There was a possibility that in 1990 over twenty teams could appear on the grid. After the ban of Turbo engines the amount of teams on the grid exploded with the peak in 1989 and 1990. For 1990 EuroBrun announced they would enter two cars while Life Engineering made it’s debut on the grid with the L190. While Coloni would only appear with one car on the grid. There was one team on the grid that was not happy with the situation that was Ligier. The forecast for 1990 was that at least one of their drivers was forced to join the pre-qualification on the Friday morning when most of the track were covered in the morning damp.
1988 and 1989 were not the best seasons for Équipe Ligier in the Formula One. With several Did Not Qualify and only three points in two seasons the team was struggling. The hope was there that 1990 would be a game changer for the team. For 1990, the team appeared with the JS33B on the grid, which was a development of previous year car originally designed by Michel Beaujon. With Nicola Larini and Philippe Alliot behind the wheels of the cars, they had a strong driver line up. The problem was only that it seemed that one of them had to appear on the Friday during the pre-qualifying.
Rial Racing from Günter Schmid was the problem. The team was in a terrible form in 1989. However, because of Danner’s fourth place during the United States Grand Prix Rial finished as 13th. While Ligier finished 14th with the same amount of points though with a fifth and sixth place during the Canadian and British Grand Prix.
While little news came out of Rial Racing, the team was working on their challenger for 1990 the ARC3. Christian van der Pleyn was the designed. While unconfirmed Bertrand Gachot and Gabriele Tarquini were already attracted as drivers. Ford Cosworth engines would power the ARC3. However, Rial Racing would never appear on the grid in 1990. Schmid decided in late January/early February to pull the plug. The reason was the same with AGS, lack of results and motivation. Neither would Zakspeed appear on the grid in 1997.
Having Rial Racing not on the grid meant a miracle for Ligier. For the team it meant that both drivers would be able to qualify on the Saturday for the races. However, there is more to come. Eventually, the team was forced during mid-season to appear at the pre-qualifying due to the lack of results. Which team did a better job? Onyx Grand Prix due to the fact that Gregor Foitek finished seventh during the Monaco Grand Prix. In the pre-qualification, the Ligier team was out passing all the cars.
Luckily for Guy Ligier, after the Hungarian Grand Prix the Onyx Grand Prix Team at that point Monteverdi disappeared from the grid. It meant that the team was only forced for the pre-qualification for the German and Hungarian Grand Prix. After a disastrous season in 1991 with the Lambo engines and no points either in 1992 the team finally scored points with the Renault powered JS37.
