EuroBrun entered Formula One for 1988 with two cars, signing 1987 Formula 3000 champion Stefano Modena of Italy alongside Argentine veteran Oscar Larrauri, a long-time stalwart of Brun's sportscar programme who was 33 years old and making his Formula One debut.
The team's entry into the sport coincided with the final season of the turbocharged era, placing the normally aspirated DFZ-powered ER188 at a significant power disadvantage relative to the works turbo teams. However, like all DFZ runners in 1988, EuroBrun could draw on the strong reliability record of the Ford-Cosworth unit as a competitive differentiator against more powerful but fragile turbocharged rivals.
The ER188 made a solid if unspectacular start to the season, and in the first eight rounds Larrauri missed the qualifying cut only twice while Modena would have qualified for all of them — but for two disqualifications, one at Monaco for missing a weight check during practice and another in Mexico for a rear wing height infringement.
However, money ran short rapidly. In May 1988, amid the financial pressure, team co-principal Walter Brun attempted to replace Larrauri with German driver Christian Danner — only to find that Danner was too tall to fit inside the ER188's monocoque. With no funds available to modify the chassis, Larrauri remained in the car for the rest of the season. The Argentine driver had by this point earned a reputation for being difficult to lap — slow in traffic and reluctant to yield — which generated frustration among other competitors.
Finishes proved elusive across the season. Engine failures, clutch and gearbox failures, and on one occasion a flat battery prevented either driver from converting qualifying appearances into classified results with regularity. Modena's best finish was 11th at the Hungarian Grand Prix in Budapest, which stood as the ER188's peak competitive result.
In December 1988, EuroBrun entered an ER188 chassis for Fabrizio Barbazza at the Formula One Indoor Trophy at the Bologna Motor Show — an exhibition event held on a temporary indoor circuit. Barbazza was eliminated in the first round by Luis Pérez-Sala's Minardi.
For 1989, the ER188 was updated to ER188B specification, receiving a Judd CV V8 engine and Pirelli tyres in place of the original Cosworth and Goodyear combination. The team contracted Swiss-German rookie Gregor Foitek as its sole driver.
The ER188B's 1989 campaign was brief and fruitless. Foitek cleared Friday pre-qualifying only once — at the opening race in Brazil — but failed to advance through the subsequent qualifying sessions and never started a race. The updated car was superseded by the purpose-built EuroBrun ER189, designed by George Ryton, from the German Grand Prix onwards.
The ER188 encapsulates the challenges facing small, under-funded Formula One teams in the late 1980s. Despite a broadly competent design from Tolentino, EuroBrun lacked the resources to maintain competitive development across a full season, and the financial troubles that forced the team to keep an unwanted driver illustrated the fragile economics underlying minor Formula One operations of the era. The team's best results came from Modena, who would go on to greater success with other teams, while Larrauri's Formula One career ended with the EuroBrun programme.