The S921's origins lay with Nick Wirth's Simtek Research, which had designed the machine in 1990 to serve as BMW's prospective Formula One challenger. When BMW's programme was cancelled, the design remained dormant until it was purchased by Andrea Moda Formula, the team established by Italian businessman Andrea Sassetti. The design was revived and updated for the 1992 season, and two chassis were constructed to accommodate the team's two drivers: experienced Brazilian Roberto Moreno, who had previously raced for Benetton and Jordan, and Englishman Perry McCarthy, making his Formula One debut.
The 1992 season was an almost unbroken sequence of failures for the S921 and the team running it. The season began badly: at the opening South African Grand Prix, Andrea Moda arrived not with the S921 but with a modified Coloni chassis, and was excluded before the race weekend had properly begun.
When the S921 did make its first proper appearance, the car and team struggled to satisfy the season's pre-qualifying requirement, a filter designed to prevent the slowest teams from clogging the grid. Moreno repeatedly failed to pre-qualify. McCarthy's early-season programme was complicated further by the absence of a Super Licence, and once he had obtained the necessary credentials, his car suffered persistent mechanical failures, including a breakdown in the pit lane at the Spanish Grand Prix.
The team's one genuine competitive moment came at the 1992 Monaco Grand Prix. Moreno negotiated the Friday pre-qualifying session successfully and went on to qualify in 26th place for the race. During the race itself he climbed as high as 19th before his engine failed on lap 11, ending his afternoon. McCarthy failed to set a meaningful time in pre-qualifying at Monaco, reportedly recording a lap of approximately seventeen minutes.
The team's already dismal season reached its conclusion at the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, where both Moreno and McCarthy failed to qualify. During the race weekend, team owner Andrea Sassetti was arrested at the circuit in connection with financial irregularities. In the aftermath, the FIA ruled that the team was not being operated in a manner compatible with the standards of the World Championship and that its conduct was bringing the championship into disrepute. The team was formally expelled from the 1992 season.
Despite the ban, Andrea Moda still appeared at Monza for the Italian Grand Prix, though they were refused entry to the paddock. The team finished the season last in the Constructors' Championship with no points scored.
The Andrea Moda S921 is remembered as a cautionary study in underfunding, mismanagement, and the fragility of a Formula One entry built on a foundation of borrowed designs and inadequate resources. Perry McCarthy later wrote about his experiences with the team extensively, and the Andrea Moda story has become well known among Formula One enthusiasts as an extreme example of a backmarker team's struggles during an era when pre-qualifying was used to control grid numbers. The car achieved nothing in competition, but the circumstances surrounding its expulsion gave it a lasting notoriety out of all proportion to its on-track record.
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