Rial Racing - Gunther Schmidt's team (1988-1989)

[bigears]

Rial Racing was formed for the 1988 season by a fiery German called Gunther Schmidt (also the owner of the old ATS team) and he appointed ex-Ferrari designer Gustav Brunner to pen his new ARC 01 Rial Racing car with Andrea de Cesaris as his driver.

The 1988 season

[spoiler]
Motoring News 13th January 1988.


Motoring News 2nd March 1988.


Motoring News 16th March 1988.




Motoring News 23rd March 1988.


Motoring News 30th March 1988.


Motoring News 30th March 1988.


Autosport 31st March


Motoring News 6th April 1988.


Motoring News 18th May 1988.


Motoring News 18th May 1988.


Motoring News 18th May 1988.


Motoring News 22nd June 1988.


Motoring News 15th June 1988.


Motoring News 6th July 1988.


Motoring News 6ht July 1988.


Motoring News 6th July 1988.


Motoring News 13th July 1988.


Motoring News 20th July 1988.


Autosport 21st July 1988.


Autosport 21st July 1988.


Motoring News 27th July 1988.

De Cesaris: Electrical failure in one car on Friday morning, fuel pump problem in second. Electrical gremlins returned in afternoon - this time to both cars! Not a good day - 30th overnight. Problem traced to faulty battereies overnight and worked to find a good balance. Set 18th best time in the afternoon but, "I had oversteer and understeer at the same time!" Flew through the field in the early laps, then fought past both Arrows in protracted struggles to take ninth until a CV joint broke on lap 28.

Autosport 11th August 1988.

De Cesaris: Both cars proved troublesome on Friday morning with clutch and electriclal problems. A lowly 19th in the afternoon. Tested new bodywork in the wet on Saturday morning. Ninth quickest in the rain in the afternoon and confident after the warm-up. Retired on lap 3 after Arnoux hit from behind. An unhappy man.

Autosport 1st September 1988.


Motoring News 28th September 1988.


Motoring News 28th September 1988.


Motoring News 5th October 1988.


Autosport 20th October 1988.

De Cesaris:Badly damaged car on Friday morning when rear puncture put him heavily into barriers at the fast corner before the chicane. Spare not well set up. Race car repaired overnight and Andrea happy with ninth in the morning, stopping practice early. In the afternoon took 14th on the grid before a large accident at the end of the session when rear suspension broke at high speed and he hit the wall hard, seriously damaging his race car again. Forced to use T car for the race, but moved through quickly to 12th, had half spin in wet but continued until engine blew when radiator filled with dirt.

Autosport 3rd November 1988.


Motoring News 16th November 1988.


Motoring News 16th November 1988.


Motoring News 21st November 1988.


Motoring News 21st December 1988.[/spoiler]

The 1989 season

[spoiler]
Motoring News 18th January 1989.


Motoring News 25th January 1989.

Rial's new ARC 02 is scheduled for launch at Paul Ricard on Februaury 20/21. Designed by former Brabham man Rob Bell, it is expected that one will be ready for Christian Danner to try, while Volker Weidler will have a run in one of last year's Gustav Brunner designs. THe new car is said to be similar to the old, but with revised aerodynamics.

Motoring News 15th February 1989.


Motoring News 1st March 1989.




Motoring News 22nd March 1989.


Motoring News 10th May 1989.

Ali Strasse, team manager of the Rial Racing, found himself in the medical centre at Imola last Saturday, when a persistent problem with the starter motors on Christian Danner's car Rials resulted in him receiving a very nasty gash to his left wrist. Replacement units ferried in, courtesy of Autosport's Simon Taylor, cured the problem but Ali was sidelined for the day.

Motoring News 26th April 1989.

Danner: 10th quickest on Firday morning and happy with set-up, 14th overnight. Saturday afternoon was disaster with clutch trouble on the race car. A loose intercom tangled with the pedals in the T-car. Last minute dash thwarted when Berger spun off in final minutes bringing out red flag. Missed out undeservedly.

Weidler: A tale of endless woe in pre-qualifying, resulting in Volker jogging in early in session after a wiring problem. Valve problem in spare so switched to Danner's car. Ran out of time and failed to pre-qualfiy.

Autosport 27th April 1989.


Motoring News 7th June 1989.

Ex-Rial design engineer Bob Bell has joined Sauber Mercedes and was present at Le Mans.

Autosport 15th June 1989.


Motoring News 5th July 1989.

Joachim Winkelhock tells us that he and his primary backers, Camel Germany and Liqui Moly, are due to reassess his future after the German GP at Hockenheim. "We'll see what happens at my home meeting, and then take it from there," he said.

Motoring News 12th July 1989.


Motoring News 12th July 1989.


Motoring News 19th July 1989.


Motoring News 26th July 1989.


Motoring News 26th July 1989.


Autosport 24th August 1989.

The Rial team was at Hockenheim as we were closing for press, Pierre-Henri Raphanel and Christian Danner testing out a series of modifications to the ARC2 suggested by the team's new designer Christian Vanderpleyn.

Autosport 24th August 1989.

There are further changes on the driver front in Belgium. Tired of failing to prequalify the Coloni, Pierre-Henri Raphanel took his Tele Cinq support to Rial, and instead failed to qualify the ARC 02 despite a revised undertray and rear wing. In his place, Enrico Bertaggia stepped in at Coloni, but was thwarted by electrical problems and did not qualify.

Motoring News 31st August 1989.


Motoring News 31st August 1989.

Danner: As in all recent Grand Prix, Christian extracted as much as he could from the Rial, but there was no enough in the car.

Raphanel: No major techincal problems at Rial. Pierre-Henri unable to qualify.

Autosport 31st August 1989.

The space behind Rial's pit garage was noticed the absence of its transporter. VEryone else had theirs in place, with their tails lined up neatly, by Tuesday night. When Rial's truckie turned up on Thursday and politely asked the majority if they'd mind shifting out so he could get in, he was met was a barrage of Anglo-Saxon that indicated he might prefer to park his somewhere else...

Motoring News 13th September 1989.


Motoring News 27th September 1989.


Motoring News 4th October 1989.


Motoring News 4th October 1989.


Motoring News 8th November 1989.


Motoring News 22nd November 1989.


Motoring News 29th November 1989.


Motoring News 20th December 1989.


Motoring News 17th January 1990.[/spoiler]

[dr-baker]

The 1988 season

[spoiler]...[/spoiler]

[pi314159]

Both Zakspeed and Rial face 1989 with optimism...

And at the end of the season, both teams had to fold down.

[f1-gast]

RIAL was actually, in my opinion, a team with progress though they left F1 few months before i was born.
I think they where the Force India from the 90's if they managed to survive.

[Nessafox]

All reject teams form the late 80's/early 90's is that they fall in two 3 categories: 1) hopelessly underfunded 2) teamboss that is an idiot 3) both

[DemocalypseNow]

All reject teams form the late 80's/early 90's is that they fall in two 3 categories: 1) hopelessly underfunded 2) teamboss that is an idiot 3) both

Or 1.5) No money because the Mafia is skimming sponsor revenue as pizzo.

[Julien]

I ahve only one question: Where on Earth you find these articles?

[Faustus]

Another great post bigears! Thank you!

[Faustus]

I ahve only one question: Where on Earth you find these articles?

He is scanning old issues of Motoring News.

[Alextrax52]

Ah yes the shenanigans of the Rial team. Of all the teams J+E have profiled this is my personal favorite as i just want to read it again and again. Schmid's temper really clouded the choices he made and the way he wanted to achieve success. If he had gone with firm but fair tactics over when to make developments instead of thinking that he could get through with not developing an updated 1988 car i think Rial would have gone a lot further in F1

[go_Rubens]

This is fantastic stuff right here!

[Onxy Wrecked]

All reject teams form the late 80's/early 90's is that they fall in two 3 categories: 1) hopelessly underfunded 2) teamboss that is an idiot 3) both

Or 1.5) No money because the Mafia is skimming sponsor revenue as pizzo.

There is a 4th reason, the team boss is a billionaire who is committing investment fraud in Belgium. Van Rossem, I'm looking at you!

[Har1MAS1415]

Frank Biela linked to an F1 test?

The touring car stars who could have at least driven an F1 car if the rumours had been true just amazes me.