Rial Racing

Rial Racing was established in 1988 by German industrialist Günter Schmidt, who had been in Formula One with his ATS team, to participate in the 1988 F1 season. He contracted former Ferrari engineer Gustav Brunner to design a car based around the Cosworth DFZ V8 engine.

The car, named ARC1, bared a few similarities with Brunner’s Ferrari F1/87, but had lower side pods and a unique front suspension, with its dampers positioned longitudinally. A total of three cars were built.

Rial Racing ran a single entry throughout the season for the experienced but erratic Italian Andrea de Cesaris – picture above, in the pouring rain at the 1988 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps (ret) – who also brought much needed money to the team through his personal Marlboro sponsorship.

The chassis was sound and de Cesaris had no problems qualifying the ARC1 for every race of the season and would regularly run in the midfield. Reliability was poor though, and the Italian was classified in only five races. However, at the Detroit, picture below, de Cesaris managed to stay out of trouble and finished fourth, which earned him and the team three valuable points.