Enrico Bertaggia

Enrico Bertaggia (born September 19, 1964 in Noale ) is a former Italian racing car driver who competed in Formula 3 and Formula 3000 races in the 1980s and 1990s . Attempts to qualify for a Formula 1 race were unsuccessful. Bertaggia is considered the only pilot who achieved the slowest qualifying time in all qualification attempts in Formula 1. In the 1990s, Bertaggia mainly drove sports car races.

Successes in smaller racing series

After a few years in karting , Bertaggia took part in the Italian Formula 3 championship between 1985 and 1987. In 1985 he drove for Team Erre 3, 1986 for Venturini Racing and 1987 for Forti Corse . In the third year he won the Italian Formula 3 championship for Forti.

In 1988 Bertaggia moved to Forti's Formula 3000 team. Here he drove a Dallara 3087 , which had already been used by Euroventurini the previous year and which the BMS Scuderia Italia team had registered for a Formula 1 race on the occasion of the 1988 Brazilian Grand Prix . In eleven attempts, Bertaggia qualified five times with the car, which was viewed as problematic, but only crossed the finish line twice (outside the points in each case).

In 1989 Bertaggia signed up for the first race of the season for the Lola Motorsport team, which fielded a March 89B with a Judd engine. Bertaggia failed to qualify. For the three subsequent races, he switched to Team Cowman Racing, for which he drove a Lola T89 / 50 with a Cosworth engine. He qualified only once - for the race in Jerez -; here he finished 19th. After this race, Bertaggia gave up his attempts to gain a foothold in Formula 3000 and was temporarily involved in Formula 1. After these efforts had failed, Bertaggia drove regularly in 1990 and 1991 races in the Japanese Formula 3000 championship.

formula 1

Coloni

In September 1989 Bertaggia received a Formula 1 cockpit at the Italian racing team Coloni . The small team from Umbria suffered from economic difficulties throughout the 1989 Formula 1 season and was about to close after the summer races. Bertaggia was able to buy into the team with a sponsorship package and replaced the French Pierre-Henri Raphanel for the last six races of the year . During his first assignment for Coloni, he did not succeed in completing a timed lap with the new and barely tested Coloni C3 ; at the five other Grand Prix he was by far the last in the pre-qualification and therefore did not take part in any Formula 1 races.

Andrea Moda Formula

At the beginning of the 1992 Formula 1 season , Bertaggia and Alex Caffi were reported by the Italian Andrea Moda Formula team, which in some respects was to be regarded as Coloni's successor. Andrea Moda registered a Coloni C4B , a vehicle that was a combination of the Coloni C4 and the Dallara 191 , for the first race of the season, the South African Grand Prix . Caffi drove the C4B at a so-called acclimatization event that was held the day before the pre-qualification. After a few laps the C4B failed due to a technical defect. Before Bertaggia could drive a lap with the C4B, Andrea Moda Formula was excluded from participating in the race. The team did not take part in the following race in Mexico . For the subsequent races, in which Andrea Moda brought a completely new car to the start, the team named two new drivers: Roberto Moreno and Perry McCarthy . Although the team boss Andre Sassetti tried in the spring of 1992 to commit Bertaggia again after Bertaggia was willing to provide additional sponsorship money; However, the FIA ​​prohibited Andrea Moda from changing drivers again, so that Andrea Moda had to start with McCarthy and Moreno until the team was finally excluded in September 1992.

Further career

In 1992 and 1993 Bertaggia drove a few races in the British Formula 3000 championship. From 1994, he focused primarily on sports car racing. In 1995 he took part in the Le Mans 24-hour race . He shared the controls of a Callaway Corvette Supernaturel with the German Frank Jelinski and the American Johnny Unser , the nephew of Al - and Bobby Unser . The Callaway Corvette was a modified version of the Chevrolet Corvette . After 24 hours of racing time, the trio finished ninth overall and second in the GT2 class.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1995	Callaway Competition	Callaway Corvette Supernatural	Frank Jelinski	Johnny Unser	Rank 9

literature

• Buchkalter, Patrice and Galeron, Jean Francois: Formula 1 - a complete guide to 1992 , Surrèsnes (Taillandrier) 1992, ISBN 2876361078 .
• Henry, Alan: Autocourse 1992/93 , London 1992 (Hazleton Securities Ltd.), ISBN 0-905138-96-1 .
• David Hodges: Racing Cars from A – Z after 1945 , Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-613-01477-7
• Pierre Ménard: La Grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1 , 2nd edition, St. Sulpice, 2000, ISBN 2-940125-45-7 (French)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Enrico Bertaggias biography on the website www.f1rejects.com (accessed on February 8, 2011).
2. ↑ David Hodges: Racing Cars from AZ after 1945, p. 73.
3. ^ Ménard, p. 604.
4. ↑ Enrico Bertaggias biography on the website www.f1rejects.com (accessed on February 8, 2011).
5. ↑ Enrico Bertaggias biography on the website www.f1rejects.com (accessed on February 8, 2011).
6. ↑ History of the Andrea Moda Formula team on the website www.f1rejects.com ( Memento of the original from May 13, 2008 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 February 8, 2011).