Italy First Racing
Founded1969
Founder(s)Lamberto Leoni
Folded1991
Team principal(s)Lamberto Leoni
Former seriesEuropean F2
International Formula 3000
Noted driversItaly Marco Apicella
Italy Fabrizio Giovanardi
France Éric Hélary
Italy Lamberto Leoni
Italy Pierluigi Martini
Italy Gabriele Tarquini
Brazil Marco Greco
Switzerland Jean-Denis Delétraz
The Life L190 which was initially developed by FIRST in 1989

First Racing (sometimes written as FIRST Racing) was an Italian motor racing team founded by Lamberto Leoni, which competed in International Formula 3000 from 1987 to 1991 and the Italian Formula 3 Championship in 1990. The team also made an unsuccessful attempt to enter Formula One in 1989.

Formula 3000

In 1987 former Formula One racing driver Lamberto Leoni returned to competitive racing by founding his own Formula 3000 team. First Racing debuted in Silverstone with two cars, one for Leoni and another one for Gabriele Tarquini. Although Leoni was the first of the two drivers to score points, with a sixth place at the Pau Grand Prix, Tarquini was able to finish on the podium twice, with a third place at Pergusa and a second place at Imola. Over the course of the season, the team occasionally fielded a third car, with Aldo Bertuzzi, Beppe Gabbiani, Claudio Langes and Alain Ferté alternating at the wheel. For the following season, Leoni decided to limit his involvement to management, and hired Pierluigi Martini and Marco Apicella, with Martini scoring the team's first win at Pergusa and finishing fourth in the championship. In 1989, First set off to a promising start when Fabrizio Giovanardi won the second round of the championship at Vallelunga. Apicella, in the second car, proved to be a regular points-scorer, and finished fourth in the final standing podium finishes at Pau, Jerez, Birmingham and Spa. With the line-up of Giovanardi and Apicella confirmed, the team entered the 1990 season full of expectations, but the two drivers, despite scoring points on a regular basis, were not able to win any races. 1991 proved to be First's final season in Formula 3000. Financial difficulties prompted Leoni to hire two pay drivers, Michael Bartels and Jean-Denis Délétraz. The car, however, was uncompetitive, and following a string of poor results, Leoni decided to retire the team and concentrate on managing the career of Apicella.

Formula One

Buoyed by the promising results accomplished during his first Formula 3000 season, Leoni commissioned Richard Divila to design a car for entry into the 1989 Formula One championship.[1] The team opted to use a Judd V8 engine. Gabriele Tarquini was signed to drive. After a run at the 1989 Attilio Bettega Memorial event in Bologna[2] and the Formula One Indoor Trophy, the team realized that the chassis was poorly manufactured due to a temperature mistake in the autoclave, with the result that a second chassis had to be re-commissioned.[3] Having concluded that the delay would cost the team a penalty for missing the first two races of the season, Divila and his engineers tried to reinforce the chassis with injections of a material called Redus 410 NA.[4] Although the car passed the mandatory FIA pre-season crash test in Cranfield, it was now significantly overweight. Divila himself claimed that the car as it was, was good for nothing but being "an interesting flowerpot".[5][6] Faced with the perspective of racing an uncompetitive car in a packed field (the 1989 Formula One World Championship counted over forty participants with pre-qualifying sessions), Leoni decided to withdraw before the opening Brazilian Grand Prix and concentrate his efforts on the Formula 3000 season.

The second chassis commissioned by Leoni would be later purchased by Ernesto Vita and used in the 1990 Formula One World Championship for his Life L190.

Competition record

Complete Formula 3000 results

first column of every race10= grid position
second column of every race10= race result
YearNameCountryPlaceChassisEngine1234567891011
1987Gabriele Tarquini Italy= 8thMarchFord Cosworth9109R11125R111519731817714821954R
1987Lamberto Leoni Italy= 8thMarchFord Cosworth1888825131866R105171118R
MarchJudd94124174
1987Beppe Gabbiani ItalyNCMarchFord Cosworth--201219R----------------
1987Claudio Langes ItalyNCMarchFord Cosworth--------29NQ20R21R2410----15R
1987Alain Ferté FranceNCMarchFord Cosworth------------------22R--
1988Pierluigi Martini Italy4thMarchJudd1781611437106R213243--10R1210
1988Marco Apicella Italy11thMarchJudd20137717566327R18R5R11R21R15R
1988Alain Ferté FranceNCMarchJudd----------------2012----
1989Marco Apicella Italy4thMarchJudd138
ReynardJudd2R12535412R22838R9R
1989Fabrizio Giovanardi Italy10thMarchJudd28NQ71
ReynardJudd6R211412R29NQ21NS261328NQ2012
1989Jean-Denis Delétraz  SwitzerlandNCMarchJudd261419R16R2515
ReynardJudd18R15R131227NQ15R129
1990Marco Apicella Italy6thReynardMugen Honda313633R22752R225DIS(3)1R5R115
1990Fabrizio Giovanardi Italy10thReynardMugen Honda16R10R22136211015613719R18518R10R
1990Jean-Denis Délétraz  SwitzerlandNCReynardFord Cosworth21731NQ18R27NQ25R------------
1990Marco Greco BrazilNCReynardFord Cosworth------------------28NQ32NQ
1991Éric Hélary France8th †ReynardFord Cosworth14117316R17R16--------------
1991Michael Bartels GermanyNCReynardFord Cosworth-11810R1415--------------
1991Giovanni Bonanno ItalyNCReynardFord Cosworth22R--------------------
1991Jean-Denis Délétraz  SwitzerlandNCReynardFord Cosworth15NS24NQ13R----------------

Éric Hélary finished season with Cobra Racing

References

  1. "Richard Divila Profile". Grandprix.com. Inside F1. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  2. "Bologna Sprint". Silhouette.com. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  3. Mario Donnini, "First 189 F. 1: Inverno di ristallo', Autosprint, no. 19, 12–18 May 2020
  4. Mario Donnini, "First 189 F. 1: Inverno di ristallo', Autosprint, no. 19, 12–18 May 2020
  5. "Teams that barely existed". F1 Database. Archived from the original on 9 July 2013. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
  6. "Life team profile". F1Rejects.com. Archived from the original on 26 September 2011. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
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