It seems that many only know Forti Corse for their two years in the Formula One on the grid. However, Guido Forti and Paolo Guerci established the team in the late 1970s and were soon a championship winning team. While winning the Italian Formula Ford championship in 1977 their success came in the 1980s. Especially in the Italian Formula Three, they were one of the teams to beat. In 1985, 1987, 1988 and 1989 they won the championship with drivers like Naspetti and Morbidelli. From 1987 onwards, the team became one of the front running teams in the International Formula 3000. In 1994, the team announced their interest for the Formula One. Debuting in 1995 with the FG01, for 1996 we all believed the FG02 would follow up. Yet, we got the FG01B and later the FG03 and never the FG02, what happened?
In 1995, Forti Corse debuted in the Formula One with rookie Pedro Diniz and ace Roberto Moreno. They did so by acquire the assets that were left of the former Fondmetal team. With it were also the chassis of the GR02 from Fondmetal. As well, some of the blue prints of the unraced GR03 for 1993. The team used the GR02 as the base of their FG01. Rinland came even to the team to assist them to update the GR02 with the GR03 blue prints to become a competitive car for 1995. The FG01 was extensively tested. However, the car shown it was too slow with Pedro Diniz 7 seconds slower at Estoril then the fastest time.
The FG01, during the season, got updated and improved. Even the team doubled in team-members to compete in the Formula One. The 1995 season can be seen as a failure for the team, they did spent a lot of money on the design of the FG01 during the season. Their best results were a 7th place in Australia by Diniz and a 9th place in Italy by Pedro Diniz. Yet, there was a solid and healthy situation for 1996, it seemed. Pedro Diniz, believed, would stay with Forti Corse for 1996 and his family was to chip in some more money to support Diniz his Formula One career.
When I went through some old magazines in found in the Autosprint from 11th of November 1995, I came across some small article with a sketch of the “new” Forti for 1996. The Forti FG02, which would be fitted with the Ford Zetec V8 engine. It is the same engine that made Benetton a World champion in 1994. The same time the team was working on a new semi-automatic gearbox in collaboration with Minardi. However, there were some concerns; well there have had to be at Forti. Already in October 1995, there were rumours that Pedro Diniz would become a driver for Ligier.
At that time, Tom Walkinshaw ran the team and he was not keen in signing pay-drivers, he even denied there were talks between him and Pedro’s management for a seat in 1996. At that time, Pedro Diniz had the title pay-driver as he brought in millions via his sponsors. Some say it was 8 million he would bring in. During that time, the team was working on their new challenger for 1996.
However, all went wrong for Forti as Pedro Diniz eventually signed a contract with the Ligier team. Partly due to the unhappiness of the lack of competitiveness of the Forti FG01 in 1995, partly as Ligier was assigned better as a team then Forti on the grid. The team debuted in the 1970s, while it struggled badly in the late 80s and 90s the team found its way up again. Diniz leaving the team for Ligier is the biggest reason the team was forced to start in 1996 with a B-spec of their FG01.
Forti Corse presented their challenger the FG01B in February 1996, where was said that the new Forti would appear later in the season. There are Italian outlets that called the FG01B the FG02. This is, as far as I know, not true. The FG01B was an evolution of the FG01, while the FG02 would have been a brand new car. Eventually, the team came with the Forti FG03, with the non-existing money from Shannon and FinFirst. While there does a sketch exist of the Forti FG02, as seen in Autosprint I asked ChatGPT if he could make a render of the car. I have to say, based on it, the car looks absolutely stunning. We will never know how the FG02, or if the FG02, would have looked like. Perhaps some ideas were put on the FG01B and later on the FG03.
Now you can ask yourself if the Forti FG02 is a real thing, there are more teams who use the numbering 1, 3, 5, or 2, 4, 6, etc. Yet, i believe that the Forti FG02 would have been legit. The reason they updated the FG01 to the FG01B is the lack of money as Pedro Diniz left the team for Ligier in 1996.
