Andrea Moda S921

**Andrea Moda S921**
	S921 in the livery of the 1992 Monaco Grand Prix
Constructor:	Andrea Moda Formula
Designer:	Nick Wirth
Predecessor:	Coloni C4B
Technical specifications
Engine:	Judd GV V10 (770 hp)
Wheelbase:	2850 mm
Weight:	525 kg - 550 kg (depending on the source)
Tires:	Goodyear
statistics
Driver:	34. Roberto Moreno 35. Perry McCarthy ;
First start:	1992 Monaco Grand Prix
Last start:	1992 Monaco Grand Prix
World Cup points:	-
Podiums:	-
Leadership laps:	-

The Andrea Moda S921 (according to some sources: S192 ) was a Formula 1 racing car of the Italian motorsport team Andrea Moda Formula , which was entered for nine races in the 1992 season . The 921 was originally developed for BMW . It is considered the weakest racing car of the 1992 season. Its use was associated with problems and scandals. Only once did a driver qualify the S921 to participate in the race, where it then retired on the eleventh lap.

background

The Ancona- based Andrea Moda Formula team had its roots in the Umbrian racing team Coloni Racing , which had participated in 14 Formula 1 races from 1987 to 1991 . After Coloni had missed the qualification at every world championship run in 1990 and 1991, the team founder Enzo Coloni had to sell his unsuccessful and "financially weak" racing team in autumn 1991. The buyer was the Italian shoe manufacturer Andrea Sassetti , who had no experience in motorsport. Sassetti had the two and a half year old Coloni C4 equipped with a Judd engine and a Dallara rear axle and wanted to take part in the 1992 World Championship with this construction, known as the Coloni C4B . Since Sassetti had not taken over the starting authorization of the Coloni team, the FIA did not see Andrea Moda as Coloni’s successor, but as a new team. She then asked Sassetti to make the necessary security deposit for new teams and to use a car that - unlike the C4B - had not previously been used by another team. When Sassetti did not comply with this requirement, Andrea Moda was excluded from participating in the world championship before the first race of the season. Some observers suspect that this decision was due to Bernie Ecclestone , who had been trying to remove weakly structured teams from Formula 1 for several years. In the following weeks, Sassetti agreed with the FIA that his team could again participate in the world championship; The prerequisite, however, was the use of a new car. The absence of the team in South Africa was qualified as force majeure, so that it had no consequences for Andrea Moda.

Andrea Moda's new car was the S921. The car was designed in Great Britain in 1990 on behalf of BMW by the motorsport supplier Simtek , who participated in Formula 1 with its own racing team from 1994 . In 1990, BMW considered entering Formula 1 at the factory; The car designed by Simtek was to serve as the first step in getting to know the Formula 1 environment better. In the following year, BMW ultimately decided against Formula 1. The two cars constructed in 1990 initially remained with Simtek. Max Mosley , who had been FIA President from 1991 and was also one of the co-owners of Simtek, established contact between Simtek and Andrea Moda in March 1992. On the one hand, this provided Andrea Moda with a new chassis; on the other hand, a two-year-old Simtek construction could be profitably used a second time.

In March 1992, the Simtek car was makeshiftly adapted to Sassetti's engine and transmission technology. The car was presented to the public as the Andrea Moda S921 at the beginning of April 1992.

construction

The responsible designer of the Andrea Moda S921 was the British engineer Nick Wirth , next to Mosley one of the owners of Simtek. In the course of the year, Paul Burgess as technical director and Riccardo Rosa and Silvio Romero as mechanics looked after the cars. Burgess, who is sometimes referred to as the designer of the car, later distanced himself from the S921: he only gave a few tips here and there to make the car better.

The S921 is a simple, conventional design with no special features. The front and rear suspension consisted of double wishbones . The S921 did not have an active chassis, as has been used by the larger teams for some time. The body of the S921 reminded observers "more of a car from 1990 than one from 1992". Ten-cylinder engines from Judd (type GV) served as the drive. They were used copies that had been used by Scuderia Italia the year before . The output of the 3.5-liter V10 engine is given as 770 hp. The power transmission took place via a manually shifted six-speed gearbox, which is referred to in most sources as Andrea Moda's own design; however, there are some assumptions that it was actually the Scuderia Italia gearbox from last year. The vehicle weight is put at 525 kg or 550 kg, depending on the source.

Scope of production

Two copies of the S921 were made. The initial intention to build a third vehicle was abandoned early for cost reasons. The first vehicle (S921 / 1) was finished in Brazil , the second (S921 / 2) was built shortly before the Spanish Grand Prix . At no time were both cars operational at the same time. The team did not have enough parts over the course of the season to make the S921 / 1 and S921 / 2 race-ready at the same time. In fact, the S921 / 2 mostly served as a reserve vehicle and parts carrier for the S921 / 1. Before the S921 / 2 was sent out, the mechanics had to remove various components from the S921 / 1 and install them in the S921 / 2. In one case this concerned the steering column, in another case parts of the wheel suspension. At times the S921 / 2 was equipped with parts that had been sorted out due to a defect in the S921 / 1.

driver

As with the previous Coloni C4B model, Enrico Bertaggia and Alex Caffi were initially planned as drivers . Both appeared at the Mexican Grand Prix at the end of March 1992. Since the two S921s were not yet ready for use at the time, Andrea Sassetti withdrew his team's report. After Bertaggia and Caffi had publicly expressed their dissatisfaction with the development of the team several times, they were fired. Sassetti replaced them for the following races by Roberto Moreno and the British debutant Perry McCarthy , who only received the super license for the Spanish Grand Prix . In the following years, Sassetti tried to report Enrico Bertaggia in McCarthy's place, who had meanwhile found new sponsors. However, since Andrea Moda had already made the maximum number of driver changes, FISA did not allow another change. McCarthy then became the team's unloved child. Sassetti consistently disadvantaged him in the following period, so that McCarthy hardly got to drive. His role was reminiscent of Claudio Langes' at EuroBrun 1990 .

Moreno received the S921 / 1, while the mostly non-racing S921 / 2 was reported for McCarthy.

Races

Contested the only Formula 1 race of the S921: Roberto Moreno

Often prevented from driving: Perry McCarthy

The Andrea Moda S921 was entered for nine races in the 1992 Formula 1 season. Formally, Andrea Moda was a team that started with two cars; in fact, mostly only one car was used seriously. The second vehicle was often not in race-ready condition and, similar to what EuroBrun had done in the 1990 season, only turned individual slow laps in most races in order to meet the requirements of a two-car team.

The debut of the Andrea Moda S921 has been announced for the Mexican Grand Prix. The team and some parts of the car were present in Mexico, but individual components were missing so the cars could not be assembled. Sassetti then withdrew the message for the Mexico race.

Ultimately, the S921 made its debut at the Brazilian Grand Prix. Only Moreno's S921 / 1 was ready for use here. He only drove in the pre-qualification. On his fastest lap he was almost 50 km / h slower than Nigel Mansell , who took pole position in the Williams FW14B . Moreno missed pre-qualification by 15 seconds.

In the subsequent race in Spain, neither Moreno nor McCarthy covered a full lap in the pre-qualification: the engine of Moreno's car suffered a defect on the first lap. McCarthy should then complete three slow laps in his car (S921 / 2) before handing the car over to Moreno. That didn't happen: McCarthy's engine exploded immediately after leaving the pit lane. McCarthy commented on his first experiences with the S921 with sarcasm: "The car is understeer!"

In San Marino the S921 was more competitive: Moreno only missed the pre-qualification by a tenth of a second. McCarthy drove seven or eight laps in the second S921, depending on the source, but was nearly nine seconds slower than Moreno.

In the subsequent race in Monaco , Roberto Moreno achieved the only qualification in the history of his team. In the pre-qualification, he reached the third fastest lap time with 1: 27.186 minutes, leaving Andrea Chiesa in the fund metal GR01 and Ukyō Katayama in the Venturi behind. In qualifying he was 0.02 seconds faster than Eric van de Poele and 0.5 seconds faster than Damon Hill, who both drove an identically motorized Brabham . With this advantage Moreno qualified for the 26th and last place on the grid. Moreno remained last in the race, but was already in 19th place on lap ten after the retirement of drivers who were placed in front. In the eleventh lap, Moreno retired with an engine failure. Perry McCarthy was only allowed to do three individual, untimed laps in the pre-qualification; then he had to park his car in the pits on the instructions of the sporting director Frédéric Dhainhaut in order to have it available as a replacement car for Moreno. McCarthy's brief appearance in Monaco is often seen in the literature as a mere "alibi".

At the Canadian Grand Prix , Andrea Moda initially had no engines available. Allegedly, the box with the Judd engines was not loaded on the correct aircraft due to a mistake by British Airways and had remained in the UK. Other voices suggested that engine supplier John Judd had deliberately withheld the cargo because of unpaid bills. Andrea Sassetti finally borrowed an engine of the same design from the Brabham team in Montréal , which he had installed in Moreno's car. McCarthy's report was withdrawn on the grounds of force majeure. The Andrea Moda team did not appear for the following race in France : In July 1992, the French motorways were temporarily blocked by a truck driver's strike. All teams were able to bypass the barriers, only the Andrea Modas truck got stuck and did not reach the Magny-Cours circuit in time. As a result, all of Andrea Moda's sponsors withdrew.

In Great Britain , Moreno missed pre-qualification by two seconds; He was four seconds short of the last starting position. McCarthy was sent out on the dry track at Silverstone with old rain tires. He only completed two laps. The best time he achieved with it was 16 seconds longer than Moreno's.

At the German Grand Prix , Moreno was three seconds slower than the last qualifier. McCarthy received permission from the team management to complete one lap in the pre-qualification. When he returned to the pit lane, he accidentally skipped the weight check and was disqualified.

Since the Brabham team in Hungary, which was also subject to pre-qualification, only showed up with one car for financial reasons, only five drivers competed in pre-qualification, of which the fastest four were eligible to participate in qualifying. For the second time this year, Moreno passed the pre-qualification. However, he missed qualifying by 2.3 seconds in qualifying. McCarthy was only allowed onto the track for the first time 45 seconds before the end of the pre-qualification; with that he had no chance of completing a timed lap. The FIA then called on Andrea Moda to "make serious efforts to qualify for the race" for both vehicles at the upcoming race in Belgium ; in the event of non-compliance, an exclusion from further world championship races has been promised.

In Belgium, after the Brabham team had withdrawn completely from Formula 1, the pre-qualification requirement no longer applies; both Andrea Moda pilots were automatically admitted to qualifying. In Friday practice, Moreno and McCarthy were the slowest drivers. Moreno was 14.5 seconds short of Nigel Mansell's pole time, McCarthy was ten seconds slower. The reason for this was an insufficiently fastened steering column. The mechanics knew the mistake before McCarthy hit the track. On Saturday night, Sassetti was arrested by the Belgian police in the paddock and spent one night in prison. The occasion was a complaint by a customer that Sassetti had paid him with a check that was not covered. FISA took this process as an opportunity to immediately exclude Andrea Moda Formula from the Formula 1 World Championship. The reason given was that the team's behavior was likely to damage the reputation of Formula 1.

Whereabouts of the cars

A source claims that both S921s are still in Andrea Sassetti's possession. According to other sources, one car is in a Milan collection, while the second is kept by Sassetti and occasionally driven by himself on the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli . A copy of the S921 was moved in 2016 and 2017 at the "ADAC Salzburgring Classic - Sound of Speed" event, but there it was painted in the paint of a contemporary Williams . The driver is from Austria, but ownership is unclear.

Conceptual successor

Conceptually closely related to the Andrea Moda S921: The Simtek S941 from 1994

In the late summer of 1992, Nick Wirth developed a racing car for the newly founded Spanish team Bravo España . The Bravo S931 is widely viewed as a revised version of the Andrea Moda S921. The Bravo was not completed because the team withdrew its report after the unexpected death of a manager in early 1993. Wirth finally realized the Simtek S941 , which was used in the 1994 Formula 1 season and was technically closely related to the Bravo S931 and the Andrea Moda S921. Roland Ratzenberger died in this car at the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix .

Race results

Andrea Moda S921 Judd GV V10

driver	No.	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	9	10	11	12	Points	rank
1992 Formula 1 season												0	-
Italy A. Caffi	34	DNS
Brazil R. Moreno	34		DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNF	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNQ	DNQ
Italy E. Bertaggia	35	DNS
United Kingdom P. McCarthy	35			DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ		DNPQ	DSQ	DNPQ	DNQ

Legend
colour	abbreviation	meaning
gold	-	victory
silver	-	2nd place
bronze	-	3rd place
green	-	Placement in the points
blue	-	Classified outside the point ranks
violet	DNF	Race not finished (did not finish)
violet	NC	not classified
red	DNQ	did not qualify
red	DNPQ	failed in pre-qualification (did not pre-qualify)
black	DSQ	disqualified
White	DNS	not at the start (did not start)
White	WD	withdrawn
Light Blue	PO	only participated in the training (practiced only)
Light Blue	TD	Friday test driver
without	DNP	did not participate in the training (did not practice)
	INJ	injured or sick
	EX	excluded
	DNA	did not arrive
	C.	Race canceled
		no participation in the World Cup
other	^P / bold	Pole position
	_SR / italic	Fastest race lap
	*	not at the finish, but counted due to the distance covered
	()	Streak results
	underlined	Leader in the overall standings

literature

Adriano Cimarosti: The century of racing , Motorbuch Verlag Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-613-01848-9
Alan Henry: Autocourse 1992/93 London 1992 (Hazleton Securities Ltd.), ISBN 0-905138-96-1 .
David Hodges: A – Z of Grand Prix Cars 1906–2001 , 2001 (Crowood Press), ISBN 1-86126-339-2 (English)
David Hodges: Racing Cars from A – Z after 1945 , Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-613-01477-7

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c David Hodges: Racing cars from A – Z after 1945 , Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-613-01477-7 , p. 16.

↑ ^a ^b Adriano Cimarosti: The century of racing , motor book publisher Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-613-01848-9

^ David Hodges: Rennwagen from A – Z after 1945 , Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-613-01477-7 , p. 58.

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Story of Andrea Moda Formula on the website www.f1rejects.com (accessed on May 27, 2014).

↑ ^a ^b Patrice Buchkalter, Jean Francois Galeron: Formula 1 - a complete guide to 1992 , Surrèsnes (Taillandrier) 1992, ISBN 2-87636-107-8 , p. 120.

↑ History of the Formula 1 team Simtek on the website www.f1rejects.com ( Memento of the original from October 25, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on May 27, 2014). @1@ 2

↑ ^a ^b ^c Alan Henry: Autocourse 1992/93 London 1992 (Hazleton Securities Ltd.), ISBN 0-905138-96-1 , p. 88.

↑ David Hodges: A – Z of Grand Prix Cars 1906–2001 , 2001 (Crowood Press), ISBN 1-86126-339-2 , p. 18.

↑ ^a ^b ^c N.N .: Racing vehicles 2017 - photos and brief information from the participants in the ADAC Salzburgring Classic. In: www.salzburgringclassic.de. August 24, 2017. Retrieved March 27, 2019 .

^ Biography of Perry McCarthy on the website www.f1rejects.com (accessed May 27, 2014).

^ Alan Henry: Autocourse 1992/93 London 1992 (Hazleton Securities Ltd.), ISBN 0-905138-96-1 , p. 128.

^ Alan Henry: Autocourse 1992/93 London 1992 (Hazleton Securities Ltd.), ISBN 0-905138-96-1 , p. 138.

^ ^A ^b Alan Henry: Autocourse 1992/93 London 1992 (Hazleton Securities Ltd.), ISBN 0-905138-96-1 , p. 147.

↑ Motorsport Aktuell, issue 25/1992.

^ Alan Henry: Autocourse 1992/93 London 1992 (Hazleton Securities Ltd.), ISBN 0-905138-96-1 , p. 171.

^ Alan Henry: Autocourse 1992/93 London 1992 (Hazleton Securities Ltd.), ISBN 0-905138-96-1 , p. 177.

^ Alan Henry: Autocourse 1992/93 London 1992 (Hazleton Securities Ltd.), ISBN 0-905138-96-1 , p. 187.

^ Alan Henry: Autocourse 1992/93 London 1992 (Hazleton Securities Ltd.), ISBN 0-905138-96-1 , p. 198.

^ Short biography of Andrea Sassetti on the website www.oldracingcars.com (accessed on May 28, 2014).

↑ Interview with Andrea Sassetti from 2012 (accessed on June 2, 2014).

↑ NN: PDF of the entry list for the ADAC Salzburgring Classic 2017. In: https://salzburgringclassic.de/ . Retrieved March 27, 2018 .

↑ Florian Güthner: ADAC Salzburgring Classic 2016 - start group 5 - video dailymotion. August 27, 2016, accessed March 27, 2019 .

[Hodges_D-1] David Hodges: Racing cars from A – Z after 1945 , Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-613-01477-7 , p. 16.

[Cimarosti-2] Adriano Cimarosti: The century of racing , motor book publisher Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-613-01848-9

[Hodges_D_Coloni-3] David Hodges: Rennwagen from A – Z after 1945 , Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-613-01477-7 , p. 58.

[rejects-4] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Story of Andrea Moda Formula on the website www.f1rejects.com (accessed on May 27, 2014).

[Burchkalter-5] Patrice Buchkalter, Jean Francois Galeron: Formula 1 - a complete guide to 1992 , Surrèsnes (Taillandrier) 1992, ISBN 2-87636-107-8 , p. 120.