Enzo Coloni

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Enzo Coloni (born October 17, 1946 in Tuoro sul Trasimeno ) is a former Italian racing driver and racing team owner. He is the founder and co-owner of the Scuderia Coloni team , which has been active in formula racing since 1982 and competed in the GP2 series until 2012 . Because of his tenacity, Enzo Coloni was nicknamed "Lupo" (wolf). Coloni has been using a stylized wolf for his team's logos since 1982.

Racing driver

Enzo Coloni started racing cars in 1973. He started in the Formula 850, an Italian junior class that used technical components from the Fiat 850 . He later took part in the Italian Formula Ford 2000 championship, in which he finished second in 1977.

From 1977 Enzo Coloni took part in the Italian Formula 3 championship . This series was to become his central field of activity as a driver and later also as a team boss for many years.

Coloni drove the first races in this series with a March 743 , which was powered by a Fiat engine. In 1978 Coloni was the only driver in the series to use an Argo JM 1 , which was powered by a Toyota engine. Coloni finished the season with 28 points in sixth place in the drivers' standings.

In 1979 and 1980 Coloni drove a March 783 with a Toyota engine. In the 1979 season he reached 13 championship points and took ninth place in the drivers' championship. In the following year Coloni improved considerably. He achieved his first victory and was runner-up in Italian Formula 3 with 34 points. Coloni's deficit on Guido Pardini , the champion of 1980, was only two points.

Coloni competed in the 1981 season at times with a Ralt RT3, later he switched to a new March 813, which was powered by an Alfa Romeo engine. Enzo Coloni was fourth in the championship with 40 points.

1982 was Enzo Colonis last season as an active driver. He competed with his own team, which he founded in January 1982 and which was based in the Umbrian municipality of Passignano sul Trasimeno . The team was named Enzo Coloni Racing Car Systems . With this team, which mainly used the March 813 known from the previous year, Enzo Coloni became Italian Formula 3 champion at the age of 36.

Enzo Coloni also contested two races in the Formula 2 European Championship : In 1980 he drove a two-year-old March for San Remo Racing at the Gran Premio del Mediterraneo at the Autodromo di Pergusa in Enna, Sicily ; after 24 laps he retired with engine failure. In 1983 he drove a Minardi M283 with a BMW engine in the same place for Giancarlo Minardi's team ; Coloni finished the race in eighth.

Racing team owner

Headquarters of the racing team founded by Enzo Coloni in Passignano sul Trasimeno (2016)

From 1983 Enzo Coloni concentrated on the management of his racing team. He achieved some successes. In 1983, 1984 and 1986 Coloni's drivers Alessandro Santin , Ivan Capelli and Nicola Larini each won the Italian Formula 3 championship.

In 1986 Coloni also took part in the International Formula 3000 Championship . Coloni's driver Gabriele Tarquini scored seven championship points with an outdated March 85B and finished the season in tenth place in the drivers' championship.

Between 1987 and 1991 Enzo Coloni's racing team was involved in Formula 1. In this series, the team was unable to build on previous successes. The race results were disappointing: Coloni registered for 82 races, but was only able to qualify for 14 races and only reached four finishings, each of which was outside the points. Enzo Coloni later stated that the years in Formula 1 were the only times when he was financially up to his neck.

From 1992 Enzo Coloni's team, which was now called Coloni Motorsport, concentrated again on the Italian Formula 3 championship. Enzo Coloni's son Paolo , born in 1969 , who was initially a driver for Coloni, gradually took over the management of the family racing team. From 1997 Coloni Motorsport returned to the International Formula 3000 Championship. The team became a permanent fixture in this class in the years that followed, recording a number of victories at the start of the new millennium. From 2005 Coloni Motorsport took part in the GP2 series , at times in collaboration with Formula 1 driver Giancarlo Fisichella . Despite a victory in the GP2 series, the team has so far been denied great successes and title wins.

Auto GP World Series

Enzo and Paolo Coloni have been organizing the Auto GP World Series since 2006 .

See also

Coloni (Formula 1)

literature

  • Christian Eichberger: The wolf is 30 . Brief description of the team history since 1982 in: Motorsport Aktuell, issue 7/2012, p. 8 f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Motorsport Aktuell, issue 7/2012, p. 8.
  2. ↑ Argo Racing Cars was a British racing car manufacturer who designed vehicles for Formula 3 from 1977 to 1984. The JM 1 was first used in British Formula 3 races in 1977. See: David Hodges, Rennwagen von AZ nach 1945, p. 18.
  3. ↑ Statistics of the Formula 2 races from 1964 to 1984 on the website www.formula2.net ( Memento of the original from March 28, 2012 on WebCite ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.formula2.net
personal data
SURNAME Coloni, Enzo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian racing driver
DATE OF BIRTH October 17, 1946
PLACE OF BIRTH Tuoro sul Trasimeno , Italy