The C4 was an evolution of the Coloni C3C, itself derived from the C3 that had raced — and largely failed to qualify — since 1989. For the 1991 season, development work on the C3C chassis was handed to students from the University of Perugia, who revised the sidepods and fitted a different airbox configuration. The resulting C4 retained the same basic structural philosophy as its predecessors while adopting these aerodynamic changes.
Power came initially from a Ford Cosworth DFR V8 engine prepared by Langford and Peck, which the team later swapped for a unit prepared by Brian Hart. The Langford and Peck-prepared engine was considered significantly less powerful than the Hart version, giving the team little room for optimism. Coloni had hoped to sign Andrea de Cesaris, who had Marlboro backing, but after de Cesaris chose Jordan, the team hired Portuguese rookie Pedro Chaves instead.
Chaves contested the full 1991 season but failed to pre-qualify for every race he entered. Pre-qualifying sessions, held on Friday mornings before official practice, were a regulatory hurdle faced by the five slowest teams from the previous year, and Chaves was consistently among the slowest eight drivers taking part.
At the 1991 United States Grand Prix he outpaced Olivier Grouillard and Eric van de Poele but crashed into a tyre wall. In Brazil he again only beat Grouillard, and a broken gearbox left him slowest in San Marino. He was eight seconds off the pace at the Canadian Grand Prix, even with the new Hart engine fitted. At Monza, the Cosworth engine failed to start and Chaves could not set a time at all. By the Portuguese Grand Prix, his home race, the C4 was comfortably the slowest car present. Following disputes over lack of track time and non-payment of his retainer, Chaves quit the team after Portugal.
For the final two races — the Japanese and Australian Grands Prix — Coloni hired Naoki Hattori, the reigning Japanese Formula Three champion. At Suzuka, Hattori was sixteen seconds slower than his nearest rival in pre-qualifying, and nearly five seconds adrift in Australia. Neither performance came close to reaching the pre-qualifying threshold required to continue into official practice.
Coloni folded at the close of the 1991 season, ending a Formula One participation that had begun in 1987.
In September 1991, Enzo Coloni sold the team for eight million dollars to Italian shoe manufacturer Andrea Sassetti, who renamed it Andrea Moda Formula. Sassetti retained the C4, designating a modified version the Andrea Moda C4B, and brought it to the 1992 South African Grand Prix at Kyalami. Modifications included a Judd V10 GV engine (producing around 750 hp, against the Cosworth DFR's 620 hp), rear suspension and a semi-automatic six-speed gearbox sourced from the Dallara 191, and a reduced weight compared to the Cosworth configuration. The front suspension and frame of the original C4 were retained; University of Perugia students, under the direction of Paul Burgess, carried out the rebuild.
The C4B's appearance at Kyalami ended in exclusion before a competitive lap was run. The FIA ruled that Andrea Moda had not constructed its own chassis as required of a new entrant, since the C4B remained substantially similar to the Coloni C4 and the company that Sassetti had purchased from Coloni was not the same legal entity that had built World Championship cars. As a new constructor, Andrea Moda was also found not to have paid the required entry deposit. After legal and financial negotiations with the FIA were concluded, the team was reinstated on condition it present an entirely new car at the next round. The C4B was replaced by the Andrea Moda S921, developed by Simtek, from the Mexican Grand Prix onward.
The C4 stands as the last chapter in Coloni's troubled Formula One story. It also represents a notable curiosity as the direct ancestor of the Andrea Moda C4B, which holds the distinction of being excluded from a World Championship round before it could compete — one of the more unusual footnotes in Formula One history.