First Racing (sometimes written as FIRST Racing) was an Italian motor racing team founded by Lamberto Leoni, which competed in International Formula 3000 from 1987 to 1991 and the Italian Formula 3 Championship in 1990. The team also made an unsuccessful attempt to enter Formula One in 1989.
Formula 3000 In 1987 former Formula One racing driver Lamberto Leoni returned to competitive racing by founding his own Formula 3000 team. First Racing debuted in Silverstone with two cars, one for Leoni and another one for Gabriele Tarquini. Although Leoni was the first of the two drivers to score points, with a sixth place at the Pau Grand Prix, Tarquini was able to finish on the podium twice, with a third place at Pergusa and a second place at Imola. Over the course of the season, the team occasionally fielded a third car, with Aldo Bertuzzi, Beppe Gabbiani, Claudio Langes and Alain Ferté alternating at the wheel. For the following season, Leoni decided to limit his involvement to management, and hired Pierluigi Martini and Marco Apicella, with Martini scoring the team's first win at Pergusa and finishing fourth in the championship. In 1989, First set off to a promising start when Fabrizio Giovanardi won the second round of the championship at Vallelunga. Apicella, in the second car, proved to be a regular points-scorer, and finished fourth in the final standing podium finishes at Pau, Jerez, Birmingham and Spa. With the line-up of Giovanardi and Apicella confirmed, the team entered the 1990 season full of expectations, but the two drivers, despite scoring points on a regular basis, were not able to win any races. 1991 proved to be First's final season in Formula 3000. Financial difficulties prompted Leoni to hire two pay drivers, Michael Bartels and Jean-Denis Délétraz. The car, however, was uncompetitive, and following a string of poor results, Leoni decided to retire the team and concentrate on managing the career of Apicella.
Formula One Buoyed by the promising results accomplished during his first Formula 3000 season, Leoni commissioned Richard Divila to design a car for entry into the 1989 Formula One championship. The team opted to use a Judd V8 engine. Gabriele Tarquini was signed to drive. After a run at the 1989 Attilio Bettega Memorial event in Bologna and the Formula One Indoor Trophy, the team realized that the chassis was poorly manufactured due to a temperature mistake in the autoclave, with the result that a second chassis had to be re-commissioned.Mario Donnini, "First 189 F. 1: Inverno di ristallo', Autosprint, no. 19, 12–18 May 2020 Having concluded that the delay would cost the team a penalty for missing the first two races of the season, Divila and his engineers tried to reinforce the chassis with injections of a material called Redus 410 NA.Mario Donnini, "First 189 F. 1: Inverno di ristallo', Autosprint, no. 19, 12–18 May 2020 Although the car passed the mandatory FIA pre-season crash test in Cranfield, it was now significantly overweight. Divila himself claimed that the car as it was, was good for nothing but being "an interesting flowerpot". Faced with the perspective of racing an uncompetitive car in a packed field (the 1989 Formula One World Championship counted over forty participants with pre-qualifying sessions), Leoni decided to withdraw before the opening Brazilian Grand Prix and concentrate his efforts on the Formula 3000 season.
The second chassis commissioned by Leoni would be later purchased by Ernesto Vita and used in the 1990 Formula One World Championship for his Life L190.
Competition record Complete Formula 3000 results first column of every race 10 = grid position second column of every race 10 = race result Year Name Country Place Chassis Engine 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 1987 Gabriele Tarquini = 8th March Ford Cosworth 9 10 9 R 11 12 5 R11 15 19 7 3 18 17 7 14 8 2 19 5 4 R1987 Lamberto Leoni = 8th March Ford Cosworth 18 8 8 8 25 13 18 6 6 R 10 5 17 11 18 R March Judd 9 4 12 4 17 41987 Beppe Gabbiani NC March Ford Cosworth - - 20 12 19 R - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -1987 Claudio Langes NC March Ford Cosworth - - - - - - - - 29 NQ 20 R 21 R 24 10 - - - - 15 R1987 Alain Ferté NC March Ford Cosworth - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 22 R - - 1988 Pierluigi Martini 4th March Judd 17 8 16 11 4 3 7 10 6 R 2 1 3 2 4 3 - - 10 R 12 10 1988 Marco Apicella 11th March Judd 20 13 7 7 17 5 6 6 3 2 7 R 18 R 5 R 11 R 21 R 15 R 1988 Alain Ferté NC March Judd - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 20 12 - - - - 1989 Marco Apicella 4th March Judd 13 8 Reynard Judd 2 R 1 2 5 3 5 4 12 R 2 2 8 3 8 R 9 R 1989 Fabrizio Giovanardi 10th March Judd 28 NQ 7 1 Reynard Judd 6 R 21 14 12 R 29 NQ 21 NS 26 13 28 NQ 20 12 1989 Jean-Denis Delétraz NC March Judd 26 14 19 R 16 R 25 15 Reynard Judd 18 R 15 R 13 12 27 NQ 15 R 12 9 1990 Marco Apicella 6th Reynard Mugen Honda 3 13 6 3 3 R 2 2 7 5 2 R 2 2 5 DIS(3) 1 R 5 R 11 5 1990 Fabrizio Giovanardi 10th Reynard Mugen Honda 16 R 10 R 2 2 13 6 21 10 15 6 13 7 19 R 18 5 18 R 10 R1990 Jean-Denis Délétraz NC Reynard Ford Cosworth 21 7 31 NQ 18 R 27 NQ 25 R - - - - - - - - - - - -1990 Marco Greco NC Reynard Ford Cosworth - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - 28 NQ 32 NQ1991 Éric Hélary 8th † Reynard Ford Cosworth 14 11 7 3 16 R 17 R16 - - - - -- - - - - -- --1991 Michael Bartels NC Reynard Ford Cosworth - 11 8 10 R 14 15 - - - - - - - - - - - - - -1991 Giovanni Bonanno NC Reynard Ford Cosworth 22 R - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- -1991 Jean-Denis Délétraz NC Reynard Ford Cosworth 15 NS 24 NQ 13 R - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - † Éric Hélary finished season with Cobra Racing
References
Article on the First 189 with photos (archived, in Italian)