Guglielmo Bellasi was among several car manufacturers who attempted to establish themselves in Italian Formula 3 during the late 1960s. The first Bellasi F3 car appeared in 1966, entered by Scuderia Inter Corse and driven by Guglielmo Bellasi himself. This Ford-engined machine showed potential, finishing third in the Circuito del Lago di Garda race. Bellasi F3 cars appeared again in 1967, with Bellasi and Sandro Angeleri making occasional outings. A more concerted effort followed in 1968 when Scuderia Jolly Club ran as many as four cars for Angeleri, Pino Mariella, Franco Conti, and others. The best result was a fifth place for Mariella in the Coppa Autodromo at Monza. Similar cars continued to be seen in 1969 with Georges Ferreira, Pino Pica, and Giorgio Pianta among the drivers. The 1969 F3 Bellasi was a petite tubular chassis with a wedge body and an untidy outboard suspension, featuring a rear-mounted water radiator where the coolant was apparently warmed by the exhaust.
For 1970, Swiss racer Silvio Moser commissioned Bellasi to design a Grand Prix car. This Cosworth-powered device incorporated some components from the Brabham BT24-3 that Moser had previously raced for the Silvio Moser Racing Team SA. The car featured a simple riveted aluminium monocoque with a tubular sub-frame carrying the radiator and front suspension. Moser needed a monocoque replacement for his Brabham (a tubular spaceframe) due to regulations calling for bag fuel tanks. Moser and Bellasi began working on the idea in the winter of 1969-1970, with the initial plan to build a new frame based on Moser's BT24-3. The frame was to be financed by Bellasi, while the Moser Racing Team SA provided the engine (DFV 802), gearbox, wheels, and other parts from the old Brabham. In February 1970, Beat Schenker, Moser's mechanic, took over the design and construction of 90 to 95 percent of the car.
The car, codenamed F1-1-70, appeared for the Dutch Grand Prix in June 1970 but failed to qualify there, running almost 3 seconds slower than the last qualifier, Graham Hill in a Lotus 49. Two weeks later, Moser was entered in the French Grand Prix, missing the cut by one position, with the margin reduced to half a second behind Hill. The team missed the 1970 British Grand Prix because confirmation of their accepted entry reached Switzerland too late. For the next race in Germany, Moser crashed the Bellasi at the Ostkurve and the team lacked spare parts for a rebuild, resulting in another non-qualification. Moser finally qualified for a Grand Prix at the 1970 Austrian Grand Prix, qualifying last, just half a second slower than George Eaton's BRM. The Bellasi lasted only 13 laps before retiring due to a cracked radiator from a warm-up crash, leading to water loss and engine overheating. At Monza, Moser failed to qualify the Bellasi again. Bellasi suggested skipping the last races of the year due to short funds, and Moser followed this advice.
The Bellasi reappeared for the non-championship Argentine Grand Prix in January 1971, entered by Scuderia Jolly Club. Moser qualified ahead of five Formula 5000 cars and completed 42 laps in the first heat and 26 laps in the second. In September 1971, the car was entered again at the 1971 Italian Grand Prix by Moser and Scuderia Jolly Club. Moser qualified, improving his 1970 time, and was not last on the grid, with Jean-Pierre Jarier making his debut behind him. However, the car retired after only three laps due to a bad job on the shock absorbers' overhaul by supplier Armstrong, despite Schenker making a small suspension geometry adjustment that improved performance. The rest of the car was still in full working order.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.