The team was founded by Ernesto Vita — the name "Life" being an English translation of his family name. The centrepiece of the project was a W12 engine designed by Franco Rocchi, a former Ferrari engineer who had been responsible for Ferrari's 3-litre V8 used in the 308 GTB and GTS during the 1970s. Rocchi's concept dated back to a 1967 prototype for a W3 engine of 500 cc, which he had envisaged as a foundation for a larger W18 design. After leaving Ferrari in 1980, Rocchi developed the W12 configuration privately.
The engine arranged its twelve cylinders across three banks of four DOHC cylinders, making it short like a V8 but taller than a conventional V-banked unit. This architecture bore a resemblance to the Napier-Lion W12 aero engine. Vita spent the latter half of the 1989 season seeking an established team to purchase the concept, but found no takers. He resolved instead to enter Formula One himself in 1990.
Unable to design a chassis from scratch, Life purchased an unbuilt Formula One monocoque from First Racing — a design by Richard Divila originally intended for Lamberto Leoni's aborted team. The chassis was fitted with the W12 engine in late 1989, redesignated the Life L190. Principal engineering work was carried out by Gianni Marelli, another former Ferrari employee. The car was completed by February 1990 and underwent brief testing at Vallelunga and Monza.
The L190's shortcomings were severe on multiple fronts. The W12's widely reported output was approximately 470 horsepower at a time when competitive engines produced between 600 and 700 horsepower; one source cited by Roberto Moreno during a later podcast suggested the true figure was closer to 300 horsepower. The ex-First chassis was one of the heaviest in the field at 530 kilograms. Handling was poor and reliability was catastrophic. By contemporary estimates the car was no quicker than a Formula 3 vehicle in race trim.
The team began the season with Gary Brabham, son of triple world champion Jack Brabham, as its driver. Brabham failed to clear pre-qualifying on two occasions, once after the car coasted to a halt 400 yards from the pit lane exit due to a malfunctioning battery. He later stated that the car had no functioning tachometer in either pre-qualifying attempt and that the team possessed no tyre pressure gauge of its own, requiring one to be borrowed from the neighbouring EuroBrun team. He also described unsuccessful attempts to persuade Vita to switch to a Judd V8 engine. Following the second failure, Brabham departed, as did engineer Marelli.
Walter Brun driver Bernd Schneider declined the vacant seat, saying he definitively did not want to drive for the team. Test driver Franco Scapini was ineligible as he lacked an FIA Super Licence. Life eventually signed Bruno Giacomelli, an Italian veteran whose most recent Formula One appearances had been in 1983, but who had kept current by serving as a test driver for Leyton House Racing and had useful contacts with the Judd engine operation.
Giacomelli made no more progress at pre-qualifying than his predecessor. The most laps he completed in any pre-qualifying session was twenty-two at Silverstone. At the San Marino Grand Prix, Giacomelli reported genuine fear of being struck from behind given the Life's pace deficit. In one pre-qualifying session at Imola, the car's transponder remained active while the car was being towed back to the pit lane, producing a timed lap of nearly six minutes that illustrated the gap to even the slowest genuine competitors.
For the Portuguese Grand Prix, the team undertook a three-week engineering effort to replace the W12 with a Judd CV V8. The installation was successfully completed but the first lap at Estoril saw the engine cover detach and fly off. The car's final appearance was at Jerez for the Spanish Grand Prix. Life chose not to attend the remaining two rounds, the Japanese and Australian Grands Prix.
The Life L190 was fully restored by former chief mechanic Oliver Piazzi in 2009 and appeared at that year's Goodwood Festival of Speed with its original W12 engine reinstalled. The car made two successful runs up the hill, driven by Arturo Merzario and Lorenzo Prandina.
Life's 1990 campaign holds an unusual place in Formula One history. The combination of an experimental engine architecture, a second-hand chassis, minimal resources, and a tiny crew of nine personnel — including the team manager, the test driver, the founder's wife, and three mechanics — produced a car that was measurably lapped by the remainder of the field in every session it entered. The W12 engine, despite its failure in competition, represents one of the more technically idiosyncratic attempts to enter Formula One from outside the established order.