Forti Corse

Forti

Surname	Forti Corse
Companies	Forti Corse SpA
Company headquarters	Alessandria ( I )
Team boss	Guido Forti
statistics
First Grand Prix	Brazil 1995
Last Grand Prix	France 1996
Race driven	23
Constructors' championship	-
Drivers World Championship	-
Race wins	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
Points	0

Forti Corse was an Italian motorsport racing team that took part in Formula Ford , Formula 3 , Formula 3000 and Formula 1 races between 1970 and 1996 .

history

The team was founded by business people Guido Forti and Paolo Guerci in 1970 in Alessandria , Italy . Forti initially took part in European Formula Ford and Formula 3 races . With a good equipment Forti could quickly become a regular winner of the races. Among others, Franco Forini , Enrico Bertaggia and Gianni Morbidelli were used as drivers , who won several titles in the Italian F3 series in the 1980s and later competed for various Italian teams in Formula 1 .

In 1987 Forti switched to Formula 3000 and took part regularly in championship races until 1994 . The first year was unsuccessful. Forti used a vehicle from Dallara , the newly designed model 3087 , which in practice proved difficult to drive. The later years were more successful; Forti Corse was able to establish itself as a solid force in Formula 3000. In 1990 Gianni Morbidelli achieved the first race victory . However, the championship title could not be achieved in any season. Already since 1992 Guido Forti has been concerned with the promotion to Formula 1 , among other things with the press-effective, but hardly feasible idea of ​​an exclusive women's team with Giovanna Amati . But it was n't until 1995 that the leap was dared. The main trigger was the Brazilian racing driver Pedro Paulo Diniz , whose father owned a supermarket chain in his home country and was able to generously finance his son's racing.

1995 season

Roberto Moreno in the Forti at the 1995 British Grand Prix

Initially, the team was able to benefit from decades of racing experience, but the need to develop, build and use its own car was financially and perhaps logistically overwhelmed. The 1995 car, the FG01 , was basically an external development and had old genes. Father of the car was Sergio Rinland , the end of 1991 for Brabham a vehicle for the 1992 season had developed. For lack of money Brabham had not accepted this vehicle, so that Rinland sold its construction with a few changes to Gabriele Rumi's Fondmetal team , where it was used for some races under the name GR02 . While Rinland was already working on a successor model, Fondmetal collapsed in September 1992. Rinland sold the designs for the new car, which were essentially based on the GR02, to Forti Corse at the end of 1994, where they became the basis for Forti's own Formula 1 car. So it came about that the Forti from 1995 had some essential features of the 1991 Brabham and the 1992 Fondmetal, although the original at Forti was updated a little by the former Osella engineer Giorgio Stirano . In any case, the undemanding car was technically outdated, underpowered and uncompetitive. This was not changed by further modifications in the summer of 1995, which brought a longer wheelbase, changed radiators and other little things. Forti drivers Roberto Moreno and Pedro Diniz were lapped by the top drivers several times in each race, and even nine times at the Argentine Grand Prix . There were no championship points, but Forti came in seventh place in the last race of the season in Australia once in the immediate vicinity of a point - this was, however, favored by numerous failures, therefore only penultimate and four laps behind the winner Damon Hill .

1996 season

Andrea Montermini in the Forti FG01 at the 1996 San Marino Grand Prix

The new color scheme of the Forti FG03 after the entry of the sponsor Fin First, which was used in the last missions of the team

When Pedro Diniz left the team in late 1995 to start at Ligier in the coming season , it had a catastrophic impact on Forti Corse's financial position. Basically, the team was hardly able to finance another race. In addition, the completion of a new racing car was to be delayed not insignificantly, so that Forti had to use the well-known previous year's car for the first races, which had undergone major modifications and had not gained any competitiveness. Another burden arose from the so-called 107 percent rule , a new qualification mode that excluded those drivers from taking part in the race whose lap times were more than 107 percent of the pole driver. This rule was immediately introduced with the Forti team in mind. Andrea Montermini and Luca Badoer , who were active at Minardi the year before and later long-time test drivers for Ferrari , repeatedly failed because of the new qualification regulations. The situation came to a head in May 1996 when Carlo Gancia left the team and the chief engineers also changed weekly: Chris Radage was again followed by Giorgio Stirano, followed by George Ryton .

At the Spanish Grand Prix , the situation appeared to be improving: the new car, the Forti FG03 , was ready for use and a new sponsor was also presented. The company Fin First became the new partner and wanted to invest $ 20 million annual. But nothing came of it. Fin First, an interwoven company with offices in Milan and Ireland and an obscure backer, advertised the Forti cars with supposedly own companies such as Shannon and Sokol , but did not pay the amount owed or not in full. The team was only able to complete a few laps at the British Grand Prix in order to comply with the compulsory attendance. At the subsequent German Grand Prix , the pits were never left because Cosworth no longer delivered any engines to the racing team. After that, Forti Corse did not appear in any other Formula 1 races.

Numbers and dates

Statistics in Formula 1

season	Team name	chassis	engine	tires	Grand Prix	Victories	Second	Third	Poles	nice Round	Points	World Cup rank
1995	Parmalat Forti Ford	Forti FG01	Ford ED 3.0 V8	G	17th	-	-	-	-	-	-	11.
1996	Forti Grand Prix	Forti FG01B / Forti FG03	Ford Zetec-R 3.0 V8	G	6th	-	-	-	-	-	-	11.
total					23	-	-	-	-	-	-

All Forti Corse drivers in Formula 1

Surname	Years	Grand Prix	Points	Victories	Second	Third	Poles	nice Round	best WM-Pos.
Pedro Diniz	1995	17th	-	-	-	-	-	-	21st ( 1995 )
Roberto Moreno	1995	17th	-	-	-	-	-	-	32nd ( 1995 )
Luca Badoer	1996	6th	-	-	-	-	-	-	21st ( 1996 )
Andrea Montermini	1996	4th	-	-	-	-	-	-	23rd ( 1996 )

Results in Formula 1

season	chassis	driver	No.	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	17th	Points	rank
1995	FG01																				-	11.
		P. Diniz	21st	10	DNF	15th	DNF	10	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	13	9	16	13	17th	DNF	7th
		R. Moreno	22nd	DNF	DNF	16	DNF	DNF	DNF	16	DNF	DNF	DNF	14th	DNF	17th	DNF	16	DNF	DNF
1996	FG01B / FG03																				-	11.
		L. Badoer	22nd	DNQ	11	DNF	DNQ	10	DNF	DNQ	DNF	DNF	DNQ
		A. Montermini	23	DNQ	DNF	10	DNQ	DNQ	DNS	DNQ	DNF	DNF	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)
	NC	not classified
red	DNQ	did not qualify
	DNPQ	failed in pre-qualification (did not pre-qualify)
black	DSQ	disqualified
White	DNS	not at the start (did not start)
	WD	withdrawn
Light Blue	PO	only participated in the training (practiced only)
	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

Web links

Commons : Forti  - album with pictures, videos and audio files

• Forti-Corse : Statistics and pictures at www.f1rejects.com