The car was driven by Japanese driver Aguri Suzuki who had spent 1989 failing to pre-qualify all 16 races for Zakspeed, and Frenchman Éric Bernard.

The LC90 made its debut at the 1990 San Marino Grand Prix replacing the updated 1989 car, the LC89B used in the opening two rounds of the season.

Aguri Suzuki scored the team's first podium (and the only one for Lamborghini's V12 which was rated at 640 bhp (477 kW; 649 PS) in 1990) in front of his home fans at Suzuka.

After most of the major runners had dropped out of the race (both McLaren-Hondas and Ferraris), Suzuki finished a brilliant and highly popular third at his home Grand Prix behind the Benetton-Fords of Nelson Piquet and Roberto Moreno.

However, with an improving Lamborghini engine, a chassis considered among the best in the field and two talented young drivers, pre-qualifying was never really a problem and indeed qualifying positions within the top 10 became more and more frequent as the season progressed.