In its initial foray, the team was very successful, winning the Italian Formula 3 championship drivers' title for three consecutive times with Enzo Coloni (1982); Ivan Capelli (1983); and Alessandro Santin (1984).

Coloni made its first appearance in Formula One at the 1987 Italian Grand Prix in September 1987, where it failed to qualify.

The yellow painted FC187, powered by a Novamotor-prepared Cosworth DFZ, was designed by former Dallara apprentice Roberto Ori.

Coloni himself had carried out the shake-down drive and Nicola Larini was signed as the team's sole driver.

The Italian recorded Coloni’s first Formula One race start at the 1987 Spanish Grand Prix, although mechanical problems meant that he did not finish.

Although the FC188 was almost identical to its predecessor, Coloni's new driver Gabriele Tarquini qualified regularly and finished 8th at the Canadian Grand Prix.

The C3 was a basically good design but the team's performance suffered from lack of testing, often struggling to find the right setup for the races.

Unfortunately for the team, he then collided with Eddie Cheever in the warm-up [2] Archived 2007-09-26 at the Wayback Machine and had to use the spare car.

After Vanderpleyn had left the team in September, Enzo Coloni took over the engineer's job himself but this brought no improvement; neither did the new driver Enrico Bertaggia who replaced Raphanel for the last races.

The Japanese car manufacturer took over 51% of the team and supplied a brand new flat-12 engine designed by Carlo Chiti.

In the pits at Phoenix, the car was assembled for the very first time and a short shakedown took place in the parking area of an American supermarket.

It did not follow common design practices for the time, was overweight by 300 pounds (140 kg) and proved uncompetitive.

Although lacking aerodynamic downforce or the engine power necessary to be competitive, the C3 was described by Gachot (speaking in 2021) as "the most fun" car he drove during his F1 career.

In May, Subaru decided to remove Enzo Coloni from his sporting director role, but no improvement came, and the Japanese company decided to withdraw from the partnership, selling the team back to Enzo Coloni, debt free, but with no sponsors and no engines.

By the German Grand Prix Coloni had arranged a supply of Ford-Cosworth engines, prepared by Langford & Peck.

Coloni handed his single car to newcomer Pedro Chaves from Portugal, who had just won the British Formula 3000 series in 1990.

For the last two races of the year in Monza and Abu Dhabi, Arabadzhiev was replaced by New Zealander Brendon Hartley.

Halfway through the season, Coloni was only able to record one championship point (obtained by Herck in the sprint race in Spain).

The situation improved when Coloni replaced Ceccon with the Italian veteran Luca Filippi for the race at the Nürburgring in July.

[4] Swiss Ex-Zele Racing driver Christof von Grünigen was signed to the team, and later joined by Italian Loris Spinelli.