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 Scuderia Coloni.
Scuderia Coloni was an Italian Formula One team and, with a total of 65 race entries spanning five seasons, they are the team with the most race entries without scoring a point. The team was founded by Enzo Coloni in 1983, starting in Formula Three and Formula 3000. Coloni had an interest in entering in Formula One, but it was too expensive at the time. However, when the FIA announced that they would be banned turbochargers on the engines from 1989 onward, Coloni saw this as a chance to join the sport when it was more affordable.
The Coloni car first appeared near the end of the 1987 season in Italy. The car was paired with a Ford Cosworth engine and the chassis was designed by a former Dallara employee. Coloni himself had performed some tests in the car, but decided that Nicola Larini would be the best driver for the car. Larini wasn’t able to qualify the car for the event. However, he made his Formula One debut at the Spanish Grand Prix although an early suspension failure cut his race short. Since the 1987 season was just a test season for the team, they opted not to waste money shipping the car to the final three overseas races.
Minor changes were made to the chassis and the team made a single full time entry into the 1988 season, hiring Gabrieli Tarquini to drive. The car looked promising in qualifying, but a series of mechanical issues cut the first three races of the season short for the team. Tarquini races to P8 at the Canadian Grand Prix, earning what would be the team’s best result in Formula One. Performance of the car dipped after Canada and the team had issues pre-qualifying the car. Restricted funds prevented the team from performing much development work on the car. Of the remaining eleven races in the season, the team only qualified for three. Despite not scoring any points in the season, the team finished ahead of Ligier, Osella, EuroBrun and Zakspeed in the World Constructors’ title.
Team finances were looking bad, but the team still entered two cars into the 1989 season. The team continued using the car from 1988, but since the car was so much slower, the team only qualified for the Monaco Grand Prix, only to have their drivers Roberto Moreno and Pierre-Henri Raphanel park up with gearbox issues.
In Canada, the team revealed their new car, the Coloni C3. Only Moreno was able to qualify for the car’s debut event, but he suffered a late mechanical failure in the race. The British Grand Prix also saw the single qualification of Moreno, but this time an early gearbox issue. With more failures to qualify, the team staff started to leave the team and Coloni was forced to take over many of the engineering roles himself. Having only qualified for Monaco, Raphanel left the team to take a drive with Rial Racing after the Hungarian Grand Prix. He was replaced by Enrico Bertaggia, who was also unable qualify the car. Moreno qualified the car at the Portuguese Grand Prix, in what would be the team’s final race start. In warmup, he collided with another driver and needed to use the spare car, which didn’t make it through the race distance.
The future of the team was looking grim, but in an unexpected turn of events, Subaru gained interest in the team. The company took over a controlling stake in the team, agreed to pay off all of the team’s debt and provide a free engine supply for the car. Work on the engine was delayed and the car was assembled for the first time in the garage at the opening race of the season in the United States. Having never tested the engine, the team shipped the car to a parking lot at a supermarket to perform a brief testing session with the new engine.
The engine underperformed and the car was overweight. The team’s driver Bertrand Gachot wasn’t able to pre-qualify the car for the any of the races. In May, Coloni was fired from the team. A month later, Subaru bailed on the team, selling the team back to Coloni. Although Subaru had paid off all of the team, the team had no sponsors and no engines.
Coloni arrange a deal to have Ford Cosworth engines, but the car was still a mess. Minor aerodynamic changes were made to the car, which improved performance enough to get the car into qualifying, but it was not enough to actually get the car onto the grid.
The team staff had completely disappeared by the time the 1991 season rolled around, consisting of just six employees. A new chassis was designed with some assistance from engineering students at the University of Perugia. Coloni attempted to secure the team’s future by signing Andrea de Cesaris, who had a sponsorship from Marlboro. However, he took a position at Jordan instead and Coloni had to settle with rookie Pedro Chaves.
The car was hard to drive and Chaves lack of Formula One experience and knowledge didn’t help the situation at all. Seeing no future with the team, Chaves quit the team after his home race in Portugal. The car was not shipped to the Spanish Grand Prix because Coloni wasn’t able to find a new driver. He eventually found Naoki Hattori for the final two races of the season.
Coloni sold the team to Andrea Sassetti, who converted it into Andrea Moda Formula for the following season, but the team was a joke and eventually was banned from Formula One.
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.
