1990 marked a definite step backward for the Brescian team BMS Scuderia Italia, owned by Giuseppe Lucchini, compared to previous seasons. The 8 points collected with the F189 in 1989 had actually raised expectations for the start of the new season, especially since Christian Vanderpleyn had been hired. He was the designer behind the AGS cars that performed well with Tarquini and Streiff in '88 and '89, and he replaced the Italian engineer Mario Tollentino. Technical direction, however, remained in the hands of Giampaolo Dallara, whose factory in Varano de' Melegari near Parma produced the new F190 single-seaters, managed on track by Scuderia Italia.
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| BMS-DALLARA F190, Emanuele Pirro Hungaroring, Hungarian GP 1990 |
Unfortunately, the change in designer did not yield the hoped-for results. In fact, the positive features seen in the previous F189 were completely overshadowed by the new technician’s decisions, which, despite making no major modifications to the car, significantly worsened its performance. The F190 was a very simple vehicle that retained the same carbon fiber and Kevlar monocoque chassis seen on the F189. It still housed the V8 Ford-Cosworth DFR engine paired with a Hewland-derived gearbox, modified by Dallara's engineers.
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| BMS-DALLARA F190, Andrea de Cesaris Monza, Italian GP 1990 |
The only differences from the F189 were a slight increase in wheelbase and track width to provide greater contact with the ground and, theoretically, a more downforce-heavy setup. However, this choice was not matched with proper suspension tuning, leading to a decline in performance. Aesthetically, the sleek and slender lines of the F189 were slightly altered with bulkier sidepods and an engine cover that lost the elegant straight line of the previous version.
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| BMS-DALLARA F190, Emanuele Pirro Montecarlo, Monaco GP 1990 |
The rear section of the sidepods was also sacrificed and removed to allow better airflow and avoid the overheating issues that had caused many retirements at the end of the 1989 season. For the new season, Scuderia Italia retained veteran Italian driver Andrea de Cesaris and paired him with fellow countryman Emanuele Pirro, who, however, had to miss the first two races of the championship due to health problems. He was temporarily replaced by Gianni Morbidelli.
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| BMS-DALLARA F190, Andrea de Cesaris Spa-Francorchamps, Belgian GP 1990 |
As Enzo Ferrari once said, “Give a child a sheet of paper and some crayons and ask him to draw a race car, he’ll surely draw it red,” but that probably doesn’t apply to Lucchini’s red single-seaters. In fact, the poor performance and equally poor reliability of the F190 prevented the drivers from scoring any points in the championship. Although the cars almost always qualified for Sunday’s race, the F190 managed to finish only 6 out of 30 starts, with Pirro’s tenth place in Hungary and de Cesaris’s tenth place in Italy being the best results.
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