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49-644: 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

98-509: A turbo engine , he took two second places, one at the 1983 German Grand Prix at Hockenheim (his first points of the season) and the other one in the season-closing 1983 South African Grand Prix at Kyalami , 9.319 seconds behind Riccardo Patrese. De Cesaris came close to winning at Spa-Francorchamps , after comfortably leading the Renault of Alain Prost for much of the race before

147-408: A botched pit stop delayed him and a blown engine put him out of the race. De Cesaris moved to Ligier in 1984, where despite the car's promising Renault turbo engine, he scored only three points during the season. At the end of 1984, de Cesaris and Ligier teammate François Hesnault travelled to Australia to drive in the 1984 Australian Grand Prix , the last domestic Australian Grand Prix before

196-501: A fierce battle with Briton Derek Warwick . De Cesaris was killed in a road accident on 5 October 2014 at age 55 while riding his Suzuki motorbike. Italian press reported that he died on impact with the guard rail on the outer lane of Rome's Grande Raccordo Anulare freeway, in proximity of the Bufalotta turn-off. ( key ) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap) Driver did not finish

245-523: A lap) behind Roberto Moreno (winner) and Keke Rosberg . In 1985 a number of strong performances, including a fourth place at Monaco , showed early promise but the season turned into a dismal one after de Cesaris destroyed his Ligier JS25 in a quadruple mid-air rollover at the Austrian Grand Prix , and was fired by team boss Guy Ligier as a result. Guy Ligier stated that "I can no longer afford to employ this man", despite Marlboro paying

294-615: A massive accident which saw Jos Verstappen barrel roll over the top of Martin Brundle . On appeal, Irvine was banned for three races. At the Pacific Grand Prix , Aguri Suzuki drove Irvine's vacated Jordan. But for the next race, the San Marino Grand Prix , Eddie Jordan brought de Cesaris back to the team. The return didn't start well after de Cesaris damaged a chassis during testing. He crashed again during

343-585: A point all season. Dumped for JJ Lehto at Dallara at the end of 1990, de Cesaris was signed by Eddie Jordan for his team's first season in Formula One. Jordan had already run de Cesaris in Formula 3. At the season's first race in Phoenix , de Cesaris selected the wrong gear in the short pre-qualifying session, buzzed the engine and was out. De Cesaris showed better form at Monaco , forcing his way past

392-483: A similar attritional race to the year before, giving him the best result of his career. Weidler meanwhile had failed to pre-qualify for any race so far in the season, and following Danner's 8th-place finish in Canada in what was to be Rial's final race start, neither driver qualified for the following Grands Prix, despite both Rial cars being allowed to enter qualifying following the changing of pre-qualifying rankings after

441-439: 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. For the season opening race in 1988 Brazilian Grand Prix , de Cesaris qualified 14th but retired during the race itself with engine trouble. At one stage, he was running in 6th place before he stopped for tires. De Cesaris had no problems qualifying

490-684: A total of 48 cars. They scored six championship points, finishing a highest of ninth in the constructors championship in 1988. After leaving Formula One at the end of the 1989 season, the Rial Racing division was closed, and the company did not race again. Rial continues to manufacture wheels and rims from its factory in Fußgönheim . The team was, together with the Zakspeed , one of the two last German Formula One teams based in Germany (with

539-540: Is a German producer of light alloy wheels and rims, and was a Formula One constructor competing in the 1988 and 1989 seasons. Founded in the 1970s as a wheel rim producer, the company was bought by Günter Schmid , ex-owner of the ATS wheels company in 1987. Schmid followed the same strategy as he had at ATS, advertising the Rial wheel brand by entering Formula One as a constructor. Rial participated in 32 Grands Prix, entering

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588-586: The 1979 British Formula Three Championship , as runner up to Chico Serra . From Formula 3, he graduated to Formula 2 with future McLaren boss Ron Dennis ' Project 4 team. In 1980, de Cesaris was picked up by Alfa Romeo for the final events of the 1980 World Championship , replacing Vittorio Brambilla who had, in turn, replaced Patrick Depailler when he was killed during testing at Hockenheim . His first race in Canada ended after eight laps because of engine failure. In his second race, at Watkins Glen in

637-463: The 1988 Brazilian Grand Prix , de Cesaris qualified 14th and reached sixth place in the race, but he ran out of fuel seven laps from the end. Mechanical failures occurred during the following races, and Rial twice breached regulations; for working on the car on-track and the drivers head being above the roll bar - necessitating a modification of the car. The fuel tank was again a problem in Canada where de Cesaris ran out of fuel in fifth place; however

686-473: The 1991 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Franchorchamps. Despite the pressure of being outqualified by debutant teammate Michael Schumacher , de Cesaris moved through the field to take second position until his car's Ford HB V8 blew. A communication problem between Ford and the Jordan team meant the oil tank in the car was too small to service a new type of piston ring , which used more lubricant. De Cesaris finished

735-675: The Bernie Ecclestone -owned team he was able to achieve better results, even though he mostly failed to match his teammate Riccardo Patrese. He did not finish (DNF) 14 of 16 races. At the 1987 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa, Belgium , de Cesaris placed third behind Alain Prost and Stefan Johansson , his first points in nearly two years and his first podium finish since the final round of the 1983 season in South Africa . He would not finish another race that season. For 1988, Brabham pulled out of Formula One and de Cesaris switched to

784-590: The British Grand Prix . At the Hungarian race , where an illegal rear wing saw Weidler's qualifying times deleted, both Fober and Weidler left the team following the blame by Schmid for the imposed fine. Pierre-Henri Raphanel was his replacement, bringing with him new designer Christian van der Pleyn. However the new design team could not improve the ARC2 to qualify for a race, and Danner quit following

833-473: The Portuguese Grand Prix . Gregor Foitek was brought in for Spain, but a rear wing breakage during qualifying caused an accident destroying his car, and he immediately left the team. Bertrand Gachot took over for the final two races, but neither Raphanel nor Gachot managed to qualify to race, with the outdated car several seconds off the nearest competitors in qualifying. Finishing 13th in

882-617: The San Marino Grand Prix at Imola due to poor fitness, having not driven a race distance in six months. He bounced back in Monte Carlo , where de Cesaris stayed away from trouble and away from the barriers to take fourth place. Irvine returned for the next race but Sauber had noticed the Italian's form, and signed him to replace the injured Karl Wendlinger in the Mercedes-powered machines. De Cesaris' first race for Sauber

931-731: The United States , he tangled with Derek Daly in a Tyrrell at the Junction corner and crashed into the catch fencing after two laps. In 1981, largely thanks to his personal Marlboro sponsorship which also happened to be McLaren's main sponsor, de Cesaris landed a seat at McLaren which had merged with the Project Four Formula 2 team run by Ron Dennis after the 1980 season. During the season, de Cesaris proved to be fast on occasion (particularly at fast circuits), but he crashed 19 times that season either in practice or in

980-636: The record for the most races without a win from 1989 until 2024 . A string of accidents early in his career earned him a reputation for being a fast but wild driver. In 2005 and 2006, de Cesaris competed in the Grand Prix Masters formula for retired Formula One drivers. He died on 5 October 2014 after losing control of his motorcycle on Rome's Grande Raccordo Anulare motorway. A multiple karting champion, he graduated to Formula 3 in Britain , winning numerous events and finishing 2nd in

1029-597: The 1992 season. De Cesaris took a fifth in the second race of the season in Mexico, despite being caught up in an early spin. De Cesaris was able to score points three more times during the season, with his best result being a fourth place in the Japanese Grand Prix . For the 1993 season, the Ilmor engine had been replaced with a Yamaha V10, which changed the dynamics and reliability of the car. The Tyrrell 020

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1078-461: 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. Rial Racing ran

1127-422: The ARC1 for every race of the season and would regularly run in the midfield. Its best qualifying was 12th, achieved five times. Reliability though was poor and by the end of the season, he had only been classified in five races and even in two of these, he was not running at the finish due to running out of fuel (the ARC1 was known to have the smallest fuel tank of the atmospheric cars in 1988). However, one finish

1176-718: The Benetton of Roberto Moreno and was running in the points until the Jordan's throttle cable snapped. In the next race in Canada he finished fourth. De Cesaris then repeated the result next time out in Mexico . The following race in France he finished sixth. Suspension failure in Great Britain led him to crash but the Italian bounced back to qualify seventh and finish fifth in Germany . De Cesaris did not score again until

1225-420: The Italian's contract, he never actually hired an Italian driver to McLaren ever again. In July 1981 de Cesaris and Henri Pescarolo finished second to the team of Riccardo Patrese and Michele Alboreto in a 6-hour endurance race at Watkins Glen, New York . Both teams drove Lancia cars with de Cesaris and Pescarolo finishing two laps behind. After switching back to Alfa Romeo in 1982, de Cesaris became

1274-467: The Rial Racing's base in Fußgönheim ). Günter Schmid, ex-owner of the ATS company that competed in Formula One for eight years, bought Rial in 1987, ahead of the reduction in power of the turbo -engines in 1988, and set up a Formula One team at Rial's base in Fußgönheim . With old-ATS designer Gustav Brunner , Schmid produced the Rial ARC1 , powered by a Cosworth DFZ engine, an updated model of

1323-611: The bulk of de Cesaris' salary. He was kept in the team until the next race at Zandvoort , after which he was replaced by Philippe Streiff . In 1986 de Cesaris moved to Minardi . He was often outpaced by his teammate, fellow Italian and F1 rookie Alessandro Nannini during the season. For the first time in his career, de Cesaris went the entire season without scoring a point; he retired from every race but two (DNQ in Monaco, 8th in Mexico). In 1987, de Cesaris switched to Brabham- BMW . With

1372-530: The championship, Rial Racing closed down at the end of the year. ( key ) (results in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap) Andrea de Cesaris Andrea de Cesaris ( Italian pronunciation: [anˈdrɛːa de ˈtʃeːzaris] ; 31 May 1959 – 5 October 2014) was an Italian racing driver , who competed in Formula One from 1980 to 1994 . De Cesaris started 208 Formula One Grands Prix without victory, holding

1421-434: The constructors championship, and Andrea de Cesaris was placed fifteenth in the drivers championship. Rial expanded to two cars ahead of the 1989 season , and with de Cesaris moving to Dallara , German drivers Christian Danner and Volker Weidler were hired to drive the ARC2. Designed by new engineer Stefan Fober, the car was an updated version of the ARC1, with reworked aerodynamics by McLaren designer Bob Bell , and

1470-401: The improved Cosworth DFR engine being worked into the chassis. With turbo-charged engines banned for 1989, the entry list had increased to 39 cars from 20 teams; to accommodate the number of cars a pre-qualifying system was introduced, where the new cars and the teams ranked lowest in the previous season would compete for the 30 spaces available in qualifying, and then for the 26 starters in

1519-465: The lead and win the race; de Cesaris suffered rear brake failure and crashed hard at Pine Avenue. In the 1982 season, de Cesaris earned a podium finish at Monte Carlo and a point in Canada . At the 1982 Monaco Grand Prix , Didier Pironi retired on the final lap due to electrical trouble with his Ferrari . De Cesaris ran out of fuel at the same time, allowing Riccardo Patrese to win his first Formula 1 race. In 1983, with his Alfa Romeo now using

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1568-492: The more experienced drivers in the field, de Cesaris was on course for a podium position in Monte Carlo , before being taken out by triple world champion Nelson Piquet at the Loews Hairpin. De Cesaris lost his temper after the accident and berated Piquet's Lotus team upon returning to the pits. Two races later, after an early delay, he was being lapped by Dallara teammate Alex Caffi when he ran his fellow Italian into

1617-466: The most successive non-finishes in a single season, 12 in 1987. Similarly, no driver has had more than his 14 DNFs in a 16-race season. He scored points for 9 out of 10 teams he raced for: McLaren, Alfa Romeo, Brabham, Rial, Tyrrell, Jordan, Ligier, Scuderia Italia and Sauber, failing to do so only for Minardi. After retiring from motor racing, de Cesaris became a successful currency broker in Monte Carlo . It has been reported that he spent six months of

1666-634: The new Rial team, run by German Günter Schmid , the former boss of the ATS outfit. With a Cosworth engine in the car, de Cesaris managed to qualify for all sixteen races of the season and take fourth place in the Detroit Grand Prix . He also twice ran out of fuel in the last laps while running in the points, in Canada and Australia . For 1989, de Cesaris moved to the Marlboro-sponsored Scuderia Italia squad. Early results were again promising. By now one of

1715-605: The next race in Detroit saw Rial finish in fourth place, scoring three points. After the French Grand Prix , the team's performance began to fall, and Brunner left the team after finishing 13th in their home race in Germany . Continuous mechanical problems and the fuel tank contributed to a six-race string of retirements, de Cesaris finishing the season classified 8th in Australia. The team finished in ninth place in

1764-537: The race became part of the Formula One World Championship in 1985 . Driving a Ford BDA powered Ralt RT4 (18 of the 25 car field were RT4s), de Cesaris qualified in 5th place. After entering the pits at the end of the warm up lap, he exited the pits moments before the green flag and was almost a lap behind when the race started. He then proceeded to put in what many consider as the drive of the day to eventually finish 3rd (without ever losing

1813-560: The race, often due to driver error. The team was so worried that he would crash the car that they withdrew his car from the Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort after he qualified 13th. The Italian managed to finish only 6 of the 14 races he started that year. Due to the frequent crashes, he earned the nickname "Andrea de Crasheris"; team boss Ron Dennis grew so annoyed with de Cesaris's constant crashes that not only did he not extend

1862-508: The race. Danner did not have to pre-qualify, while Weidler driving the new entry had to enter the session. Danner achieved a 14th place at the opening Brazilian round , before the improving cars of Rial's competitors forced Danner out of qualifying for the next two races, hampered by the older ARC2 chassis. The fifth race, the United States Grand Prix on the Phoenix street circuit , saw Danner finish in fourth place, in

1911-425: The season 9th in the standings, his best result since 1983. Despite Eddie Jordan's desire to keep de Cesaris for the 1992 season, financial realities meant it was not possible. Jordan had built up significant debts in his debut season but was able to secure sponsorship from Barclay Cigarettes. However, the brand was in direct conflict with de Cesaris' Marlboro backing. Ken Tyrrell hired de Cesaris for his team for

1960-503: The time. Numerous other drivers have since surpassed his total. De Cesaris participated in a total of 214 grands prix. He achieved 5 podiums, one pole position, and scored a total of 59 championship points. He was the driver with the most Grand Prix starts (208) to his name without a win, until Nico Hülkenberg surpassed him in this respect in 2024. He also holds the records for the most consecutive non-finishes, 18 from 1985 and 1986 (although many of these were mechanical failures), as well as

2009-523: The ubiquitous design of the pre-turbo seasons. The ARC1, nicknamed the "Blue Ferrari" due to the similarities with the Brunner-designed Ferrari F1/87 , featured a double wishbone pullrod suspension, with shock absorbers innovatively placed horizontally against the chassis. Andrea de Cesaris , with Marlboro sponsorship was hired to drive the car, which proved strong in testing due to a small fuel tank. At Rial's début race,

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2058-482: The wall, robbing his team of a potential podium. De Cesaris finished third at the next race in Canada , behind Williams drivers Thierry Boutsen and Riccardo Patrese in a rain-soaked race. The race would be the last time de Cesaris stood on the Formula One podium. With a number of teams using either Ford or Judd customer V8s (Dallara used the Ford DFR ) in 1990, the midfield had become more competitive. De Cesaris

2107-549: The year in this occupation and the remainder windsurfing in Hawaii, Mexico, and around the world. De Cesaris' helmet was white with three diagonal lines resembling the Italian flag running across the top, and a red line between two green lines in the chin area. Long absent from the Formula One paddock, de Cesaris appeared at the 2005 Monaco Grand Prix , and was welcomed back with a warm hug from former Brabham team boss and Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone . A few months later it

2156-477: The youngest man ever to take pole position at the Long Beach Grand Prix . De Cesaris was also only the second Alfa Romeo driver to capture a pole since 1951. De Cesaris led the race but as he was passing a backmarker at a tight corner with Niki Lauda right behind him in second. De Cesaris waved his fist at the backmarker and forgot to change gear and hit the rev limiter, which allowed Lauda to take

2205-533: Was also replaced mid-season by the Tyrrell 021 due to age. This car, featuring active suspension, was not a success. For the third time in his career, de Cesaris failed to score a point and left Tyrrell at the end of the season. In 1994, for the first time since 1980, de Cesaris started the season without a Formula One drive. But during the Brazilian Grand Prix , Eddie Irvine was blamed for causing

2254-697: Was announced de Cesaris would race in the new Grand Prix Masters series for retired Formula One drivers. In October, he set the fastest time in the first Grand Prix Masters test at the Silverstone South circuit in England. Due to his passion for windsurfing, de Cesaris retained a high level of fitness in comparison to other retired drivers. In the first race at the Kyalami circuit in South Africa, de Cesaris qualified well and raced to fourth, after

2303-640: Was fourth on the streets of Detroit where de Cesaris managed to stay out of trouble and quietly moved into the points as the crumbling track surface and the heat took its toll on the field. Finishing fourth in the last ever F1 race in Detroit earned the team three points. in the 21/1988 Autozeitung they found the Rial ARC1 had a performance of: ( key ) (results in bold indicate pole position; results in italics indicate fastest lap) † classified but not running at finish Rial Racing Rial

2352-416: Was his 200th Grand Prix, in Canada . Although there he retired after 24 laps, he finished in the points at the next event, the French Grand Prix at Magny-Cours . De Cesaris' career ended when he retired with throttle problems at the 1994 European Grand Prix . JJ Lehto replaced him for the final two Grands Prix. De Cesaris ended his career with 208 Grand Prix starts, second only to Riccardo Patrese at

2401-485: Was involved in a number of incidents during that season, including crashing out at the start of the first lap at Interlagos and at Imola . He also nearly took out the Ferrari of 2nd-placed Nigel Mansell while being lapped during the race, prompting BBC commentator and 1976 World Champion James Hunt to call him an idiot on live television. Reliability was a problem for Dallara, and de Cesaris again failed to score

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