Founded in 1983 by former driver Enzo Coloni, the team won Italian Formula 3 titles, spent five hard Formula One seasons and later raced through Formula 3000 and GP2.
Scuderia Coloni began in 1983 as an Italian Formula Three team founded by Enzo Coloni. It went on to Formula One from 1987 to 1991, where it made 82 entry attempts and qualified 14 times, and later raced in Formula 3000 and GP2.
Coloni Motorsport, also known as Scuderia Coloni, was an Italian auto racing team. It was founded in 1983 by former racing driver Enzo Coloni and raced in Formula Three before moving into Formula One from 1987 to 1991, where it made 82 attempts to take part in a race and qualified 14 times.
What was Scuderia Coloni?
The team was set up in 1983 at Passignano sul Trasimeno by Enzo Coloni, a Perugia-born driver. His aggressive style earned him the nickname Il lupo, and the wolf later appeared on the company's logo. After the team's Formula One years, it was run by Enzo's son Paolo and became a steady presence in junior series.
Between 2006 and 2009 the team ran as Fisichella Motor Sport, backed by the Formula One driver Giancarlo Fisichella and his manager Enrico Zanarini. It later returned under its own name, Scuderia Coloni, in 2010.
An Italian team that won junior titles, made 82 Formula One attempts and kept racing through three decades of feeder series.
How did Enzo Coloni start in racing?
Enzo Coloni competed in Italian Formula 3 and European Formula Two in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In 1982 he decided to race with his own Formula Three team, and the team proved very successful from the start.
Coloni's team won the Italian Formula 3 drivers' title three times in a row, with Enzo Coloni in 1982, Ivan Capelli in 1983 and Alessandro Santin in 1984. Enzo retired from active racing at the end of 1982 to manage the team, and it was then the team to beat.
In 1986 Nicola Larini took the Italian title once more, and he shared a Formula 3000 March 85B with Gabriele Tarquini. Tarquini ended tenth overall, and his best finish was third in Austria.
Why did Coloni enter Formula One in 1987?
When the FIA announced that turbos would be banned from Formula One from 1989, which would make the sport more affordable, Coloni saw an opportunity to enter the category. The team progressed to Formula One in 1987, and its first appearance came at the Italian Grand Prix in September that year, where it failed to qualify.
The yellow FC187 was designed by Roberto Ori, a former Dallara apprentice, and it used a Novamotor-prepared Cosworth DFZ. Coloni carried out the shake-down drive himself, and Nicola Larini was signed as the sole driver. Larini's car made its first start at the 1987 Spanish Grand Prix but did not finish, and the team did not fly to the overseas races at the end of the year.
The team finished 16th and last in the constructors' championship, the only team without a finish that season.
What were the 1988 and 1989 seasons like?
The 1988 season was the team's first full season and started well. Gabriele Tarquini qualified regularly and finished eighth at the Canadian Grand Prix, which was Coloni's best result in Formula One. Shortage of funds left little development work, and the team scored no points, finishing 15th ahead of Osella, EuroBrun and Zakspeed.
In 1989 Coloni ran two cars for Roberto Moreno and the French newcomer Pierre-Henri Raphanel. The FC188B was a further update of the 1987 machine, awkward to drive and roughly 20 km/h off the pace. Both drivers qualified for the Monaco Grand Prix, which was the only race in which the team took part early in the season.
A new car, the Coloni C3, arrived in Canada, designed by the former AGS engineer Christian Vanderpleyn. It was a basically good design, but the team struggled with a lack of testing. Moreno qualified on several occasions, and the Portuguese Grand Prix proved to be the last qualification for a Coloni car that year. After Vanderpleyn left in September, Enzo Coloni took over the engineer's job himself, without any improvement. Enrico Bertaggia replaced Raphanel for the last races, and the team finished equal 18th and last with Zakspeed.
How did the Subaru deal affect the team?
That year Coloni agreed a partnership with Subaru, the car arm of Fuji Heavy Industries. Subaru took over 51% of the team and supplied a new flat-12 engine designed by Carlo Chiti, with Enzo Coloni remaining in charge of operations. Early on, the engine was not producing more than 500 bhp.
The car was assembled for the first time in the pits at Phoenix, and a short shakedown took place in the car park of an American supermarket. It had no airbox, wide and long sidepods, and it was about 300 pounds (140 kg) overweight. Bertrand Gachot, the new driver, could not prequalify it at Phoenix or elsewhere, though he later described the C3 as the most fun car he drove in Formula One.
In May Subaru removed Enzo Coloni from his sporting role. When results did not improve, Subaru withdrew from the partnership and sold the team back to him, debt free but without sponsors or engines. By the German Grand Prix Coloni had arranged Ford-Cosworth engines, and the C3C, a 1989 car with minor aerodynamic changes, was quicker but not quick enough. At the end of the season the team had not qualified for a single Grand Prix.
What happened in the final Formula One season?
For 1991 the team had only six people, and it entered just one car for the entire season, the last time a Formula One team did so. The car was another version of the C3, now called the C4, with detail work from students of the University of Perugia.
Enzo Coloni had hoped to sign Andrea de Cesaris, but De Cesaris chose Jordan Grand Prix. The car went to Pedro Chaves, who had just won the British Formula 3000 series in 1990. The car was outdated and fragile, and Chaves never escaped prequalification. He quit after the Portuguese Grand Prix.
For the last two races Coloni employed Naoki Hattori, a Japanese driver with a good record in other formulae but no Formula One experience. Coloni then sold the team to Andrea Sassetti, who renamed it Andrea Moda Formula for 1992. Earlier in the year, Coloni could not find a new driver for one race, a sign of how far the operation had shrunk.
How did the team fare in Formula Three and Formula 3000?
The team had another stint in Formula Three. Paolo Coloni drove for it in the Italian Championship from 1991 to 1993, with the team's name now carried by the next generation. and he finished second in the 1993 Masters of Formula 3. That result was a high point for the family after the Formula One years. After Paolo left the Italian series, the team continued until the end of 1996 with Esteban Tuero and Dino Morelli.
Coloni then switched to International Formula 3000 in 1997. It had a breakthrough year in 2002, when Giorgio Pantano finished as runner-up and Enrico Toccacelo was ninth, with three wins between them. Ricardo Sperafico was series runner-up in 2003, and Zsolt Baumgartner made his Formula One debut for Jordan at the 2003 Hungarian Grand Prix while still with Coloni.
What did the GP2 and Fisichella years bring?
The team continued in the feeder series that was rebranded as GP2 in 2005. Mathias Lauda and Gianmaria Bruni started the season, and Toni Vilander and Ferdinando Monfardini raced Bruni's car after he left with three rounds left.
Fisichella's arrival linked the team to a Formula One driver again, after the Coloni years. At the end of 2005 Giancarlo Fisichella joined the team, which officially competed as Fisichella Motor Sport in 2006 to 2009. In 2010 the team came back under its own name, Scuderia Coloni, in silver cars with black and red accents.
The 2010 drivers were Alberto Valerio and Vladimir Arabadzhiev, with Brendon Hartley taking over for the last two races, at Monza and Abu Dhabi. Coloni scored 18 points that year and finished tenth in the team rankings.
In 2011 Michael Herck and Davide Rigon drove first. Rigon broke his fibula after a collision with Julian Leal in Istanbul and was replaced by the 17-year-old Kevin Ceccon. The Italian veteran Luca Filippi then replaced Ceccon, won the Nurburgring main race on his first outing for the team, and finished runner-up to Romain Grosjean with 44 points.
At Silverstone in 2012 the series and the team revealed that Coloni would quit GP2 once the season ended. It forfeited all of its points, with no further explanation given. Coloni then appeared in Auto GP in 2015 under the Paolo Coloni Racing name. Swiss driver Christof von Grunigen, from Ex-Zele Racing, was signed, and the Italian Loris Spinelli later joined him.
What are the key results?
| Series | Result | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Italian Formula 3 | Drivers' title, Enzo Coloni | 1982 |
| Italian Formula 3 | Drivers' title, Ivan Capelli | 1983 |
| Italian Formula 3 | Drivers' title, Alessandro Santin | 1984 |
| Italian Formula 3 | Drivers' title, Nicola Larini | 1986 |
| Formula One | Best result, 8th for Gabriele Tarquini, Canadian Grand Prix | 1988 |
| Formula One | Last qualification, Roberto Moreno at Portugal | 1989 |
| International Formula 3000 | Runner-up, Giorgio Pantano | 2002 |
| International Formula 3000 | Runner-up, Ricardo Sperafico | 2003 |
| GP2 Series | Seventh in the team rankings, Luca Filippi runner-up | 2011 |
What is the legacy of Scuderia Coloni?
Coloni's legacy is a team that carried a driver's energy from Italian Formula 3 titles through five difficult Formula One seasons and into a long junior programme. The 82 attempts and 14 qualifications sum up the struggle, but the junior record is just as much part of the story. Its 82 attempts remain a striking figure for a family-run team.
The team's shifts from its own name to Fisichella Motor Sport and back again show how a small outfit adapted to backers and rules. Its Subaru episode shows how a manufacturer's involvement could rise and fall within a single season. Its later GP2 and F3000 years kept Coloni on the feeder ladder long after its Formula One chapter closed.
