Rial ARC1
racing automobile
The Rial ARC1 was a Formula One racing car manufactured and raced by Rial Racing for the 1988 Formula One season. It was powered by a Cosworth DFZ V8 engine. Its best finish was at the 1988 United States Grand Prix when Andrea de Cesaris drove it to fourth place.
Development
Rial Racing was established by German industrialist Günter Schmid, who had previous experience of Formula One with ATS Racing, to participate in the 1988 season. He contracted former Ferrari engineer Gustav Brunner to design a car based around the Cosworth DFZ V8 engine.
The car, designated the ARC1, was similar in appearance in Brunner's Ferrari F1/87 and was known as 'the Blue Ferrari', though the ARC1 featured a different engine cover owing to different sized engine and fuel tank, as well as lower sidepods than the Ferrari due to not having to house turbochargers. Brunner gave the car a unique front suspension arrangement with its dampers positioned longitudinally at the height of the floor. Rial also developed its own gearbox for the ARC1. A total of three cars were built.
Racing history
Rial Racing ran a single entry throughout the season for the experienced but erratic Italian Andrea de Cesaris who also brought much needed money to the team through his personal Marlboro sponsorship.
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This entry incorporates text from “Rial ARC1” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.