Around this year thirty years ago, many in the Formula One were reflecting on an insane and deadly season. The horror weekend at Imola will be remembered for eternity. That weekend Rubinho miraculous survived his horror crash with his Jordan 194. Sadly, Ronald Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna left their lives at Imola. More happened during the season; it became clear that Larrousse and Team Lotus were on their last legs. While Simtek and Pacific Grand Prix made their debut in the Formula One. Pacific a year later than planned, Simtek in disbelieve after a horrible season. Pacific Grand Prix was on the edge to bring the PR02 in 1994 on the grid for the last few races.
It has to be said, it was hard to uncover more information about Pacific Grand Prix to debut the PR02 during their first season. Besides a small article in Autosport in “News in Brief” the 14th of July 1994, I only could find some notes in my own archive. So the question is did Pacific start working on their PR02 with the intention to debut it in 1994?
The answer to this question is yes and no. The reason for this is the lack of proper funding of the team. However, there were three teams who used the (partly) the unraced Reynard design for 1992. For example, Benetton used it for their B193 and B194 design. While Ligier and Pacific Grand Prix had the aerodynamics of the car. Benetton did a good job in 1993 and 1994, and so did Ligier in 1993 and 1994. However, Pacific Grand Prix failed the test with their PR01.
It has to be said that their engine was not the best on the grid. They used a two-year-old not developed Ilmor V10 engine. However, the results speak for themselves. After the Canadian Grand Prix neither Bertrand Gachot nor Paul Belmondo were able to qualify the car for any Grand Prix.
Initially the team made halfway the season the decision to start working on the successor the PR02. It was normal in those days to bring a B or even a C variant of the current car on the tracks. Keith Wiggings team would even go further and abandon the Grand Prix season in 1994 in favour to have all the time to develop their new challenger. This seemed to be impossible. Due to the fines the team would get, and eventually threatened to be withdrawn or exclude from the grid. The PR01 got some updates during the season; three types of front-wings were used eventually.
Eventually they planned to PR02 for the 1995 season. As Team Lotus had left the grid, they made a deal with David Hunt. This was, in their words, to preserve the Lotus name on the grid. After the champagne failure during the presentation we all knew it would be Pacific Grand Prix’s last season.
©Martin Lee
