Walter Brun and Giampaolo Pavanello are both highly successful figures in the world of international motorsport. Swiss-born Brun, originally from Lucerne, was first a skilled driver and later the owner of Brun Motorsport, one of the most important international teams in the sportscar scene. With Porsche 962Cs, he achieved numerous victories in Group C. Unfortunately, it was in one of these cars that the promising driver Stefan Bellof, already noted for his strong performances in Formula 1, lost his life during the 1985 1000 Km of Spa-Francorchamps. Giampaolo Pavanello, on the other hand, is an engineer from Padova, already known in the Formula 1 world for being one of the key figures behind Euroracing. After success in Formula 3, Euroracing entered the top-tier category by managing Alfa Romeo’s racing division following the company’s decision to sideline Carlo Chiti’s Autodelta.
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| EUROBRUN ER188, Oscar Larrauri Montacarlo, Monaco GP 1988 |
After Alfa Romeo (the "Casa del Biscione") withdrew from Formula 1 at the end of the 1985 season, Pavanello began looking for alternative projects and found in Brun a seemingly ideal partner to continue his Formula 1 journey. The Swiss entrepreneur was known as a seasoned racing figure and one of the most respected engineers, and together with the manager from Padua, they founded the new Italo-Swiss team EuroBrun, resulting from the merger of their respective racing outfits. The team’s operations remained headquartered at Euroracing’s original base in Senago, near Milan, and former Alfa Romeo designer Mario Tollentino, assisted by Bruno Zava, was tasked with developing the first Formula 1 car for the 1988 season.
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| EUROBRUN ER188, Stefano Modena Jacarepaguà, Brazilian GP 1988 |
The budget was extremely limited, and as a result, the new EuroBrun ER188 was directly inspired by, if not practically a copy of the last Alfa Romeo models designed by Tollentino, particularly the final version of the "185," which had been intended as a test car for the 1986 season but never made it to the track due to Alfa Romeo’s definitive withdrawal from the sport, as mandated by FIAT's management. However, this design philosophy was already more than three years old, and given the rapid pace of innovation and technology in late-80s Formula 1, the ER188 quickly proved to be an “old-born” car with mediocre performance. The car’s main shortcomings were aerodynamic, an area that had become crucial for top-level performance.
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| EUROBRUN ER188, Stefano Modena Spa-Francorchamps, Belgian GP 1988 |
The chassis of the ER188 was, as expected, a carbon fiber monocoque, fitted with a customer-spec Ford-Cosworth DFZ V8 engine and a six-speed Hewland gearbox modified by EuroBrun technicians. The suspension system featured double wishbones with a push-rod layout at the front and a pull-rod layout at the rear, although later in the season, the upgraded “B” version of the car also used a push-rod setup at the rear. The chosen drivers were Argentine Oscar Larrauri, who had previously raced Brun's 962s in Group C, and Italian Stefano Modena, a talented Formula 3000 driver who had already made his Formula 1 debut in the final race of 1987, replacing Patrese at Brabham. Both drivers struggled to qualify the cars and had even more trouble finishing races. Larrauri’s lack of experience earned him the nickname “mobile chicane” due to the number of times he was lapped during races by leading cars.
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| EUROBRUN ER188, Stefano Modena Adelaide, Australian GP 1988 |
Mid-season, Brun contacted Christian Danner to replace the Argentine, but the German driver's large build once again prevented his signing, as he could not fit into the compact ER188 chassis. Consequently, the Italo-Swiss team continued with Larrauri until the end of the season. In the final race in Australia, the ER188B appeared with a new yellow-and-white livery, courtesy of a local sponsor, and without the engine cover. However, even this gimmick failed to deliver any real improvement, and Modena’s eleventh-place finish in Hungary remained the team’s best result of the 1988 season. The complete lack of results led Pavanello to withdraw his support from the team at the end of the championship, leaving Brun solely in charge and forced to seek new solutions and partnerships to continue in 1989.
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