It’s that time of the week again: time for us to look at the past teams that made an exit from the sport of Formula One, having scored no points. This week, we remember Andrea Moda.
Andrea Moda was a team that held the same the name as the Italian owner’s, Andrea Sassetti, shoe company. Sassetti had purchased the Coloni F1 team at the end of the 1991 season after it failed to pre-qualify for any of the races in the season.
The new chassis was not ready for the start of the 1992 season, so a modified version of the Coloni chassis was shipped to South Africa. Alex Caffi had completed some laps on Thursday to familiarize himself with the circuit, but the team was not permitted to take part in the weekend because they had not paid the fee required for new teams. Sassetti believed that he should not have to pay the fee because he was not a new team and had instead purchased an existing team, but he was not able to convince the FIA.
The team equipment was shipped to Mexico for the Grand Prix, but the cars were not ready and the team did not take part in the event. This angered drivers Alex Caffi and Enrico Bertaggia, prompting their exit from the team. Roberto Moreno and Perry McCarthy took their seats. Moreno tried to pre-qualify for his home Grand Prix, but was the slowest car and failed to pre-qualify. McCarthy was entered into the race, but failed to obtain the required Super License.
Neither car was able to pre-qualify for the Spanish Grand Prix. Shortly after, Bertaggia approached the team with a sizable sponsorship deal to replace McCarthy, having failed to find a seat on another team. However, the team had already used its limit of driver changes for the season and was not permitted to make the swap. At this point, all of the team’s resources with targeted towards Moreno and McCarthy was largely ignored on the team.
The team made some progress, as Moreno managed to qualify for the Monaco Grand Prix, while McCarthy did not set a lap time for pre-qualifying. After 11 laps, Moreno’s race came to a grinding halt with an engine failure. Sassetti failed to pay the engine supplier Judd and the team was therefore without engines for the Canadian Grand Prix. Sassetti borrowed an engine from Brabham, allowing Moreno to attempt to qualify for the event, while McCarthy was sidelined.
A blockade by French truck drivers left the team’s equipment stranded and the team did not arrive at the French Grand Prix. At this point, many of the team personnel and sponsors had abandoned the team, leaving Sassetti to fund the team on his own. Moreno failed to qualify for the British Grand Prix, while McCarthy was given wet weather tyres to save costs despite the circuit being dry. Moreno was the only car not to pre-qualify for the German Grand Prix, while McCarthy sat out again.
McCarthy was given no time to complete a lap in the Hungarian Grand Prix, while Moreno passed pre-qualifying but failed to qualify for the race. Brabham’s exit from Formula One eliminated the need for pre-qualifying. The team was told that if they didn’t run both drivers they would not be allowed to take part in the sport anymore. Neither driver qualified for the event and McCarthy had been set out with a mechanical failure which the team personnel had already been aware of.
Sassetti was later arrested for financial fraud and the team was banned by the FIA, ending the team’s history after only one race start and no race finishes.
Points are a difficult thing to obtain in Formula One. In this weekly series, we will look back the past teams who gave it their all, but fell short.
Points are a difficult thing to obtain in Formula One. In this weekly series, we will look back the past teams who gave it their all, but fell short.
