| Motori Moderni | |
| Founders: | Carlo Chiti |
| Debut: | 1985 San Marino Grand Prix |
| Final Race: | 1987 Australian Grand Prix |
| Races: | 46 (44 starts) |
| Chassis: | Minardi, AGS |
| Cons Champ: | 0 |
| Drivers Champ: | 0 |
| Wins: | 0 |
| Podiums: | 0 |
| Points: | 0 |
| Poles: | 0 |
| Fastest Laps: | 0 |
Motori Moderni (Modern Engines) was a Formula One engine manufacturer from 1985 through 1987. It was established in Novara by Italian engine designer Carlo Chiti.
Chiti, a former Ferrari, Automobili Turismo e Sport and Alfa Romeo Formula One chief designer, founded Motori Moderni with the idea of supplying custom turbocharged V6 engines, also known as Tipo 615-90, to Formula One teams. The engines were used by Minardi in Formula One from to and by AGS in .
Motori Moderni's power unit debuted at the 1985 San Marino Grand Prix with the newly-born Minardi Formula One team. Rookie Pierluigi Martini qualified the M185 19th on the grid but was forced to retire after 14 laps. Martini failed to score a point in 1985 with a best finish of 8th and last in the season ending Australian Grand Prix. The Motori Moderni engine produced 7200NaN0. This compared unfavourably to the approximately 10000NaN0 of the Renault, Honda and BMW turbo engines, and the 9000NaN0 of the TAG-Porsche and Ferrari engines. At Silverstone for the British Grand Prix, Martini was 8.054 seconds slower than Keke Rosberg's pole winning Williams-Honda (Rosberg had set the pole at an average of 160.9 mph (258.9 km/h), the fastest ever turbo lap speed). At the Österreichring in Austria he was 11.2 seconds slower than Alain Prost's McLaren TAG-Porsche, while at Monza in Italy he was 8.8 seconds slower than Ayrton Senna's Lotus-Renault.
In 1986, as the Minardi team expanded to running two cars, Martini was replaced with Andrea de Cesaris, and paired with F1 rookie Alessandro Nannini, who showed his class by often out pacing his more experienced countryman. Again, no points were scored with the Motori Moderni engines rated at approximately 7800NaN0 next to the leading Honda, BMW, Ferrari, Renault and TAG-Porsche units which were producing well over 9500NaN0 in race trim (the BMW was said to be the most powerful qualifying engine at around 14000NaN0).
The AGS team was Motori Moderni's second customer. The team only participated in two races during the 1986 season, with Ivan Capelli retiring from both the Italian and Portuguese Grands Prix.
1987 would be the last season the Motori Moderni engine would be used in Formula One. Minardi, who had retained Nannini after an impressive debut season, replaced de Cesaris (who had moved to Brabham) with Spanish driver Adrián Campos. Once more no points were scored throughout the season, despite some spirited drives by Nannini which only resulted in 11th-placed finishes in Hungary and Portugal. The engines, now rated at 8000NaN0 after the introduction of the FIA's mandatory pop-off valve aimed at limiting the turbos power to 4.0 bar, were often struggling against the 5750NaN0 V8 Cosworth DFZ powered cars.
At the 1987 Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide, Nannini qualified an impressive 13th on the grid only 3.434 behind Gerhard Berger's pole winning Ferrari. Unfortunately his race only lasted a few hundred metres as he was pushed into the fence just out of the chicane after the start. Campos qualified 26th and last (3.42 seconds slower than Nannini), with his race ending with transmission failure after 46 of the scheduled 82 laps.
With being the final year for the turbos in Formula One (until), Motori Moderni pulled out of the sport at the end of 1987 rather than try to adapt the engine for an even lower pop-off valve limit of 2.5 bar and a lower fuel limit of just 150 litres. As a result Minardi switched to the Cosworth DFZ engine in 1988.
In late 1988 Chiti was commissioned by Subaru to design a new 12-cylinder boxer engine, known as the 1235 for the new 3.5-litre normally aspirated F1 regulations. This was tested by Minardi. The Japanese car company then bought the Coloni team but withdrew and sold the team back to Enzo Coloni at the end of the season. The engine was later adopted in the 1989 Jiotto Caspita prototype sports car before it was used by Subaru for the 1990 season.
After abandoning Formula One, the flat-12 engines were deployed in the Alba Racing Team's AR20 entry in the 1990 World Sportscar Championship, but failed to start any rounds before being replaced by a more conventional 4.5-litre engine from Buick.[1]
(key) (results in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap)
| Year | Entrant | Chassis | Engine | Tyres | Drivers | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | WCC | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Minardi Team SpA | Minardi M185 | Motori Moderni Tipo 615-90 1.5 V6t | BRA | POR | SMR | MON | CAN | DET | FRA | GBR | GER | AUT | NED | ITA | BEL | EUR | RSA | AUS | — | 0 | |||
 Pierluigi Martini | Ret | DNQ | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | 11† | Ret | Ret | Ret | 12 | Ret | Ret | 8 | |||||||||
| Minardi Team SpA | Minardi M185B M186 | Motori Moderni Tipo 615-90 1.5 V6t | BRA | ESP | SMR | MON | BEL | CAN | DET | FRA | GBR | GER | HUN | AUT | ITA | POR | MEX | AUS | — | 0 | |||
| Andrea de Cesaris | Ret | Ret | Ret | DNQ | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | 8 | Ret | |||||||
| Alessandro Nannini | Ret | Ret | Ret | DNQ | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | NC | 14 | Ret | |||||||
| Jolly Club SpA | Motori Moderni Tipo 615-90 1.5 V6t | Ivan Capelli | Ret | Ret | — | 0 | |||||||||||||||||
| Minardi Team SpA | Minardi M187 | Motori Moderni Tipo 615-90 1.5 V6t | BRA | SMR | BEL | MON | DET | FRA | GBR | GER | HUN | AUT | ITA | POR | ESP | MEX | JPN | AUS | — | 0 | |||
 Adrián Campos | DSQ | Ret | Ret | DNS | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | 14 | Ret | Ret | Ret | |||||||
| Alessandro Nannini | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret | 11 | Ret | 16 | 11† | Ret | Ret | Ret | Ret |