Andrea Sassetti (born 1960)[1] is an Italian shoe designer, owner of the Italian fashion company Andrea Moda, a brand of high-end women's shoes.[2] Born in Fermo, he was also the owner of a Formula One motor racing team Andrea Moda Formula in 1992. The origin of Sassetti's fortune remain blurred; some sources attribute it to his father, Silvano Sassetti, a wealthy shoe manufacturer. Others suggest that he won a huge sum playing poker in the 1980s or hint at links with the mafia and illegal trade. According to a telephone interview published on the internet, Sassetti was born into a family of poor peasants who grew rich by working and earning money through gambling.[3][4]
When preparing for the 1992 Formula One World Championship, the headquarters of Andrea Moda Formula was installed in the former workshops of the Coloni team, Passignano sul Trasimeno, a small town in central Italy.[5][6] The new team, which had forty employees, continued to use the materials from the old team; according to several observers, Sassetti had very little, if any, additional funding invested in improving the infrastructure, which could have denoted a lack of seriousness of the new racing structure.[6][7]
In January 1992, in order to complete his racing staff, Sassetti set out to recruit, among others, a mechanic and truck driver from among the workers at his shoe factory.[5] During 1992, a suspected case of arson destroyed Sassetti's discothèque on the east coast of Italy, and as he fled from the flames, a gunman shot at him but missed.[8] He now runs restaurants and nightclubs, and is involved in the construction business. Still interested in the sport, he had a home until the early 2000s with the two original Andrea Moda S921 cars; the cars subsequently disappeared.[9]
References
edit- ^ "Andrea Sassetti". OldRacingCars.com. Retrieved 9 August 2011.
- ^ "Constructors: Andrea Moda Formula". GrandPrix.com. Retrieved 11 August 2011.
- ^ Brown, Allen. "Andrea Sassetti". OldRacingCars.com. Retrieved 6 October 2015.
- ^ McCarthy, Perry (2003). Flat Out, Flat Broke: Formula 1 the Hard Way!. Sparkford: Haynes. p. 194. ISBN 1844250180. OCLC 810482522.
- ^ a b Buchkalter, Patrice; Galeron, Jean-François (1992). Tout sur la Formule 1 1992 [All about Formula 1 1992] (in French). Suresnes: Jean-Pierre Taillandrier. p. 120. ISBN 2876361078.
- ^ a b "Andrea Moda Formula". Motorsport Aktuell (in German). Vol. 10. Zurich. 1992. p. 25.
- ^ Barbé, Stéphane; Dall'Secco, Fabrice; Snowflake, Gerard (1992). "Automobile Occasional 92-03 entire Formula 1 1992" [L'Automobile hors série 92-03 Toute la Formule 1 1992]. Techniques and Tourist Éditions (in French). France. p. 54.
- ^ "Andrea Moda – Full Profile". F1 Rejects. Archived from the original on 28 December 2010. Retrieved 16 January 2016.
- ^ Brunelli, Roberto (5 August 2023). "Last and Furious – la vera storia della Andrea Moda Formula" [Last and Furious – The true history of Andrea Moda Formula] (in Italian). Retrieved 2 January 2024.
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