The team's roots lie in a project called GLAS, conceived in early 1990 and financed by wealthy Mexican businessman Fernando González Luna, who was reported to be investing around $20 million in the venture. The plan called for Lamborghini Engineering — a Formula One-specific division founded in 1988 — to not only supply V12 engines but also design and build the entire chassis. Former Alfa Romeo and Spirit driver Mauro Baldi was proposed as a driver and part-backer.
Lamborghini Engineering tasked Mauro Forghieri, assisted by Mario Tolentino, with designing the car. By the summer of 1990 a rolling chassis was ready for testing, but González Luna vanished along with his funding, creating a severe financial crisis. Determined to press on, Lamborghini injected money to keep the project alive, relocated the operation to the city of Modena, and installed Italian industrialist and former Fila boss Carlo Patrucco as Team Principal. To distance itself from any perception of running a full works effort, Lamborghini insisted the entry be registered under the name Modena Team SpA. The cars nonetheless bore the Lambo 291 designation on the official entry lists, creating persistent confusion throughout the season.
The Lambo 291 featured a distinctive blue colour scheme, triangular sidepods, and slanting radiators — a design element that would become a broader Formula One trend in subsequent years. Former International F3000 runner-up Eric van de Poele and former Italian Formula 3 champion Nicola Larini were signed as drivers.
Both cars faced pre-qualifying for the first half of the season, and each driver managed to break through into the race on only one occasion during that period. Larini finished seventh at the opening United States Grand Prix, which would stand as the team's best World Championship result. Van de Poele ran fifth at the San Marino Grand Prix and was on course for two championship points before a fuel system failure ended his race on the final lap; he was classified ninth.
By mid-season the team had cleared the pre-qualifying hurdle, thanks to a count-back to Larini's seventh-place finish in the United States, but financial difficulties were mounting. Meaningful sponsorship proved impossible to secure, and Lamborghini refused to release further funds. Forghieri departed as Technical Director to refocus on Lamborghini Engineering's development of an all-new engine for 1992. Larini contested four additional races in the second half of the season — spinning out in Germany, finishing sixteenth in both Hungary and at Monza, and colliding with Jean Alesi in Australia.
The team entered 16 Grands Prix across the season but started only six. It scored no World Championship points.
By the close of 1991, Modena Team SpA was heavily in debt. Forghieri returned to explore options: merging with the Larrousse Formula One team or with Reynard's nascent F1 project, or reconstituting the team as a fully independent entity. Neither avenue proved viable.
The team had independently commissioned designer Sergio Rinland to create a car for 1992, with work beginning in October 1991. Engine discussions centred on either Judd V8 units or a continued relationship with Lamborghini. Despite those preparations, insurmountable financial problems forced the team to cease operations before the 1992 season began. A surviving chassis of the Lambo 291 can be found today at the Museo Lamborghini in Sant'Agata Bolognese.
Modena Team represents a recurring Formula One story: a well-engineered but underfunded project that never had the resources to match its technical ambitions. The Lambo 291's slanting radiator layout was genuinely innovative for its time, and Forghieri's involvement brought genuine pedigree — he had previously been the chief architect of Ferrari's most successful race cars of the 1960s and 1970s. The team's brief existence is nonetheless a footnote in Lamborghini's own complicated and ultimately unsuccessful pursuit of Formula One success.