# Fuji, October 1976: Mario Andretti and the Lotus 77 Win in the Rain

Fifty years ago this week Mario Andretti won the 1976 Japanese Grand Prix in a Lotus 77, the team's first win in two years and the start of its revival.

Source: https://lotustrails.com/blog/2026-10-27-andretti-fuji-1976/

On 24 October 1976 the Formula 1 season ended at Fuji Speedway, in the foothills of Mount Fuji. The race is remembered for the title fight between James Hunt and Niki Lauda. It was also won by a Lotus, and that win marked a turning point for the team.

## Two lean years

Lotus had not won a Grand Prix since Ronnie Peterson took the Lotus 72 to victory at Monza in September 1974. The 72 was by then an old design, and its intended replacement, the Lotus 76, had not worked. For 1976 Colin Chapman, Geoff Aldridge and Martin Ogilvie produced the Lotus 77 as a stop-gap. Its suspension could be reset for each circuit, and the team called it "the Adjustacar", but finding the right settings proved hard.

Mario Andretti drove for Lotus in the opening race in Brazil, then went back to Parnelli. When Parnelli pulled out of Formula 1 after losing its sponsor, Andretti went to see Chapman, who admitted he did not have a decent car to offer. Andretti joined anyway. Through the season the 77 was improved, with Tony Southgate among those working on it, and Andretti finished on the podium at Zandvoort and Mosport. More on him in our guide to [famous Lotus drivers](/guides/famous-lotus-drivers/).

## The race

Race day at Fuji was wet and misty, with standing water on the track. Andretti had taken pole, with Hunt alongside and Lauda third. Lauda pulled into the pits after two laps, judging the conditions too dangerous. Hunt led from the start and needed fourth place to take the title.

As the track dried, the order changed. Andretti took the lead late in the race after Patrick Depailler stopped, and won by a lap from Depailler and Hunt. Third place gave Hunt the championship by one point, 69 to 68. For Andretti it was a second Grand Prix win more than five years after his first, and for the 77 it was the only one.

## What came next

Andretti was glad to leave the 77 behind. Chapman had already built the Lotus 78, the first of his ground-effect cars, and Andretti won four races in it in 1977. In 1978 he and the Lotus 79 won the drivers' and constructors' titles. That run began on a wet afternoon at Fuji. Our [history of Lotus](/guides/lotus-history/) covers the rest of the decade.

## Fuji today

The circuit is still in use, at Oyama in Shizuoka Prefecture. If you are in Japan with a car, the [Hakone Turnpike](/trails/hakone-turnpike/) is nearby, and in autumn the hairpins of [Irohazaka](/trails/irohazaka/) at Nikkō are worth the longer drive north.