Driven to disaster: the Andrea Moda story

A new Formula 1 season has just begun, and to be quite honest I won't be bothering to follow it as I have long since lost interest in this now very clinical and costly sport. Instead, I'm looking back 25 years to a time when there were so many drivers competing that a pre-qualifying session was necessary just to trim down the numbers in qualifying proper, and all sorts of hopeless outfits wasted their time and money getting nowhere. Against some very stiff competition, the particular team I'm looking at are widely regarded as the worst ever to grace the sport. Life may have had the worst car, but did at least manage to turn up at every meeting with it in working order, something this team had difficulty with, although unlike Life they did actually once start a race. I'm talking about Andrea Moda, an outfit so staggeringly inept they have the dubious distinction of ending up getting banned after less than a season for bringing the sport into disrepute.

Andrea Moda really didn't belong in F1

The man behind the team was Andrea Sassetti, the flamboyant and hot-headed founder of the Andrea Moda shoe company, whose ambitions to compete in top-level motorsport were untempered by a complete lack of experience. At the end of the 1991 season, he took over the remains of the struggling Coloni team for a relative pittance of £8 million. That may seem like a bargain, but in truth Coloni had nothing worth buying, having failed to start a single race in two whole seasons, and were themselves well on the way to becoming the worst team in history had Sassetti not taken things to a whole new level. Not a single meeting went smoothly for Andrea Moda and they lurched from one crisis to another, so here's a race-by-race breakdown of their catalogue of disaster.

South Africa - excluded

Andrea Moda appeared at the 1992 season opener with an all-Italian driver lineup of Alex Caffi and Enrico Bertaggia, neither of whom had a particularly great record in the championship. The team slapped a coat of black paint on one of the old Coloni C4 cars and shipped it off to Kyalami; officially they had two but there is no proof that the second actually existed as only this one was ever photographed. Bertaggia never got to drive the C4 and Caffi was only able to complete a few familiarisation laps as Sassetti had not paid the $100,000 registration fee for new entrants. He argued that Andrea Moda was not a new team but simply a renaming of Coloni, but the FIA maintained that he had bought only Coloni's assets and not the team itself, and excluded them from the event. Having been declared a new team, it was unlikely that they would have been allowed to run cars that had previously competed for another team, and in any case the Colonis were outdated and uncompetitive so something new was needed.

A rare photo of the Coloni C4 dressed up as an Andrea Moda. It would never compete in this guise.
(via 'F1 in the 1990's' on Twitter)

Mexico - sacking the drivers

With the entry fee now paid, Andrea Moda turned up at the second round with two brand new cars that had been hurriedly put together in just three weeks with the assistance of moonlighting engineers from other teams. Powered by a Judd V10 and known as the S921, this was a design by Nick Wirth at Simtek, allegedly for an aborted attempt by BMW to enter F1 the previous season, and on paper at least seemed a decent machine. It wouldn't get a chance to prove itself here as Sassetti immediately withdrew both cars, most likely because they were simply nowhere near race-ready. When his drivers justifiably complained that they weren't getting much opportunity to actually drive, instead of doing what any decent boss would and assuring them things would get better, Sassetti promptly fired both of them for insubordination!

Brazil - new driver drama

Andrea Moda now had cars but needed to recruit drivers, and arrived at Interlagos with a new lineup consisting of perennial also-ran Roberto Moreno and an affable English newcomer called Perry McCarthy. The latter had been fast-tracked a superlicence to allow him to make his F1 debut here, only to have it revoked shortly before pre-qualifying began. Even if he had retained his licence, McCarthy probably still wouldn't have been able to compete as only one car was anywhere near ready. Nonetheless, an Andrea Moda was at last able to take part in a competitive session, but in the hands of Moreno it was 15 seconds off the pace so he failed to pre-qualify and the team's weekend ended early .

Spain - instant engine failure and a million-dollar loss

McCarthy had been given back his licence a week after the Brazilian race and the team burnt a lot of midnight oil to get both cars ready, so at last he would be able to compete alongside his team-mate. However, in the meantime Bertaggia had approached Sassetti with the promise of a $1 million sponsorship deal. Why he wanted to return to a team that had treated him so badly remains a mystery, but Sassetti jumped at the chance, only for the FIA to rule that he had used up his allowance of driver changes for the season and had to stick with Moreno and McCarthy. Personally blaming McCarthy for costing him a million dollars, from then on Sassetti's resentment towards his second driver was obvious and he would obstruct him at every opportunity. Moreno's engine failed before he had even completed a single lap of pre-qualifying, but McCarthy fared even worse, managing just 18 yards down the pit lane. That was the end of the latter's meeting as his engine was repaired and given to Moreno, who put in a further three laps but was still well off the pace so once again neither Andrea Moda reached qualifying proper.

Poor old McCarthy only just made it out of the pits before his engine expired
(Image: Getty Images)

San Marino - another DNPQ

Things went a bit better at Imola and both drivers were at last able to set pre-qualifying times, although neither made it to the main qualifying session. McCarthy managed eight laps before differential failure, his best time being 8.5 seconds slower than Moreno. who actually came fairly close to getting into the top four and through to the next stage of qualifying. He didn't quite make it though, and Andrea Moda yet again had to make an early exit with little to show for their efforts.

Monaco - on the grid at last

Monte Carlo was the definite highlight of Andrea Moda's one and only season. McCarthy was out of luck again as he was withdrawn after three laps of pre-qualifying so his car could be used as a spare for Moreno. This would have been a relief though as he didn't have a properly fitted seat and even in those three laps he was badly bruised and battered and in no fit state to continue. Moreno then took over McCarthy's car and by some miracle used it to not only scrape into the qualifying session but then set a time that was good enough to qualify for the race itself, albeit in the 26th and very last grid position. An Andrea Moda had finally made it all the way to race day, but this feat would never be repeated. Moreno trundled around at the very back, never overtaking anyone but being promoted to 19th place by retirements, before his engine failed on lap 12 and he too recorded a non-finish. He had at least managed to complete part of a race, which was a major achievement compared with what had gone before - things were at last looking up for the beleaguered team.

A sight never to be repeated - Moreno's Andrea Moda in an actual race
(from F1rejects.com)

Canada - engines gone AWOL

Sadly for Andrea Moda, things would only get worse from here on and Moreno's achievement in Monaco remained a one-off as the team would never again feature in a race. Shortly after this round, Sassetti faced a personal drama when his nightclub was burnt down by an arsonist in a suspected assassination attempt; he escaped unhurt but was then shot at as he ran from the flames. Having survived this attempt on his life, he arrived in Canada with two engineless cars. His explanation was that the plane carrying the engines had been forced to make an emergency landing and offload them, but rumour had it that the real reason was that he had failed to pay his bills and Judd had refused to supply him with any more engines. That should have been it for this round, but for the generosity of the Brabham team who loaned their spare engine to Andrea Moda and at least allowed Moreno to take part in pre-qualifying. He was 15 seconds off the pace though and once again went no further.

France - no-show

Things got even worse when the championship returned to Europe. A French lorry drivers' strike blockaded main roads throughout the country and made it difficult for the teams to reach the Magny Cours circuit. Nevertheless, almost everyone made it by resorting to back roads - all except Andrea Moda, who simply didn't turn up at all. Again there may have been more to this than met the eye: the rumour mill suggested the struggling team had used the blockade as a convenient excuse to save money by missing a round and they never had any intention of attending. Whatever the truth, the sponsors soon started to disappear after two meetings with nothing to show for them and left Sassetti to fund the team himself. Many key staff were deserting the sinking ship too, so he decided that running two cars was just too much work and basically gave up on McCarthy to concentrate all his efforts on Moreno.

The S921 was a good looking car. Pity it was run by a team who didn't have a clue.
(By Matthias v.d. Elbe (Diskussion) (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0), CC BY-SA 3.0 de (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons)

Great Britain - wet or dry?

Andrea Moda came to Silverstone with a plain black livery devoid of any sponsorship. The second car had been demoted to little more than a source of spare parts for Moreno's, and the team's behaviour towards McCarthy started to become increasingly strange at his home event. The pre-qualifying session started out wet and Moreno completed a few laps on wet tyres before pulling in for a tyre change as the track began to dry out. He was sent back out on a new set of slicks, but a truly bizarre decision saw his used wets put onto McCarthy's car. By now the track was dry and McCarthy found it virtually impossible to stay on the road with such unsuitable and worn tyres, so his time 16 seconds slower than Moreno was an impressive achievement under the circumstances. Even with the right tyres for the conditions, Moreno himself was still unable to pre-qualify.

Germany - part sharing and disqualification

Things went from bad to worse for McCarthy at Hockenheim as the team had given up on making any attempt to run both cars at the same time and they were now sharing parts. Moreno of course got priority so McCarthy had to wait for used parts to be removed from Moreno's car and fitted to his before he could even take to the track. He failed to record a pre-qualifying time at all, not that it mattered as he was disqualified anyway for missing a weight check. Moreno meanwhile once again missed out on reaching the qualifying session and yet another race meeting ended for Andrea Moda on the first day.

Perry McCarthy, a nice guy whose F1 dreams were ruined by his team's attitude

Hungary - an ultimatum to let Pel out

With Brabham now down to a single-car entry following the departure of Eric van de Poele, pre-qualifying only needed to weed out one car and a place in qualifying for an Andrea Moda was thus guaranteed. Sassetti made sure this would be Moreno by keeping McCarthy in the pits and only letting him out 45 seconds before the end of the session, leaving him no time to complete a single lap and sparking a public campaign to persuade the team to "let Pel out". The relationship between the boss and his unwanted driver had descended into open hostility, and the FIA decided they'd had enough and gave the team an ultimatum to make a serious effort to run both cars from now on or face expulsion from the championship. Moreno duly pre-qualified but was the slowest driver in qualifying and got nowhere near starting the race.

Belgium - attempted murder, an arrest and a ban

Until this point, Andrea Moda's antics had been annoying but largely harmless, but things took a sinister turn at Spa. Brabham had now withdrawn completely so pre-qualifying was no longer necessary and Sassetti had been ordered to give both drivers a fair chance. Early in qualifying, McCarthy suffered a terrifying high-speed crash at Eau Rouge when his steering failed, only for the mechanics to tell him they had knowingly fitted a defective part that had been removed from Moreno's car. Chillingly, it has been suggested that this was ordered by Sassetti as a deliberate attempt to kill the unwanted second driver he couldn't get rid of. That wasn't the end of the controversy as Sassetti was then arrested in the paddock by the Belgian police on suspicion of fraud, having allegedly been forging invoices. This was the last straw for the FIA, who issued Andrea Moda with an immediate and indefinite ban from the championship for bringing the sport into disrepute.

McCarthy at Spa just before that near-fatal crash. Did Sassetti try to kill him?
(from F1rejects.com)

Italy - end of the road

The ban handed down at Spa wasn't quite the end for Andrea Moda, as the team defiantly turned up at Monza for their home race. They were refused entry to the circuit and sent home, and that was the last anyone saw of Andrea Moda, who would not be missed in the last two rounds of the season. Andrea Sassetti retreated back to the fashion industry and never troubled the world of motorsport again, his brief appearance having been more than enough to earn him permanent notoriety in Formula 1 circles. Roberto Moreno would pop up now and again with various other also-ran teams, but Perry McCarthy's Grand Prix career was sadly over before it had even begun. Although he never raced in F1 again, he did make a name for himself in other forms of motorsport and went on to achieve fame as the original black-overalled Stig in Top Gear. What happened to the S921 cars remains unknown but they were probably scrapped as McCarthy's at least was in a bad way after the team's last event.

Andrea Sassetti - the worst team owner in history?
(Image: Sutton Images)

As you can see, there are many reasons why Andrea Moda failed, but Andrea Sassetti was himself the biggest culprit as he simply didn't know what he was doing and didn't belong in the sport. He had that fatal combination of extreme arrogance, complete inexperience and a fiery temper, being described by his own drivers as a crazy man, and the majority of the team's failures were down to rookie mistakes or stupid decisions made by him. At first there was actually a lot of support for the new team who were trying to do their best under difficult circumstances, having bought an outfit that turned out to have nothing of value and had to quickly start from scratch, then fallen foul of the FIA's sometimes arcane rules. Any sympathy rapidly evaporated as their antics descended into farce and became a constant thorn in the FIA's side, and the other teams must have wondered what on earth they were doing there. All Andrea Sassetti seemed to care about was getting the Andrea Moda name visible on the track to promote his shoes, something he rarely achieved anyway, so he would have been far better off becoming a sponsor rather than trying to run his own team.

Andrea Moda's fate was well-deserved, not least because any team principal who deliberately tries to kill his own driver has no place in a high-level professional sport, but you have to feel sorry for Perry McCarthy in all this. After so many years of trying, he finally got his dream of a chance in Formula 1, only to have it ruined from the start by a boss who openly hated him and did everything he could to hamper his progress. A quarter of a century may have passed and it is still hard to believe this was ever actually allowed to happen, such is the extraordinary level of ineptitude displayed here, but I can assure incredulous readers that it is all absolutely true. Such behaviour from an F1 team would be totally unthinkable today, and even 25 years on the saga of Andrea Moda stands as a powerful warning to stay out of top-level motorsport unless you really know what you're doing. Their like will never be seen again, which is a good thing for the sport's reputation, although an injection of hopeless shenanigans would certainly add some much-needed amusement to today's dull races. Can you imagine the utter chaos if Life and Andrea Moda had both competed in the same season? It's hard to know who would be worse!