Tatuus Racing was founded by Artico Sandonà in 1980. The first cars were manufactured for the 500cc and 1000cc Formula Monza championship, in which Sandonà himself competed. Luca Melgrati won the first championship for Tatuus in 1983 in the Formula Panda Monza championship, with Sandonà finishing second. Melgrati continued that success, winning again in 1985 and 1986.
For the 1988 season, Tatuus was contracted to build the cars for the new Formula König — a tube-framed, wings-and-slicks single-seater. The inaugural season was won by Michael Schumacher.
Although not a Formula 3 constructor, Tatuus entered the Italian Formula Three championship as a team in 1989. Driver Fabrizio Bettini earned the rookie of the year title, taking two podium finishes in seven races in an Alfa Romeo-powered Dallara 389.
Niko Palhares drove for Tatuus in 1991, scoring one pole position and one podium. He finished second in the championship in 1992, and the team made their first appearance at the Masters of Formula 3 at Circuit Park Zandvoort, where Palhares finished fourteenth.
In 1993, Fiat appointed Tatuus as their official factory team. Gianantonio Pacchioni won the prestigious Monaco Grand Prix Formula Three support race that year. Pacchioni finished third in the Italian championship standings in 1994. Tony Kanaan joined the team after winning the Formula Alfa Boxer championship, scoring one win and finishing fifth as the best foreign driver in the Italian championship. After that season, Tatuus focused on Formula Renault.
In 1993, Gianfranco De Bellis became co-proprietor. The Tatuus RC95 was the first Formula Renault car built by Tatuus; the factory team entered the Eurocup Formula Renault with Rino Mastronardi, Tommy Rustad, and Enrique Bernoldi. Rustad won three races in the inaugural season.
The first title for the Tatuus factory team came in 1996: Bernoldi won six out of ten races to claim the Eurocup title. That same year, David Cook won the British Formula Renault championship in a customer Tatuus, and Alexander Müller took the German Formula Renault title in a Tatuus.
The 1997 season brought a Eurocup one-two for Jeffrey van Hooydonk and Max Busnelli — seven Tatuus cars filled the top ten. Robert Lechner won the German championship ahead of Thomas Mutsch and Michael Schröter, all in Tatuus machinery. Marc Hynes drove a customer Tatuus to the British title. In 1999, Antônio Pizzonia took the British Formula Renault title in a Tatuus chassis that dominated twelve of thirteen races. Lucas Lasserre won the 1999 French Formula Renault championship, with Tatuus winning fourteen of twenty-one races against Mygale and Martini opposition.
The Tatuus FR2000 debuted in 2000 and was used across multiple Formula Renault championships until 2010.
Tatuus debuted in the USF2000 series for the 1997 season. Rino Mastronardi won a race at St. Petersburg. For 1998, factory driver Ryan Hampton finished second in the standings; customer driver Robby McGehee, fielded by RM Racing, finished third. In 1999, A. J. Foyt Enterprises ran Larry Foyt in a Tatuus. From 2017, Tatuus became the spec chassis supplier for the U.S. F2000 National Championship, with a derivative also adopted by the Pro Mazda Championship from 2018.
In 1998, Tatuus entered the Formula Ford Zetec market. In 1999, Timo Bernhard driving for Jenzer Motorsport achieved four podium finishes and a third place in the German Formula Ford championship. Tatuus did not update the Formula Ford Zetec chassis after 1999.
Tatuus was contracted by Toyota New Zealand to design the Formula Toyota racing car. The Toyota FT40 was introduced in the Toyota Racing Series in 2005 and retired after the 2014 season, with its last race — the New Zealand Grand Prix — won by Nick Cassidy. The Tatuus-built Toyota FT50 replaced it from 2015, featuring a six-speed Sadev gearbox in place of the previous five-speed unit.
For 2014, Tatuus was contracted to build all cars for the Formula 4 Italian Championship under FIA Formula 4 regulations. The Tatuus F4-T014 was powered by a detuned Formula Abarth engine limited to 160 hp. The ADAC Formula 4 adopted the Tatuus car in 2015, as did the BRDC Formula 4 Championship from the 2015 Autumn Trophy. Over subsequent years Tatuus supplied Spanish F4, F4 UAE, British F4, F4 Brasil, F4 SEA, F4 CEZ, F4 Saudi Arabia, F4 NACAM, and the Formula Winter Series.
The launch of the Formula Regional category brought the Tatuus T-318 in 2018, used across championships in Asia, Europe, Oceania, the Middle East, and Australia. The inaugural 2019 season of the all-female W Series used Alfa Romeo-powered F3-specification T-318s, all operated by Hitech Racing.
In 2025, the Tatuus T-326 — the second-generation Formula Regional car — made its competitive debut at the Yas Marina Circuit during the Formula Regional Middle East Trophy. It was officially unveiled at Monza in October 2025, with the FIA Formula Regional European Championship announcing its adoption from 2026.
From 2016, Tatuus cars became central to the Road to Indy development pathway toward the IndyCar Series. All three levels of the USF Pro Championships — USF Juniors, USF 2000, and USF Pro 2000 — feature Tatuus machinery. A partnership with MotorSport Vision (MSV) led to Tatuus cars entering the BRDC British Formula 3 Championship and the GB3 and GB4 Championships. In the summer of 2024, Tatuus announced the MSV-GB3-025 and MSV-GB4-025 cars, competing from 2025.
Tatuus Racing SpA was co-founded by Sandonà and Artico Sandonà, with Gianfranco De Bellis joining as co-owner in 1993. On 16 February 2017, De Bellis and Sandonà sold a majority of the shares to Wisequity IV, a fund managed by private equity firm Wise Sgr S.p.A. Under Wise Sgr, Tatuus purchased engine producer ATM-Autotecnica Motori in November 2017 — founder Giovanni Delfino retained his CEO role and later became CEO of the whole group. In November 2018, Tatuus acquired a 75% stake in Breda Racing. In May 2023, the TEC Racing investment fund acquired ownership. In the summer of 2024, the group completed the acquisition of YCOM. In 2025, Next Solution Technologies, Birelart, IAME, and Kart Republic joined the group. In October 2025, the holding officially adopted the name Korus. In January 2023, Tatuus relocated its operational headquarters from Concorezzo to a purpose-built facility in Lainate.
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.
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