix programme to clarify the situation. It looks like that there were two sessions on the Friday of that weekend - 2 60-minute sessions separated by just an hour. And then on the Saturday, there were a further two 45-minute sessions separated by just half-an-hour. With such small gaps between sessions, it is understandable why many of the published results combined the practice times from the two sessions of each day, even though it made it appear that there were half the number of sessions that there really were.

Here are the images from the programme as evidence (that I will then use to clarify the first post in the thread):





And in case the print is too small to read on your viewing device (the F1 sessions are in red above):

Friday 7th March 1997

1100 – 1200 Formula One Practice Session
1300 – 1400 Formula One Practice Session

Saturday 8th March 1997

0900 – 0945 Formula One Practice Session
1015 – 1100 Formula One Practice Session
1300 – 1400 Formula One Qualifying Session

Sunday 9th March 1997

0930 – 1000 Formula One Warm Up
1120 – 1130 Formula One Drivers’ Parade
1400 – 1545 1997 Qantas Australian Grand Prix – 59 laps including warm-up

[Waris]

Incidentally, GPUpdate are doing a feature on Lola today and Monday: http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/350127/feature-lola-s-brief-formula-1-foray-part-1/

Some nice images there. I especially love the one with Sospiri and Rosset in the driver's parade, where you can clearly see the race suits had a sponsor named "NEW G.P.R."!

[dr-baker]

Incidentally, GPUpdate are doing a feature on Lola today and Monday: http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/350127/feature-lola-s-brief-formula-1-foray-part-1/

Some nice images there. I especially love the one with Sospiri and Rosset in the driver's parade, where you can clearly see the race suits had a sponsor named "NEW G.P.R."!

Thanks for posting that, Waris. There were several quotations there about the pre-season testing that I hadn't read before!

[Waris]

Here's part 2 with some more nice quotes and pictures: http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/350129/feature-lola-s-brief-formula-1-foray-part-2/

My, that car really was a dog.

[dr-baker]

Here's part 2 with some more nice quotes and pictures: http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/350129/feature-lola-s-brief-formula-1-foray-part-2/

My, that car really was a dog.

Thank you again Waris. The photo at the top of that, of a Lola driving down the pitlane, is a photo that I had not seen before, but which I like. And I had not known about the gearbox - wow!

[dr-baker]

My article on the team is now published on the main website! Here's a link to the thread with a link to the article!

[William Hunt]

strange that Nigel Mansell was linked with a Jordan drive in 1997, can't remember that

[dr-baker]

strange that Nigel Mansell was linked with a Jordan drive in 1997, can't remember that

You read all that info about MasterCard Lola, and what you comment on is Mansell joining Jordan?!

But now I am remembering Colin McRae testing for Jordan, and with rumours of a discipline switch, similar to Loeb testing a Red Bull a few years ago.

[William Hunt]

strange that Nigel Mansell was linked with a Jordan drive in 1997, can't remember that

You read all that info about MasterCard Lola, and what you comment on is Mansell joining Jordan?!

Hi, yes I did read all the MasterCard Lola info but there was a scan of an article titled 'Ferrari breaks with tradition' and the article sums up the 'likely 1997 line-up' and it mentions Nigel Mansell as a probable teammate for Ralf Schumacher at Jordan.
I was very surprised to see that, you can see the scan halfway page 1.
The same article mentions Riccardo Rosset and Norberto Fontana as the probable MasterCard Lola drivers, I remember from the back of my head that Alan McNish was also linked to them, Fontana had ties with Sauber, he was their test driver but he was also rumoured with a seat for Tyrrell in those days.

[dr-baker]

strange that Nigel Mansell was linked with a Jordan drive in 1997, can't remember that

You read all that info about MasterCard Lola, and what you comment on is Mansell joining Jordan?!

Hi, yes I did read all the MasterCard Lola info but there was a scan of an article titled 'Ferrari breaks with tradition' and the article sums up the 'likely 1997 line-up' and it mentions Nigel Mansell as a probable teammate for Ralf Schumacher at Jordan.
I was very surprised to see that, you can see the scan halfway page 1.

Yeah, I know the article. It was me who scanned it, cropped it, uploaded it, then posted it on here! Don't worry, it's the kind of thing I tend to do myself on occasion. And it is indeed an interesting observation. Just goes to confirm the running joke on this forum that Mansell never did confirm his retirement from the sport.

[Nuppiz]

Mansell did actually test for Jordan in 1996. That's what probably fuelled up the rumour:

[Bleu]

Nigel Mansell without moustache doesn't look like Nigel Mansell.

[CoopsII]

Apologies if this has been posted before....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mT9P-GcmNVI

[dr-baker]

Thanks for posting that Coops. But I couldn't hear any audio on it?

And with the first post on here. Photobucket now want $400/year for third-party hosting. Sod that. I'll have to repost elsewhere and sort out all the links. Dammit.

Plus, from the video Coops linked to, I found this: https://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=H-8nYTU0eTE

[dr-baker]

Wow, even with all the broken links, this thread now has over 20,000 views! I never imagined that it would get so many.

As an aside, would Flickr be a good site to use for all the photos/scans in my first post?

[Bobby Doorknobs]

Wow, even with all the broken links, this thread now has over 20,000 views! I never imagined that it would get so many.

As an aside, would Flickr be a good site to use for all the photos/scans in my first post?

I find it funny that not a single Photobucket link I've seen on the internet has been fixed by someone paying the extortionate sum required...

And yeah, Flickr should work just fine as an even better alternative. It's nowhere near as riddled with ads as Photobuket's become.

[dr-baker]

Wow, even with all the broken links, this thread now has over 20,000 views! I never imagined that it would get so many.

As an aside, would Flickr be a good site to use for all the photos/scans in my first post?

I find it funny that not a single Photobucket link I've seen on the internet has been fixed by someone paying the extortionate sum required...

And yeah, Flickr should work just fine as an even better alternative. It's nowhere near as riddled with ads as Photobuket's become.

Cool, thanks. May take a while to load up all the files and fix the links, but that will be my side project for the next few months.

[Nuppiz]

Wow, even with all the broken links, this thread now has over 20,000 views! I never imagined that it would get so many.

As an aside, would Flickr be a good site to use for all the photos/scans in my first post?

I find it funny that not a single Photobucket link I've seen on the internet has been fixed by someone paying the extortionate sum required...

And yeah, Flickr should work just fine as an even better alternative. It's nowhere near as riddled with ads as Photobuket's become.

Cool, thanks. May take a while to load up all the files and fix the links, but that will be my side project for the next few months.

Imgur and Tinypic are also good alternatives, if you don't want to put all of your bets on the same horse.

[dr-baker]

Imgur and Tinypic are also good alternatives, if you don't want to put all of your bets on the same horse.

Thanks for the alternative suggestions Nuppiz. I may well set up accounts at two locations so I have a back up, but only use one for the first post here. Do you have a preference between Flickr, Imbue and Tinypic, Nuppiz and Simtek?

[Bobby Doorknobs]

Imgur and Tinypic are also good alternatives, if you don't want to put all of your bets on the same horse.

Thanks for the alternative suggestions Nuppiz. I may well set up accounts at two locations so I have a back up, but only use one for the first post here. Do you have a preference between Flickr, Imbue and Tinypic, Nuppiz and Simtek?

I've used both Flickr and Imgur (and Photobucket until nearly a year ago or thereabouts). Flickr's generally the place to upload actual photographs, whereas Imgur is kind of a place you can upload any old image. For the purposes of the now-orphaned images in this thread, though, you'd do fine with either (or both).

[dr-baker]

Imgur and Tinypic are also good alternatives, if you don't want to put all of your bets on the same horse.

Thanks for the alternative suggestions Nuppiz. I may well set up accounts at two locations so I have a back up, but only use one for the first post here. Do you have a preference between Flickr, Imbue and Tinypic, Nuppiz and Simtek?

I've used both Flickr and Imgur (and Photobucket until nearly a year ago or thereabouts). Flickr's generally the place to upload actual photographs, whereas Imgur is kind of a place you can upload any old image. For the purposes of the now-orphaned images in this thread, though, you'd do fine with either (or both).

Thank you!

[dr-baker]

[dr-baker]

Not Lola news, but MasterCard news that covers the period when they sponsored the Lola team.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/item/94a8 ... y&ns_fee=0

Over a 16-year period, it is alleged that MasterCard charged retailers excessive fees when shoppers used their credit and debit cards. You might not realise this, but when you pay by card in a shop, the retailer is required to pay your credit or debit card company a fee for each transaction.

These fees are called ‘interchange’ fees and according to experts, retailers can whack them into the price of the goods, driving up the prices we pay. It’s allegation that we’ve all been paying higher prices due to these fees that is the basis for this case.

In Britain, this case is going to court, and covers the period 1992 to 2008, the period where their logos featured on the Lolas and Jordans. It may cost them £19 billion. Makes you wonder how the story of MasterCard Lola may have turned out differently if some of these alleged excessive fees went to sponsor Lola instead, rather than rely on MasterCard customers being expected to foot the bill directly to pay Lola (albeit planned to be voluntarily).

A quick update here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-40685711

[dr-baker]

I think this press release is interesting.