Enzo Coloni earned the nickname "Il lupo" — the wolf — during his own racing career in the Italian Formula 3 and European Formula Two series in the late 1970s and early 1980s, a name that later became part of the team's visual identity. Having decided to channel his competitive instincts into team management, Coloni founded his eponymous operation in 1982 and immediately found success in Italian Formula 3. The team won the Italian Formula 3 championship drivers' title in three consecutive years: Enzo Coloni himself in 1982, Ivan Capelli in 1983, and Alessandro Santin in 1984. Enzo Coloni retired from active driving at the end of 1982 to focus entirely on running the team.
Further success followed in 1986, when Nicola Larini won the Italian Formula 3 title again and went on to race in Formula 3000 alongside Gabriele Tarquini. Tarquini finished tenth in that championship, scoring a best result of third place in Austria. When the FIA announced that turbocharged engines would be banned from Formula One from 1989 — a change expected to reduce costs and attract new entrants — Coloni saw an opportunity and committed to moving into the top category.
Coloni made its Formula One debut at the 1987 Italian Grand Prix, failing to qualify with the yellow-liveried FC187, powered by a Novamotor-prepared Cosworth DFZ engine and designed by former Dallara apprentice Roberto Ori. Nicola Larini was the team's sole driver and recorded Coloni's first race start at the 1987 Spanish Grand Prix, though a mechanical failure prevented him from finishing.
The 1988 season, the team's first full Formula One campaign, began more promisingly. Gabriele Tarquini, signed as the new driver, qualified regularly and finished eighth at the Canadian Grand Prix — Coloni's best Formula One result. A shortage of funds restricted development, and performance declined as the season progressed. The team scored no championship points and finished fifteenth in the Constructors standings.
In 1989 the team entered two cars for Roberto Moreno and Pierre-Henri Raphanel, with the FC188B proving difficult to manage and significantly slower than the rest of the grid. Both drivers qualified for the Monaco Grand Prix — the sole race participation for a Coloni car in the first half of that season. A new car, the C3, was introduced in Canada, designed by former AGS engineer Christian Vanderpleyn, but lack of testing prevented it from reaching its potential. Moreno achieved only three race starts in the second half of the year, with the team finishing equal eighteenth in the Constructors Championship.
The 1990 season brought an unusual partnership with Subaru, the automotive arm of Fuji Heavy Industries. Subaru acquired a 51 per cent stake in the team and supplied a new flat-12 engine designed by Carlo Chiti. The engine produced no more than 500 bhp at the start of the season, and the car was assembled in public for the first time in a supermarket car park at Phoenix — the venue of the opening race — having never run properly before competition. The car was overweight by around 140 kilograms, lacked aerodynamic downforce, and failed to prequalify at any race. New driver Bertrand Gachot was later quoted describing the car as the most fun he drove throughout his Formula One career, though he never managed to prequalify it. Subaru eventually withdrew, selling the team back to Enzo Coloni. A revised car with Cosworth power appeared in Germany, allowing Gachot to prequalify but not to qualify for any race.
For the final Formula One season, the team employed just six people and fielded a single car — a development of the aging C3 chassis now designated the C4, with input from students at the University of Perugia. Pedro Chaves from Portugal drove throughout much of the year but never escaped prequalification. Naoki Hattori replaced him for the final two rounds. No qualification was achieved. Enzo Coloni subsequently sold the team to Andrea Sassetti, who renamed it Andrea Moda Formula for 1992.
After leaving Formula One, the operation under Enzo's son Paolo Coloni returned to junior formulae. The team competed in International Formula 3000 from 1997, with a breakthrough season in 2002 when Giorgio Pantano finished as series runner-up and Enrico Toccacelo finished ninth, the pair taking three wins between them. Ricardo Sperafico finished as runner-up in 2003.
The team transitioned into the GP2 Series when the category was rebranded in 2005. Notable drivers included Mathias Lauda and Gianmaria Bruni. Between 2006 and 2009 the team competed as Fisichella Motor Sport following an arrangement with Formula One driver Giancarlo Fisichella and his manager Enrico Zanarini. The Coloni name returned for the 2010 season under the Scuderia Coloni banner, finishing tenth in the GP2 team standings with 18 points. Luca Filippi joined the team mid-2011 and won multiple races, finishing second in the championship behind Romain Grosjean. The team departed the GP2 Series partway through the 2012 season, forfeiting accumulated points without public explanation.
Coloni Motorsport's Formula One record — 14 starts from 82 attempts — places it among the least successful teams to contest the World Championship. Yet the team's Italian Formula 3 pedigree, which nurtured drivers including Ivan Capelli and Nicola Larini, demonstrates that its broader contribution to the sport extended beyond its Formula One results. The team's long tenure across multiple categories from 1982 into the 2010s reflects a persistent, if often underfunded, presence in European motor racing.