“But it was Zolder that gave us the confidence to push even further ahead. Colin Chapman wasn’t one to rest. Once we’d got 79 built and running and got the odd bit of data from it, he wanted the next big thing for 1979 – Type 80 – which was misguided.

“But interesting.”

Nigel Bennett, who was at Zolder race-engineering Andretti’s team-mate Ronnie Peterson to second place in a 78, would rather have re-engineered 79: “It was an excellent car aerodynamically but poor in terms of: rear brakes, which overheated because the calipers were part of the gearbox; cooling; and chassis stiffness, which deteriorated throughout the year.”

Indeed, according to Wright, many internal steel brackets were discovered to have cracked when the chassis were dismantled at the end of the season: “That’s when we thought, ‘Hang on a minute, this is a different environment.’

“We hadn’t understood the forces involved. It was a very steep learning curve. Because 79’s structure was a bit flaky – it was the last of the old way of constructing a GP car – and as its ground effect worked better and better, hence the need to fit stiffer springs, you were loading it more and more.”

The run-up to Zolder had had its problems, too, according to Bennett: “I am pretty sure we never did a full day of testing. They used to be halted by a gearbox failing.”

Chapman was determined to continue experimenting with Getrag’s method of sequential shifting based on the principle used in bubble cars.

But there was more to it than met the eye, according to Bennett: “I did quite a lot of testing with Mario and he was the sort of driver who would say, ‘Lower the front springs by an eighth of a turn. And let’s have a little more pressure in the right-rear.’

“I remember him having me measure and select rear tyres for him. He wanted stagger: a bigger left than a right. We’d always measured circumference but normally we were trying to get them evenly balanced. Now we were looking for a difference of about 0.2in, something that a slight variation in ply angle would cause.

“Because of Mario’s vast wealth of experience of racing on ovals he was used to asymmetry: different spring rates from side to side and corner jacking. That’s not to say he was always chasing that kind of set-up.

“Ronnie was more straightforward: he told me what the car was doing and left me to make the changes.”

79 was tailored, as had been 25 to Jim Clark, to Andretti’s methods and requirements. When the taller Peterson attempted to adjust its rollbars [via sliding lever to the rear and push-pull knob to the front] he’d had to reach across his body with his right hand.

And caught his glove in the ratchet mechanism on the approach to a fast right-hander at the end of a main straight. Superswede tended to leave well alone thereafter.

His accident at Monza when his 78 was pinched into the Armco on the opening lap – his troublesome 79 had lost its rear brakes and crashed at the same place during morning warm-up – cast a tragic shadow over a remarkable campaign.

Six wins to world champion Andretti and two to Peterson – one apiece scored aboard 78 – resulted in Lotus’s securing the constructors’ championship by 28 points from Ferrari.

“Winning was a relief after 1977 – and bloody exciting,” says Wright. “We were like a jet on take-off because Chapman was so excited. That made him tough to work with but, because he was prepared to take a risk, it was fun, too.

“They were the most exciting years of my career. But although 79 is the iconic car because it won the championship and was pretty, the picture I have hanging in my house is of 78.”