The absurd story of the Andrea Moda in F1 Between unlicensed drivers, tax fraud and arrests right in the paddock
Sports history, especially when it comes to professionalism, has always tended inexorably to hand down winners. Sometimes, however, some of those actors and events that time often washes out of memory manage to carve out their own space in the annals for the grandeur of their feats - albeit unfinished - or for the din of their failures. The latter is certainly the case with the Andrea Moda Formula team, a participant in the Formula 1 World Championship held in 1992.
The birthplace of this curious page of the racing world was Andrea Sassetti, an Italian entrepreneur engaged in women's footwear with the Andrea Moda brand, who had glimpsed in Formula 1 the ideal showcase to enhance his brand. That's why in 1991, driven by this idea, Sassetti acquired materials and personnel from Scuderia Coloni - then fresh out of Formula 1-and commissioned third-party companies to design and supply the engines. Keeping in mind that the scuderia was intended to be the on-track reflection of a brand originally operating in the fashion industry, the unique style and elegance of the full black livery, first unveiled at the 1991 Bologna Motor Show, along with the overalls of the drivers chosen at the beginning of the adventure: Enrico Bertaggia and Alex Caffi.
Logistical problems and staff shortages continued to shadow the steps of Sassetti's fledgling stable, so much so that to make up for the lack of personnel several times he was forced to call in workers from his shoe factory. But none of this can rival the worthy conclusion of this affair, namely the arrest of Sassetti himself directly in the paddock of the Belgian Grand Prix under an international arrest warrant issued for false invoicing, which cost the team a lifetime disqualification from Formula 1, guilty of damaging its image, as well as the seizure of assets to repay suppliers.
The adventure of the Andrea Moda Formula nevertheless closely involved a slice of the public, especially the Italian public, which saw in that experience the realization of the dream of creating a reality in the most famous category of motors, albeit counterbalanced by the demonstration of how difficult it is to actually compete at certain levels. If you want to find out more about this actually crazy affair, the release of Last & Furious-a docufilm on the history of Andrea Moda Formula-is scheduled for 2023, at the end of a production work of no less than four years.
