Words by Dionysis Nanos
The 1992 F1 season definitely had many memorable moments, like Nigel Mansell becoming World Champion, beating runner-up and fellow Williams driver Ricardo Patrese by 50 points, and Michael Schumacher's first career win at that year's Belgian GP. But perhaps more memorable to fans of the sport is, for all the wrong reasons, the team of Andrea Moda Formula, famous for not only managing to qualify once during the entire season, but for also being the only team (so far) in F1 history to get banned. To start, Andrea Moda was born from the ashes of Scuderia Coloni, a team famous for uh... being a bit better than what Andrea Moda was. And that says a lot cause Coloni's best result in its 4 year run in F1 was Gabrielle Tarquini's 8th place at the 1988 Canadian GP. As you can imagine, if the best you can do in 4 years is 8th place then things are not exactly going well. But this is only the beginning…
Sometime in 1990, Coloni got bored of being the laughing stock of the paddock and decided to strike a deal with Fuji Heavy Industries, better known to you and me as Subaru, to not only supply them with engines, but to also buy 51% of the team clearing all of its debts in the process, creating what can very loosely be described as a Subaru F1 team. Sounds like a great deal right? Well it would have been one if the flat-12 Subaru made for Coloni wasn’t such a complete disaster, as not only was it ridiculously underpowered and heavy but it also had the added perk of being more unreliable than a cheating girlfriend. The Subaru fiasco ultimately signaled the end of Scuderia Coloni, with Enzo Coloni finally admitting defeat in 1991. But good news everyone! The team’s assets were bought by Italian businessman and general extraordinaire Andrea Sasseti, owner of Andrea Moda that made shoes for women. Oh and for added flavor Sasseti also had alleged ties with the Mafia. So far then we have a failed F1 team, with a deal with Subaru for some ungodly engines that has been bought by a Mafia connected Italian business boy. So far so Italian.
Andrea Sasseti with one-time Andrea Moda driver, Alex Caffi.
And that was the moment when F1’s biggest joke began. To start, Andrea Moda didn’t even have a car ready for the 1992 season, meaning Coloni’s ancient C4B chassis had to be used, fitted at least with a Judd V10 and not Subaru’s pile of flat-12 brownness, while Simtek would work on a new chassis for the team, which would be releassed sometime during the season. Well…. when I say “new” don’t get all excited. The chassis was a two year old design that was originally built for BMW’s proposed F1 team that never happened, but it needed to be updated and that would naturally take time. Somehow, a team consisting of a handful of ex-Coloni employees and two prehistoric cars, managed to get enough sponsors and also to secure its first two drivers. The first was Alex Caffi, an Italian hopeful that had great success in the Italian Formula 3 championship, and the second was Enrico Bertaggia, a driver that only managed to race cause of his wallet, since he didn't even manage to pre-qualify once in 1991. The South African GP was around the corner and expectations for this new team were at least respectable, but sadly that was the only time the words “respectable” and “Andrea Moda” were in the same sentence.
When the team arrived at the newly renovated Kyalami racetrack and after Alex Caffi gave the car its first shakedown before retiring with a defective battery, the FIA declared that Andrea Moda couldn't race cause they hadn't paid the $100000 deposit required for new teams. That made Italian Bond villain-hopeful Sasseti furious but eventually he accepted it. But now there was a different problem, cause since Andrea Moda was a "new" team it couldn't use Coloni's cars anymore. Simtek then had to rush development of the new chassis and after a gigantic effort the world finally saw Andrea Moda's pride and joy, the all new S921. So maybe this time at the Mexico GP things could be different? Not really.
See, the team traveled to Mexico but refused to race, citing "extenuating circumstances" which made the FIA’s relationship with Andrea Moda worse than a dead bedroom with a wife that rolls her eyes and says “No…ew”. That situation, understandably, made the drivers very angry. So what did our great team owner did? Did he reason with the drivers and got to work so the problems could be solved? Of course not are you mad? He fired both of them instantly because disagreeing with Andrea Sasseti isn’t so much a choice as it as a death wish. So now we have a team with a car that was…. surprisingly not terrible but with no actual drivers. Oh this just keeps getting better.
Roberto Moreno in the S921
Amazingly, Sasseti managed to find two new souls to sacrif…. Eh I mean to drive for his team. The first was Roberto Moreno, a great driver that somehow managed to always find himself in the worst cars on the grid (future article perhaps??), and the other was Perry McCarthy, who's known to you and me as The Stig. At Interlagos, McCarthy was unable to race due to problems with his Superlicense which meant that Moreno went at it alone, managing 23 seconds on the track before the car decided it had enough. Still it was at least a start and it showed that the team was actually real but from here on out things took a turn from “Oh that’s odd” to “There’s no possible way you can make that up”.
Remember Enrico Bertaggia? The paid driver that got the boot from our beloved team owner? Well he came knocking back again, and this time he came with a sweet gift of 1 million dollars in sponsorship money. Sasseti had it worked out. He would kick McCarthy out, sign Bertaggia and hello my sweet cash. But there was a problem. See the FIA, only allowed for two driver changes to take place during the season, which had already taken place at Andrea Moda, meaning Sasseti would lose valuable funds if he didn’t sing Bertaggia. So he hatched an ingenious plan. Since McCarthy couldn’t be fired he would have to quit, and when that would happen Bertaggia could come in as his replacement. From that moment on a relentless war on McCarthy started with the ultimate goal of running him out of the team. During the Spanish GP for example, when both cars stopped working, Sasseti gave the order for McCarthy’s fixed car to be used by Moreno, effectively leaving the Brit without a car! But then it was time for Monaco and here’s where the miracle happened.
In what is the greatest act of luck, Moreno managed to go through qualifying and into the actual race. Granted, he started from last place on the grid, but still it was a moment no one saw coming. In Monaco the dream finally materialized.. for 11 laps, after which the engine of Moreno's S921 decided the lights of fame shined too bright and stopped working. Still, it was a moment for the history books and also it was Andrea Moda's best result ever. If your best result is a DNF then you’re really up to something, but hey.. it was an improvement over not qualifying at all, and with the Canadian GP next maybe the miracle could be repeated.
In classic Andrea Moda fashion though, everything crumbled quicker than Lance Stroll’s already questionable image. Maybe it was bad luck, maybe stupidity (probably the latter as this is Andrea Moda we’re talking about) but while the chassis made it to Canada all safe and sound, the same couldn’t be said for the engines, as the Judd V10s got stuck at the airport. At the last minute, Brabham gave Andrea Moda two engines but even the borrowed power couldn’t seem to improve things.
The S921 just before the team got banned
While all this was going on, the war on McCarthy was still going on and finally the FIA had to step in, giving the team an ultimatum. Either McCarthy gets treated like… you know…. an actual driver or the team gets banned for the rest of the season. So what did Andrea Blofeld do after this? The next logical thing of course. Murder! Yes, at the Belgian GP McCarthy’s car was found to have a broken steering rack which apparently was fitted on orders from Sasseti himself in order for him to crash and die! That was as far as the FIA would go with Andrea Moda, and not long after that, Sasseti was arrested in Spa for forging invoices; an arrest that led to the final ban of Andrea Moda. The team did go to Italy and Monza for the next round but wasn’t allowed on the paddock, marking the end of the team for good.
What did we learn then? Andrea Sasseti is the worst team owner to ever pass from the great sport of Formula 1. Also buying the remains of a failing team when you yourself is struggling isn’t really the smartest idea out there. But the fact Andrea Moda is still talked about almost thirty years after it’s debut and folding goes to show that a good joke has no age…