EuroBrun ER188

Oscar Larrauri at the 1988 Canadian Grand Prix in the EuroBrun ER188

Technical template for the EuroBrun ER188: The Alfa Romeo 184T from 1984

The EuroBrun ER188 was a racing car of the Italian Formula 1 team EuroBrun Racing . It was the first car of the newly established racing team and was used in its original form in the 1988 Formula 1 World Championship . Here he did not score any championship points. A revised version called EuroBrun ER188B was used in 1989 .

background

EuroBrun Racing was a racing team that was created in 1987 from a collaboration between Euroracing and Brun Motorsport . The Swiss entrepreneur Walter Brun , the owner of Brun Motorsport, took over the financing of the Formula 1 team, while the technical side, including the races, was in the hands of Euroracing. This is also where the development of the ER 188 took place. Euroracing already had Formula 1 experience: Between 1983 and 1985, the company organized the Italian car manufacturer's Formula 1 commitment on behalf of Alfa Romeo .

1988 was the last season of the so-called turbo era. In it, powerful turbo vehicles competed with conventional naturally aspirated vehicles. The latter were used in particular by smaller or newly founded teams who could not afford the cost-intensive turbo technology. EuroBrun was one of these teams.

technology

The ER188 was developed by Euroracing technicians in Italy. The responsible designers were Bruno Zava and Mario Tollentino, who had already designed the Alfa Romeo 184T . Gianpaolo Pavanello, the owner of Euroracing, described the vehicle as conventional, while outside observers mostly thought it was outdated. The ER188 was very similar to the Alfa Romeo 184T. This applied, for example, to the vehicle nose, the monocoque, the roll bar and the semicircular engine cover. Eddie Cheever , who had driven the 184T himself, was of the opinion that the EuroBrun ER188 was just a revision of the four-year-old Alfa construction; Günter Schmid, boss of the rival team, expressed a similar opinion: “If you paint the EuroBrun red, you have an Alfa. They didn't do anything. "

A special feature of the ER188 was its tall, voluminous monocoque , which in its dimensions was more reminiscent of the early 1980s and was already noticed as unusual in 1988.

The suspension consisted of push rods at the front and tension struts at the rear. An eight-cylinder naturally aspirated Cosworth (type DFZ ) engine , which was prepared by Heini Mader Racing Components in Switzerland, served as the drive . The power was transmitted via a six-speed gearbox that Eurobrun had developed itself with components from Hewland .

Three ER188 chassis were built during the year.

Races

EuroBrun registered two cars for the 1988 season. The drivers were Stefano Modena and Oscar Larrauri . Modena was awarded for the first race of the season the ER188-1, drove out of the Grand Prix of San Marino to the Spanish Grand Prix the ER188-3 and sat in the flyaway end of the season in Japan and Australia again the ER188-1 one. Larrauri drove the ER188-2 for the first 15 races of the year; only in the last race, the Australian Grand Prix, did he switch to the ER188-3.

The ER 188 wasn't a successful car. He didn't get any championship points for the team. Larrauri was able to qualify for eight races, but reached only two finishings. Modena, on which the team had high hopes, managed ten qualifications and five finishings. The best result for EuroBrun was his eleventh place at the Hungarian Grand Prix.

A major problem with the car was its structural simplicity, which could not keep up with the more recent designs of other - even smaller - teams. In addition, the driving behavior was problematic and coordination was difficult. In the summer of 1988 EuroBrun engaged the British designer Ralph Bellamy , who was supposed to redesign the chassis. His work, however, did not have a positive effect. After the German Grand Prix, Larrauri only qualified once and Modena only three times.

The drivers who had no experience in Formula 1 and the practical work of the Euroracing employees on the racetrack were also criticized. Numerous organizational errors led to failures, non-qualifications or disqualifications. In Mexico, for example, Modena was disqualified because the rear wing was placed four mm too far back, and in Belgium the mechanics forgot to equip the cars with a special qualifying engine that had increased performance.

successor

For the 1989 season, two of the three ER188s were equipped with a Judd engine and slightly aerodynamically revised. The car driven by Gregor Foitek , now called ER 188B, was the most unsuccessful vehicle of the 1989 season.

Results of the EuroBrun ER188

driver	No.	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	Points	rank
1988 Formula 1 season																		0	-
Oscar Larrauri	32	DNF	DNQ	DNF	13	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNQ	16	DNQ	DNQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNPQ	DNQ	DNF
Stefano Modena	33	DNF	NC	DNF	DNF	12	DNF	14th	12	DNF	11	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	13	DNQ	DNF

Legend
colour	abbreviation	meaning
gold	-	victory
silver	-	2nd place
bronze	-	3rd place
green	-	Placement in the points
blue	-	Classified outside the point ranks
violet	DNF	Race not finished (did not finish)
	NC	not classified
red	DNQ	did not qualify
	DNPQ	failed in pre-qualification (did not pre-qualify)
black	DSQ	disqualified
White	DNS	not at the start (did not start)
	WD	withdrawn
Light Blue	PO	only participated in the training (practiced only)
	TD	Friday test driver
without	DNP	did not participate in the training (did not practice)
	INJ	injured or sick
	EX	excluded
	DNA	did not arrive
	C.	Race canceled
		no participation in the World Cup
other	P / bold	Pole position
	SR / italic	Fastest race lap
	*	not at the finish, but counted due to the distance covered
	()	Streak results
	underlined	Leader in the overall standings

literature

• Adriano Cimarosti: The Century of Racing. Cars, tracks and pilots. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-613-01848-9 .
• Alan Henry (Ed.): Autocourse. The World's leading Grand Prix Annual. 1988-89. Hazelton, Richmond 1988, ISBN 0-905138-57-0 .
• David Hodges: Racing cars from A – Z after 1945. Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3-613-01477-7 .
• Pierre Ménard: La Grande Encyclopédie de la Formule 1st 2nd edition. Chronosports, St. Sulpice 2000, ISBN 2-940125-45-7 (French).
• Motorsport current . Weekly Swiss trade journal with various reports and notes on the topic of Eurobrun in the issues of the years 1988 to 1990.
• Hans Treml, Nina Treml: The outsiders. Swiss in international automobile racing. 1950 until today. Baeschlin, Glarus 2006, ISBN 3-85546-166-X .

Web links

Commons : EuroBrun ER188  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• History of the team with pictures of the ER188 on the website www.f1rejects.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ A total of twelve out of 18 teams used naturally aspirated engines in 1988. In addition to EuroBrun, these were AGS , Benetton , BMS Scuderia Italia , Coloni , Larrousse , Ligier , March , Minardi , Rial , Tyrrell and Williams .
2. ↑ Motorsport news. Issue 10, 1988, p. 22.
3. ↑ Cimarosti: The Century of Racing. 1997, p. 389.
4. ↑ Motorsport news. Issue 29, 1988, p. 21.
5. ↑ Quoted from Motorsport aktuell. Issue 29, 1988, p. 10.
6. ↑ Hodges: Rennwagen von A – Z after 1945. 1994, p. 91. There the car is described as "massive".
7. ↑ Similar outdated monocoques were only used by Osella Squadra Corse and AGS.
8. ^ ^{A b} Henry (Ed.): Autocourse. 1988-89. 1988, p. 37.
9. ↑ Hodges: Rennwagen von A – Z after 1945. 1994, p. 91: “The car showed no originality”.
10. ↑ Motorsport news. Issue 28, 1988, p. 4.
11. ↑ Motorsport news. Issue 23, 1988, p. 26.
12. ↑ Motorsport news. Issue 36, 1988, p. 5.