Forti flies too high

Forti Corse, founded by Guido Forti, graduated to Formula One as a constructor and entrant in 1995, but its first car – the Forti FG01, designed by Giacomo Caliri and Giorgio Stirano, proved to be uncompetitive, and the team failed to score a point.

Picture above: Roberto Moreno ‘flies’ over a curb in his Forti FG01-Ford, at the 1995 Japanese Grand Prix held at the Suzuka race track.

From 1992, team founder Guido Forti developed a relationship with the wealthy Brazilian businessman Abilio dos Santos Diniz that gave Diniz’s racing driver son, Pedro, a permanent seat in the team and the outfit a sufficiently high budget to consider entering Formula One.

Forti’s number one driver for the 1995 season was rookie Pedro Diniz who had raced with Forti in F3000. He was guaranteed a seat as his family and sponsors were paying significant amount of the team’s budget. The second driver was his more experienced compatriot Roberto Moreno, however, his seat was initially only guaranteed on a race-by-race basis.

Pedro Diniz (picture below) managed to finish tenth in Monaco and ninth in Italy, while Roberto Moreno was plagued with reliability issues all season and could only manage a fourteenth position in Belgium.