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 Bellasi.
Bellasi was an Italian car manufacturer that had entered the motorsport world, specifically Formula 3. The company supplied cars in the series from 1966 onward. The cars were competitive and had a lot of potential.
In 1970, a Swiss racing driver by the name of Silvio Moser asked Bellasi to design a Formula One for him. The car was created using some old parts from the Brabham BT24 chassis that Moser has purchased and raced the year prior and it was fitted with a V8 Cosworth engine.
The car was ready in time for the Dutch Grand Prix, Moser failed to qualify the car for the event, as was the case at the next round in France. The team skipped the British Grand Prix because the race didn’t pay a reward for just starting the race. The German Grand Prix was also an event that Moser failed to qualify for.
The car was on the grid for the Austrian Grand Prix, albeit in last place on the grid since all of the drivers automatically qualified for the race. The car lasted only 13 laps before breaking down. Moser’s final race of 1970 in Italia also saw him fail to qualify.
Moser took part in the 1971 Argentine Grand Prix, a non-championship race ahead of the 1971 season. Moser’s car ran for over 60 laps before finally dying. Moser only raced one for event with the car, which was the Italian Grand Prix in the closing stages of the 1971 season. All of the entered drivers were allowed to race, meaning that Moser was on the grid and wasn’t even last, having beat a Surtees and March. The happiness was short lived, as the car suffered a suspension failure after just five laps.
Moser withdrew from Formula One and moved back to Formula 2, in which he saw little success. Moser was killed during a sports car race in Italia in 1974. Although Bellasi cut their Formula One involvement, the company is still in business today producing automotive carbon fiber and composite materials.
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.
