Since its debut in Formula 1 in 1988, Scuderia Italia had a partnership with Dallara as the constructor of the single-seaters used by the Brescia-based team. In the 1992 season, despite an agreement with Ferrari for the supply of the Maranello V12 engines, Lucchini's team scored just two points, blaming Dallara's chassis as the main culprit for the car’s poor performance, unable to match the power of the Ferrari V12 and performing below expectations. This led to an irreparable rift between Giuseppe Lucchini and Giampaolo Dallara, and by the end of July 1992, talks began with Eric Broadley, head of Lola Racing Cars, to supply their chassis for the 1993 season. By mid-August, the agreement was made official, helped by the fact that the British company committed to providing the chassis free of charge in exchange for a future 49% stake in the BMS-Scuderia Italia company, forming a new entity called "Lola BMS Scuderia Italia."
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| Lola-BMS T93-30, Luca Badoer Montecarlo, Monaco GP 1993 |
Lola's proven experience in the top category, starting as a constructor in 1964 with the Mk4, and later collaborations with Honda in the late '60s, Embassy-Hill in the '70s, Haas in the mid-'80s, and Larrousse in the '90s, was seen as the basis for a long-term collaboration meant to lead Scuderia Italia to the top of Formula 1. Lucchini also secured sponsorship from the Chesterfield cigarette brand, which gave the new cars a distinctive white and red livery, marked by zig-zagging yellow stripes, abandoning the classic red used by the Brescia cars since their debut. Thus was born the new Lola-BMS T93/30, the first and only chassis designed by Lola Racing Cars for Giuseppe Lucchini’s Italian team, and the last car used by Scuderia Italia in the Formula 1 World Championship.
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| Lola-BMS T93-30, Michele Alboreto Montecarlo, Monaco GP 1993 |
The car was designed by a team of engineers led by Eric Broadley at Lola’s UK headquarters in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire. The code T93/30 reflects its year of use (1993) and the number 30 indicates the model designation given by the British constructor for their Formula 1 cars. The design was highly conventional, featuring a carbon fiber monocoque chassis with aluminum panels, an ineffective and unsophisticated aerodynamic setup, and lacking the by-now essential raised nose. Furthermore, despite being fitted with the powerful Ferrari Tipo 40 V12 engine, it was paired with an outdated Hewland gearbox modified by BMS to be semi-automatic, and completely lacked the electronic aids used by most teams, crucial for staying competitive.
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| Lola-BMS T93-30, Luca Badoer Montecarlo, Monaco GP 1993 |
From the outset, the car proved underperforming, unreliable, and difficult to handle in medium-to-low speed corners, partly due to the British engineers’ inability to exploit the excellent torque provided by the Maranello V12. For the 1993 season, both drivers were replaced: experienced Michele Alboreto, fresh off a good season with Footwork and drawn by the opportunity to drive a Ferrari-powered car again, and young rising star Luca Badoer, reigning Formula 3000 champion and making his Formula 1 debut. However, the two collected a string of DNQs and retirements, with Badoer’s seventh place at Imola being the only noteworthy result. As the months went by, relations between Lola and Scuderia Italia deteriorated rapidly, with both engineering teams blaming each other for the disastrous performance. Tensions rose further when Lucchini decided to send the team’s long-time designer Sergio Rinland to Lola’s UK base to inspect the work of the British engineers. However, once in Huntingdon, the Argentine engineer was denied access to the factory. To make matters worse, Ferrari announced it would no longer supply engines to the team from the following year. With two races left in the season, Lucchini decided to withdraw the team from the championship, bringing Scuderia Italia's participation in the Formula One World Championship to a close, with a dismal zero points in the Constructors’ standings.
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| Lola-BMS T93-30, Michele Alboreto Catalunya-Barcelona, Spanish GP 1993 |
After the end of the championship, Lucchini's BMS merged with Minardi, while Lola launched its own program with plans to enter the top series as an independent constructor in 1994, a debut that never materialized. Thus, the T93/30 remains the last Lola-chassis car to have competed in a Formula 1 race.
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