Enzo Coloni Racing Car Systems

Coloni (Enzo Coloni Racing Car Systems) is an Italian racing team and former Formula One racing car constructor. While it has been successful in Formula Three and Formula 3000, the team was one of the least successful in Formula One history. The team never had appropriate human, financial or technical resources. The tiny team - sometimes it consisted of only five members next to Enzo Coloni while Ferrari and McLaren had more than a hundred employees - found its motivating spirit in pure enthusiasm, but this was not enough and the team had a very long and painful phase of fading away. It was the 'works' team for Subaru during 1990. From 1987 to 1991, the Coloni team made 82 attempts to take part in a Formula One race but only qualified 14 times. On the five occasions when a Coloni car saw the chequered flag, no points were scored at all.

Origins of the team

The team was founded in 1983 by Enzo Coloni from Perugia, Italy, who was a racing driver in the 1970s. After participating in the Italian Formula 3 series for several years, he won the drivers´title in 1982 when he was 36 years old. Before that, Coloni who was also called "the wolf" had also taken part in two formula 2 races, one in 1980 with the San Remo team and another one in 1982 with Giancarlo Minardi's team. At the end of 1982, he gave up active racing and started managing his own team, initially in Italian Formula Three.

Formula Three & Formula 3000 (1983 - 1986)

Success came almost immediately: as early as 1984, the team won the Italian Formula 3 championship with Ivan Capelli. In 1986, Coloni Motorsport appeared in Formula 3000, entering an out-dated March 85B with drivers like Nicola Larini and Gabriele Tarquini. The Formula 3000 attempt was unsuccessful, but instead of staying in this class and improving, Coloni planned another step upwards.

Formula One (1987 - 1991)

Coloni-Ford (1987 – 1989)

The announcement that turbos would be banned from Formula One from 1989 - making the sport more affordable - was the trigger for Enzo Coloni to enter the category. Enzo Coloni Racing Car Systems made its first appearance in Formula One at the Italian Grand Prix in September 1987. The yellow painted FC 187, powered by a Novamotor-prepared Cosworth DFZ, was a simple machine designed by former Dallara apprentice Roberto Ori. Coloni himself had carried out the shake-down drive but Nicola Larini was the race driver. The car was obviously not ready and Larini did not qualify. The Italian recorded Coloni’s first Formula One race start at the next race, the Portuguese Grand Prix, although mechanical problems meant that he did not finish. The team did not fly to the end of year overseas races that year, so Larini’s retirement from the Spanish Grand Prix that year ended their first season.

The 1988 season was the teams first full season and started well. Although the "new" FC 188 was almost identical with its predecessor, Coloni's new driver Gabriele Tarquini qualified regularly and finished 8th in Canada. This turned out to be Coloni's best result in Formula One. Due to a shortage of funds very little development work was done. The team’s performance suffered as a result and qualification or even prequalification were no longer certain. The team scored no points this year.

The 1989 Monaco Grand Prix was the only race in which two Colonis qualified. Raphanel leads Moreno through the tunnel.

Although money was tight for 1989, Coloni entered two cars for Roberto Moreno and French newcomer Pierre-Henri Raphanel. The FC 188Bs were another update of the 1987 car and were hard to handle and about 20 km/h slower than the rest of the grid. It was some kind of miracle that both drivers were able to qualify for the Monaco Grand Prix. This was the only race participation of a Coloni in the first part of the season. In Canada, Coloni eventually managed to present a new car (the Coloni C3) which was penned by former AGS man Christian Vanderpleyn who was a part of the Coloni team since Autumn 1988. The C3 turned out to be basically good but it suffered severely from the total absence of any testing. This meant that the team had lots of difficulty in finding the right set up, and on most occasions they failed to do so. Qualifications were out of reach, only in Portugal was Moreno able to qualify 15th, after a developmental front wing was fitted. Unfortunately for the team, he then collided with Eddie Cheever in the warm-up [1] and had to use the spare car. He did not finish the race as the engine blew up after a handful of laps. As things went from bad to worse, disharmony within the team rose. Team members and drivers were sacked, most of the time without replacement. After Vanderpleyn had left the team in September, Enzo Coloni took over the engineer's job himself but unsurprisingly this brought no improvement. Neither did the new driver Enrico Bertaggia who replaced Raphanel for the last races. In late 1989, almost everybody - maybe also Enzo Coloni himself - thought that Coloni Formula would fade away.

Coloni-Subaru (1990)

But far from it. Surprisingly, Enzo Coloni found help. A contract with Subaru, the automobile branch of Fuji Heavy Industries, brought substantial monetary backing and additionally an exclusive "works" engine for free. The Japanese took over 51% of Coloni formula, payed the debts and supported the new alliance with a brand new, unique engine. It was a flat-12 engine (Subaru also uses flat engines in their automobiles) which in fact was penned by Carlo Chiti. Chiti's Motori Moderni company at Novara had supplied V6 Turbo engines for the Minardi Formula One team from 1985 to 1987, and in 1988 Chiti had penned a normally aspirated V12 engine that attracted Subaru. In late 1988, the Japanese commissioned Chiti to design a new Formula One engine with a "flat" layout (due to the firm's affection for that concept which also could be found in Subaru's own passenger cars) that was ready in the Summer of 1989. The engine - now with a Subaru badge - was tested in a Minardi M188 chassis but due to a severe lack of power Minardi very soon lost interest. After a few months of searching, Subaru found the drowning Enzo Coloni who was ready to take any helping hand that he could reach. Eventually, the "Subaru Coloni" Team was founded with Enzo Coloni staying on board as the man for operational business.

By the beginning of 1990, everybody was aware of the fact that the "Subaru" flat engine was not able to impress anybody. It did not produce more than 500 bhp so the Coloni Subaru was by far the least competitive machine in 1990 Formula One (if you don´t regard the sub-terrestrial Life machine). Subaru and Chiti agreed to build a new V12 engine that should be ready by Summer 1990 together with a completely new chassis, but in the meantime the hapless flat engine should be used by the "Coloni Subaru" Team in a carry-over chassis. Early in 1990, a handful of Enzo Coloni's mechanics worked on a single C3 and tried to put the Subaru engine in it. The work was not done until the day the FIA started shipping the Formula One material to Phoenix. In the pits at Phoenix, the car was assembled for the very first time, and a short private "practice" took place on a parking area of an American supermarket. On prequalification day of Phoenix the world saw Coloni's "new" model C3B which wore a white, red and green livery that could not hide its improper lines. It was one of the ugliest cars of the season. Without an airbox but with wide, long sidepods, it looked like a tank, was overweight by 300 pounds and nearly impossible to handle. Neither at Phoenix nor at any other event, Bertrand Gachot, Coloni's new driver, managed to prequalify this monster. As the season went on, improvements were few and results stayed nowhere. Meanwhile, no success could be seen at Coloni's plant in Perugia where obviously nobody worked seriously on a new car. Subaru obviously was not amused. In May, Enzo Coloni was sacked, but no improvement came. In June, the Japanese were fed up with Formula One, withdrew completely and sold the team - to Enzo Coloni, who turned out to be the proud owner of a small but established team without any debts. That was one side. On the other side, Coloni had no sponsors and no engines. An engine deal came just before the German Grand Prix - of course, it was once again a Cosworth engine, now prepared by Langford & Peck - and an improved car also appeared in Germany. In fact, the "new" Coloni C3C was simply the second C3 from 1989 (the one that not had been converted to C3B configuration) with little changes in aerodynamics. The speed obviously improved, but still was not good enough to enable any serious results. By now, Gachot usually was able to prequalify his car, but the "main" qualification was still out of reach. So at the end of the season, Coloni did not take part in a single Grand Prix.

Coloni-Ford (1991)

Nevertheless, Enzo Coloni prepared once more for the 1991 season. The team consisted of 6 people (including Enzo Coloni) and everyone saw that this troop was absolutely uncompetitive. As was Coloni's car. It was another version of the C3 from 1989 which had seen some detail work from students of the University of Perugia (for Coloni Formula did not have an own engineering department at that time) and which now was called "C4". Enzo Coloni had hoped for Andrea de Cesaris as his first driver (and some sponsorship from Marlboro) but the furious man from Rome finally took his knowledge and his money to Jordan Grand Prix (which appeared to be a much better drive). So Coloni handed his single car to newcomer Pedro Matos Chaves from Portugal who had just won the British Formula 3000 series in 1990. In fact, it was not a very good combination. The car was out of date - without any doubt, it was the worst car in the grid - it was fragile and hard to handle, and Chaves did not know most of the tracks. As a result, Chaves never made the prequalification. As the season went by, the lack of money was obvious, and at the end of Summer the end of the team was a question of weeks. At Chaves' home Grand Prix, Coloni had only one single engine that blew up before the prequalifying session had even started so Chaves did not participate at all. Finally he quit the team. For the following race, Coloni was unable to find a new driver for nearly no one wanted to be involved in the hapless team. For the last two races, he employed Naoki Hattori: a Japanese driver with a very decent record in other formulae but with no experience in Formula One. The results did not improve.

By that time, Coloni had sold his team to Andrea Sassetti, who would change the name to Andrea Moda Formula for 1992 and thus begin the story of an even less successful team.

Complete Formula One Results

(key) (results in bold indicate pole position)

Year	Chassis	Engine(s)	Tyres	Driver(s)	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Points	WCC
1987	Coloni FC187	Ford DFZ V8	G		BRA	SMR	BEL	MON	USA	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	AUT	ITA	POR	ESP	MEX	JPN	AUS	0	NC
				Nicola Larini											DNQ		Ret
1988	Coloni FC188 Coloni FC188B	Ford DFZ V8	G		BRA	SMR	MON	MEX	CAN	USA	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	POR	ESP	JPN	AUS	0	NC
				Gabriele Tarquini	Ret	Ret	Ret	14	8	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	13	Ret	DNQ	11	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNQ
1989	Coloni FC188B Coloni FC189	Ford DFR V8	P		BRA	SMR	MON	MEX	USA	CAN	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	POR	ESP	JPN	AUS	0	NC
				Roberto Moreno	DNQ	DNQ	Ret	DNQ	DNQ	Ret	DNQ	Ret	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DSQ	Ret	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ
				Pierre-Henri Raphanel	DNPQ	DNPQ	Ret	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ
				Enrico Bertaggia											DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ
1990	Coloni FC189B Coloni FC189C	Subaru F12 V12 Ford DFR V8	G		USA	BRA	SMR	MON	CAN	MEX	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	POR	ESP	JPN	AUS	0	NC
				Bertrand Gachot	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ
1991	Coloni C4	Ford DFR V8	G		USA	BRA	SMR	MON	CAN	MEX	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	POR	ESP	JPN	AUS	0	NC
				Pedro Chaves	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ
				Naoki Hattori															DNPQ	DNPQ

Formula Three, Formula 3000 & GP2 (1992 - present)

Enzo Coloni continued participating in motorsport. After handing over his team to his son Paolo, he was the operative director of many motorsport activities of "Coloni Motorsport". The team made another start in Formula 3 before stepping ahead to Formula 3000. In 2002, the team's first victory was scored by Giorgio Pantano, and from 2003 on, Coloni Motorsport was one of the most professional teams in Formula 3000, temporarily running also a "junior" team after taking over Minardi's Formula 3000 team. Coloni Motorsport also took part in the new GP2 Series which saw the light of day in 2005. For 2006, Coloni merged his GP2 activities with Fisichella Motorsport, a young Italian team run by Formula 1 driver Giancarlo Fisichella that previously competed in the F3000 Euro Series and now took the opportunity to upgrade.

External links

• Coloni
• Enzo Coloni
• Coloni team profile on F1 Rejects