to the title by winning three early-season races, at Pau, Silverstone and Monza in a row. A fourth win came in the Birmingham Superprix. F1 substitute (1989–1995) Not even winning the FIA International Formula 3000 Championship in 1988 in an unsponsored Reynard 88D made the impression needed for a big team to recruit him. Instead, he signed a testing contract with Ferrari, who helped him land a racing drive with the ambitious Coloni outfit. The car was never competitive and Moreno only made the grid four times out of 16 attempts. Initially, 1990 seemed to be even less promising, with Moreno signing for the nosediving EuroBrun outfit, qualifying for just 2 out of the first 14 races of the season. However, shortly after being informed the team would not be competing in the last two rounds of the season, he was contacted by Benetton to drive their second car, with Alessandro Nannini having almost lost a hand in a helicopter crash following the Spanish Grand Prix. After qualifying 8th, he then shadowed his teammate, Piquet, coming home an excellent 2nd on his Benetton debut in the 1990 Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka, although this result was helped by most other top cars dropping out, with Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna famously colliding at the first corner while their teammates Nigel Mansell (Ferrari) and Gerhard Berger (McLaren) would both retire. After then again qualifying 8th in the Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide before going on to finish 7th (Piquet again won), Moreno got a full contract with Benetton for 1991 season. However, the Benetton B191, on Pirelli tyres, was not as competitive as anticipated, and Moreno's best results were 4th place at the Monaco Grand Prix and the Belgian Grand Prix. In the latter race, Moreno made the fastest lap, but this was overshadowed by F1 debutant Michael Schumacher (driving for the Jordan team); this would be Moreno's last race for Benetton before he was controversially paid off and dropped in favour of Schumacher. Schumacher had qualified 7th, and was up to 5th after the start when his clutch failed. The Benetton management, led by Tom Walkinshaw and team manager Flavio Briatore, were after a driver to rebuild the team around, convinced that neither the aging Piquet or Moreno were that driver. Walkinshaw engaged in some high-level dealing behind the scenes and managed to steal Schumacher from Jordan and Moreno was