First Racing

First Racing
Founded	1969
Founder(s)	Lamberto Leoni
Folded	1991
Team principal(s)	Lamberto Leoni
Former series	European F2; International Formula 3000
Noted drivers	Marco Apicella; Fabrizio Giovanardi; Éric Hélary; Lamberto Leoni; Pierluigi Martini; Gabriele Tarquini; Marco Greco; Jean-Denis Delétraz

Life

L190 which was initially developed by FIRST in 1989

First Racing (sometimes written as FIRST Racing) was an Italian motor racing team founded by

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

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

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".^[5]^[6] 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

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	Italy	= 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	R
1987	Lamberto Leoni	Italy	= 8th	March	Ford Cosworth	18	8	8	8	25	13	18	6	6	R	10	5	17	11	18	R
1987	Lamberto Leoni	Italy	= 8th	March	Judd																	9	4	12	4	17	4
1987	Beppe Gabbiani	Italy	NC	March	Ford Cosworth	-	-	20	12	19	R	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1987	Claudio Langes	Italy	NC	March	Ford Cosworth	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	29	NQ	20	R	21	R	24	10	-	-	-	-	15	R
1987	Alain Ferté	France	NC	March	Ford Cosworth	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	22	R	-	-
1988	Pierluigi Martini	Italy	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	Italy	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	France	NC	March	Judd	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	20	12	-	-	-	-
1989	Marco Apicella	Italy	4th	March	Judd	13	8
1989	Marco Apicella	Italy	4th	Reynard	Judd			2	R	1	2	5	3	5	4	12	R	2	2	8	3	8	R	9	R
1989	Fabrizio Giovanardi	Italy	10th	March	Judd	28	NQ	7	1
1989	Fabrizio Giovanardi	Italy	10th	Reynard	Judd					6	R	21	14	12	R	29	NQ	21	NS	26	13	28	NQ	20	12
1989	Jean-Denis Delétraz	Switzerland	NC	March	Judd	26	14	19	R	16	R	25	15
1989	Jean-Denis Delétraz	Switzerland	NC	Reynard	Judd									18	R	15	R	13	12	27	NQ	15	R	12	9
1990	Marco Apicella	Italy	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	Italy	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	R
1990	Jean-Denis Délétraz	Switzerland	NC	Reynard	Ford Cosworth	21	7	31	NQ	18	R	27	NQ	25	R	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1990	Marco Greco	Brazil	NC	Reynard	Ford Cosworth	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	28	NQ	32	NQ
1991	Éric Hélary	France	8th †	Reynard	Ford Cosworth	14	11	7	3	16	R	17	R16	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1991	Michael Bartels	Germany	NC	Reynard	Ford Cosworth		-	11	8	10	R	14	15	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1991	Giovanni Bonanno	Italy	NC	Reynard	Ford Cosworth	22	R	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1991	Jean-Denis Délétraz	Switzerland	NC	Reynard	Ford Cosworth	15	NS	24	NQ	13	R	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

† Éric Hélary finished season with Cobra Racing

References

^ "Richard Divila Profile". Grandprix.com. Inside F1. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
^ "Bologna Sprint". Silhouette.com. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
^ Mario Donnini, "First 189 F. 1: Inverno di ristallo', Autosprint, no. 19, 12–18 May 2020
^ Mario Donnini, "First 189 F. 1: Inverno di ristallo', Autosprint, no. 19, 12–18 May 2020
^ "Teams that barely existed". F1 Database. Archived from the original on 9 July 2013. Retrieved 13 January 2016.
^ "Life team profile". F1Rejects.com. Archived from the original on 26 September 2011. Retrieved 13 January 2016.

Article on the First 189 with photos (archived, in Italian)

[1] "Richard Divila Profile". Grandprix.com. Inside F1. Retrieved 13 January 2016.

[2] "Bologna Sprint". Silhouette.com. Retrieved 13 January 2016.

[3] Mario Donnini, "First 189 F. 1: Inverno di ristallo', Autosprint, no. 19, 12–18 May 2020

[4] Mario Donnini, "First 189 F. 1: Inverno di ristallo', Autosprint, no. 19, 12–18 May 2020

[5] "Teams that barely existed". F1 Database. Archived from the original on 9 July 2013. Retrieved 13 January 2016.

[6] "Life team profile". F1Rejects.com. Archived from the original on 26 September 2011. Retrieved 13 January 2016.

[5]

[6]