The history of the Forti Corse team began in the mid-1970s in the province of Alessandria, in northwestern Italy. Founded by Guido Forti and Paolo Guerci, the small team took its first steps into the world of open-wheel racing in 1977, participating in the Italian Formula Ford Championship with a car from Osella Corse and driver Teo Fabi, winning the title in its debut year. In the following years, Forti Corse moved on to the South American Formula 3 Championship, achieving some success with Argentine driver Oscar Larrauri. In 1980, Forti Corse returned to racing in Europe, still with Formula 3 single-seaters. It wasn't until 1985 that the team returned to victory, winning the Italian Championship in the category with Franco Fiorini. The success was repeated in '87 with Enrico Bertaggia, in '88 with Emanuele Naspetti, and in '89 with Gianni Morbidelli, who also secured the European title. As early as 1987, Forti Corse’s interest had also turned to the new Formula 3000, in collaboration with the Venturini team and using cars built by Dallara. From 1991, Forti and Guerci decided to definitively leave Formula 3 to focus more consistently on Formula 3000, ending the partnership with Venturini and Dallara to switch to the more competitive Lola chassis and later Reynard. Results significantly improved, and in the 1991–1992 period, with Emanuele Naspetti and Andrea Montermini, the team claimed 7 victories and came close to winning the title.
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| FORTI FG01, Pedro Paulo Diniz Intelagos, Brazillian GP 1995 |
In 1993, a turning point arrived for the small Piedmontese team with the hiring of Brazilian driver Pedro Paulo Diniz, who, in addition to having a substantial personal budget supported by Brazilian sponsors, brought businessman Pablo Gancia. Gancia acquired Paolo Guerci's shares in the team and began discussing with Guido Forti the opportunity to debut in Formula 1, a category that had always been of great interest to Brazilians. The solid financial foundations provided by Diniz’s personal sponsors and Gancia’s capital gave the team a budget of approximately £7.5 million to attempt the “big leap” into Formula 1 in 1995. Building their own single-seater for the first time was undoubtedly the team’s biggest challenge and the main obstacle for Guido Forti, who prioritized reliability over performance. Thus began the project for the new Forti FG01, whose roots trace back to 1991, when former Brabham designer Sergio Rinland left the British team before the season’s end. Rinland later founded Astauto Design Ltd. in Tolworth, England, hiring many of his former Brabham colleagues when the historic British team closed. Brabham sold its factory and wind tunnel in Chessington to Yamaha, facilities that Astauto leased to develop the new Fondmetal GR02, designed and built in June 1992, just six months after being commissioned by Gabriele Rumi.
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| FORTI FG01, Pedro Paulo Diniz Intelagos, Brazilian GP 1995 |
The Fondmetal GR02 was a natural evolution of the Brabham BT60, as it was designed in a very short time by the same team. Due to Rumi’s severe financial problems, the GR02 did not complete the 1992 Championship, and in September of that same year, the Fondmetal team ceased operations. At the end of 1994, Guido Forti reached an agreement with Rumi to acquire the remnants of the Fondmetal Team, purchasing all the spare parts of the GR02 at the same time. Forti then turned to Rinland's Astauto Design to buy the design for what would have been the 1993 Formula 1 car had the Fondmetal team continued. At that time, Rinland was living and working in California on a new Champ Car project. Forti sent his then-chief designer, and former Astauto employee, Chris Radage to California to collect all technical data, information, and drawings from Rinland. The project was then entrusted to Giorgio Stirano, who had previously worked in Formula 1 as designer of the 1980 Osella FA1, and to Chris Radage. Giacomo Caliri was hired as executive engineer; he had worked for Osella in the early 1980s, but before that also for Ferrari with Mauro Forghieri, and later with Autodelta Alfa Romeo and Fittipaldi Automotive. The head of the aerodynamics department was Hans Fouche, a former Rinland collaborator at Astauto with a past at Brabham.
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| FORTI FG01, Roberto Moreno Adelaide, Australian GP 1995 |
For a short period, Rinland himself joined the team at the beginning of 1995 as Technical Director and helped in the design of the car. Since it was little more than a reworking of the old Fondmetal GR02, the Forti FG01 did not promise much in terms of performance. The car was bulky and angular, with poor aerodynamic efficiency that negatively affected grip and handling, as well as being overweight and underpowered. It used a customer Ford-Cosworth ED V8 engine, largely funded by Ford Brazil, which produced only 630 hp, and it was the only car on the 1995 grid still using a manual gearbox. The only appealing aspect of the car was its blue and yellow color scheme, with fluorescent green rims, reflecting the team's Brazilian influence in its debut year. Naturally, the driver lineup also consisted of Brazilians, with Pedro Paulo Diniz as lead driver alongside veteran Roberto Moreno.
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| FORTI FG01, Roberto Moreno Hungaroring, Hungarian GP 1995 |
In both testing and early races, the Italian team’s cars, though reliable, were often relegated to the lower grid positions, trailing significantly behind the front-runners. Rinland left the team just a few weeks into the season after clashing with management over the car’s lack of competitiveness. Mid-season updates were made to the cars, including the adoption of a new nose, but they did not produce significant improvements. The best result came from Diniz in Australia, the season’s final race, with a seventh-place finish, still 4 laps behind the winner Hill and 1 lap behind the sixth-placed car. Nevertheless, this result allowed Forti Corse to finish ahead of Pacific in the 1995 Constructors' standings. For 1996, the car was updated to the “B” specification and, with Italian drivers Luca Badoer and Andrea Montermini, participated in the first five races of the season, unsurprisingly without achieving any notable results.
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