Forti

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**Forti**

Full name	Forti Corse
Base	Alessandria, Italy
Team principal	Guido Forti
Technical director	Sergio Rinland (1995) Giorgio Stirano (1995) George Ryton (1996)
Race drivers	Pedro Diniz Roberto Moreno Luca Badoer Andrea Montermini
Test drivers	none
Chassis	Forti FG01 Forti FG01B Forti FG03
Engine	Ford ED V8 (1995) Ford Zetec-R V8 (1996)
Tyres	Goodyear
Debut	1995 Brazilian Grand Prix
Final race	{{{Final}}}
Races competed	27
Constructors' Championships	none
Drivers' Championships	none
Race victories	none
Pole positions	none
Fastest laps	none
1996 position	not classified

Formula One Portal

Forti was an Italian Formula One constructor in 1995 and 1996. The team competed in 27 Grands Prix, scoring no points.

1 Establishment and Early Years
2 Formula 3000
3 Formula One
4 Bankruptcy and Withdrawal from Formula One
5 Complete Formula One Results
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Establishment and Early Years

The team was founded by Italian businessmen Guido Forti and Paolo Guerci in the 1970s and was based in Alessandria in northern Italy. It was initially run in lower categories such as Italian Formula Ford and Formula Three both on Italian and European level. The team was well equipped and Forti Corse soon became a regular winner. Forti drivers Franco Forini (who later drove unsuccessfully in an Osella Formula One car), Enrico Bertaggia (who would later drive for the Coloni Formula One team) and Gianni Morbidelli were able to win Italian F3 titles in the 1980s.

[edit] Formula 3000

For 1987, Forti Corse moved up to Formula 3000 with less immediate success than experienced in F3. The main reason for the 1987 misfortunes was a the decision on which chassis the team should use to compete with. Instead of using customer Lolas, Marchs or Ralts, all of whom had many years' experience of designing and building such cars, Forti stuck with Giampaolo Dallara, who had just penned a brand-new Formula 3000 machine. Forti Corse was the first team to use this machine, which was dubbed the Dallara 3087 (and which later would make a single appearance in Formula One for the BMS-Dallara team as their own F1 car was not ready for the first race of the 1988 season). A combination of an inexperienced team and an untested car was not a suitable platform for any success, and so it was no wonder that Forti did not score any points in its first F3000 year; the team did not even manage to attend every race. The team used the first year to gain valuable experience in F3000, and this helped the team to perform better in the following seasons (of course, a change to March chassis was helpful, too). In 1990, Gianni Morbidelli scored Forti's first victory in a F3000 race, and although no Forti driver was ever able to win a championship title in this category, the team turned out to be a strong force in F3000. By 1994, Forti was the most experienced team in the championship.

[edit] Formula One

[edit] Preparation

Naturally, as the team became more successful, Forti started thinking about another move upwards, into Formula One. Of course, there had been some discouragingly recent examples of teams which graduated from F3000 into Formula One and failed more or less immediately. In preceding years, examples of unsuccessful teams of this nature included Coloni and Onyx. But on the other hand, Eddie Jordan had shown that the great step forward could be made successfully with an impressive performance in the 1991 Formula One season. Forti considered a solid financial base to be the most important factor for success. So, in 1991 he started working on his Formula One adventure. By 1993, he met Carlo Gancia, an Italo-Brazilian businessman who became a co-owner of the team and finally managed to ensure a respectable budget for Formula One by late 1994.

[edit] The Forti FG01 car

So it became clear that Forti Corse would be a part of Grand Prix racing in 1995. Financed by various Brazilian enterprises which were brought in by the family of Forti driver Pedro Diniz, the team was guaranteed financial stability in the short term. But of course, the team had to start with a self-designed car. This turned out to be the main obstacle for Guido Forti, as he insisted on having a reliable car built instead of a fast one. And that was precisely what he received. His first F1 car was an out-dated, overweight and very slow machine.

The Forti FG01 had many influences. Its roots dated back to 1991 when former Brabham Designer Sergio Rinland left the British team before the season ended. Rinland set up Astauto Ltd. in Tolworth, England, hiring several of his former collaborators from Brabham when the team closed its doors. Brabham sold the building and wind tunnel at Chessington to Yamaha, facilities that Astauto rented to develop the new Fondmetal GR02, which was designed and built by June 1992, just six months after it was commisioned by Gabriele Rumi. The Fondmetal GR02 was a natural succesor of the Brabham BT60, in concept, as it was conceived by the same design team. Due to Fondmetal's own severe financial troubles, the GR02 was run only in a few races before this team was closed, too. When in late 1994, Forti bought the remains of the Fondmetal Team, aquiring all the sapares of the GR02 in the process, the team turned to Rinland to purchase the design of what would have been the 1993 F1 car design by the Astauto Design Team after the collapse of the Fondmetal team. At that time, Rinland was living and working in California on a new ChampCar project. Forti sent his Chief Designer and former Astauto employee Chris Radage to California to gather all the technical information, data and drawings from Rinland, returning to Italy to design and develop the new Forti FG01. Rinland joined the team in early 1995 for a short period as Technical Director, once he had returned to Europe. The car had no sleek lines, a plump nose, initially no airbox, and was overweight and under-powered, using a tiny Ford ED V8 customer machine that seemed to be financed by "Ford do Brasil". The team was also running the only car to have a manual gearbox in the 1995 F1 season. The only thing attractive about the car was its blue and yellow colour scheme accompanied by green wheel-rims, illustrating the team's Brazilian influence in its first year.

[edit] 1995

Forti's first number one driver was rookie Pedro Diniz who had raced for Forti in Formula 3000, but without much success. However, he was guaranteed a seat as his family and sponsors were paying a significant amount of the team's budget. The second driver was his more experienced compatriot Roberto Moreno, who had last competed in F1 back in 1992 when he had a disastrous year in the infamous Andrea Moda team. At the beginning of the season, the cars were embarrassingly slow. Diniz finished 10th in the season-opening Brazilian GP, but was seven laps down on winner Michael Schumacher. In Argentina, this situation became worse, as, although both drivers finished, they were both nine laps done at the end (with Diniz ahead) and neither were classified. The drivers' similar fastest laps during the race were over ten seconds slower than Schumacher's race fastest lap, and almost five seconds slower than (and five laps down on) the next slowest runner's fastest lap (Domenico Schiattarella in the Simtek). Imola was similarly poor, as both drivers were seven laps down (with Diniz again ahead) and neither was classified as a finisher for the second race in succession. Forti were already the butt of paddock jokes, and were far slower than the other (and poorer) backmarkers: Pacific, Simtek, and Minardi. However, the budget enabled improvements to be made to the car. During the season, its weight was reduced by a significant 60 kilograms, and a semi-automatic gearbox, an airbox and redesigns of the front wing, sidepods and monocoque were introduced by the team. The team's pace gradually improved throughout the year, and there were no more failures to be classified.

Pedro Diniz took Forti's best result at the 1995 Australian Grand Prix.

Indeed, the team's finishing record was good for rookies at over 50%, helping Diniz to establish a reputation as a steady, dependable driver. Forti were elevated when Simtek folded after the Monaco GP, and Pacific's lack of finance and development enabled Forti to start matching them from the half-way point of the season. At the German GP, both Fortis outqualified both the Pacifics, and this happened on two further occasions during 1995. Forti's improvement was also aided by Pacific taking on two slow pay-drivers to ensure that they finished the season, and regular driver Bertrand Gachot being race-rusty on his return for the last two races of the year. At the final race of the season, at Adelaide Forti seemed to have established a firm base for the 1996 season, emphasised by Moreno qualifying within 107% of pole position for the first time - a crucial result, as this percentage of pole would be used to determine non-qualifyers in 1996 - and Diniz scoring the team's best result in F1, with a reliable run to seventh place, ahead of Gachot in the Pacific. Under the current points system, this would have seen Forti score two points. Nevertheless, despite not scoring any points, Forti finished a de facto 11th in the Constructors' Championship, ahead of Pacific and Simtek by virtue of better finishes outside of the points.

[edit] 1996

With a new car and a healthy budget, 1996 looked good for Forti. However, the team was dealt a devastating blow when Pedro Diniz signed for the more competitive Ligier team, taking Martin Brundle's vacated seat as the latter moved to Jordan. Diniz's sponsors, including Parmalat and Marlboro all left, and the budget was significantly dented. The new car was delayed, and the team was forced to use the uprated FG01B car for the start of the season (albeit with the more competitive Ford Zetec-R V8 engine), and to rely on temporary sponsors. Despite this loss, the team got on with the business of racing. Roberto Moreno had been dropped (he retired from F1) after failing to beat Diniz the previous year, and the team signed Minardi and Pacific refugees Luca Badoer and Andrea Montermini to drive for the team (although Japanese driver Hideki Noda was also considered^[1]), both drivers bringing a small amount of personal backing to the now-beleaguered team. Pacific had folded during the off-season, and it was clear that Forti would be some way behind the rest of the field in the slow FG01B. Predictably, both drivers failed to make the new 107% cut in Melbourne and failed to qualify, but then both drivers surprisingly managed to qualify in Brazil and Argentina, scoring a 10th and an 11th place finish between them. Badoer, however, made a mark in Argentina for all the wrong reasons. He barrel-rolled his car having hit, of all people, Diniz, who was attempting to lap him, and was forced to scramble from the upturned car whilst the marshals looked on. Both cars then failed to qualify at the Nürburgring. For the race at Imola, the new FG03 chassis was ready. Both drivers judged it a significant improvement over the old car, but there was only one FG03 available, and Montermini failed to qualify in the old car. Badoer, however, qualified last, but comfortably within the 107% cut-off, and only 0.7s behind Ricardo Rosset in the Footwork. Badoer finished 10th and last, but had suffered reliability problems in the new car and was two laps behind Pedro Lamy's Minardi. Both drivers qualified in Monaco, but Montermini crashed in the wet warm-up session and did not start the race, whilst Badoer struggled in the slippery conditions and took out Jacques Villeneuve as he was being lapped by the Williams. He was fined $5000 and received a two-race suspended ban. For the Spanish GP, the cars appeared in a new green-and-white livery, as Guido Forti had acquired a new financial partner in Finfirst's Shannon Racing Team, which appeared to ensure the survival of the team. With all the off-track confusion, both drivers again failed to qualify. However, in the Canadian and French Grands Prix, both Fortis made it to the grid, Badoer even outqualifying Rosset in Montréal. However, Forti had lost their good 1995 reliability record, as these starts only resulted in four retirements. By this time, Forti's financial problems were becoming increasingly urgent in nature.

[edit] Bankruptcy and Withdrawal from Formula One

Shannon was not paying the money it had allegedly promised Guido Forti, and he took the company to court over the matter. As the team ran out of money, the cars only completed a handful of laps at Silverstone, as they were in debt to engine supplier Cosworth and had only enough remaining engine mileage to complete two laps of the circuit. The team made it to Hockenheim, but both cars remained unassembled in the pit garages throughout the weekend. With the prospect of heavy FIA-imposed fines for missing races looming, Forti withdrew his team from the sport. Badoer and Montermini were left without fines, and the promising FG03 chassis would no longer race. By the time Shannon won the court case in September, the team had ceased to exist. Ironically, Guido Forti had signed the 1997 Concorde Agreement shortly before his team's demise, which could have given his team a chance of surviving if it had made it into the 1997. Forti's withdrawal from F1 also marked the end of a successful career in Formula 3000 and other minor categories. It was generally agreed that Forti may have succeeded if they had their 1995 budget and the FG03 car at the same time, but the team has just become another story of a small, backmarking team unable to finance its aspirations.

[edit] Complete Formula One Results

(key)

Year	Chassis	Engine	Tyres	Drivers	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	Points	WCC
1995	Forti FG01	Ford ED V8	G		BRA	BRZ	SMR	ESP	MON	CAN	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	POR	EUR	PCF	JPN	AUS	0	NC
				Pedro Diniz	10	NC	NC	Ret	10	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	13	9	16	13	17	Ret	7
				Roberto Moreno	Ret	NC	NC	Ret	Ret	Ret	16	Ret	Ret	Ret	14	Ret	17	Ret	16	Ret	Ret
1996	Forti FG01B Forti FG03	Ford Zetec-R V8	G		AUS	BRA	ARG	EUR	SMR	MON	ESP	CAN	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	POR	JPN		0	NC
				Luca Badoer	DNQ	11	Ret	DNQ	10	Ret	DNQ	Ret	Ret	DNQ	DNP
				Andrea Montermini	DNQ	Ret	10	DNQ	DNQ	DNS	DNQ	Ret	Ret	DNQ	DNP