Pacific PR01

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Pacifc PR01

[edit] Name and Livery

The car name PR01 is named after Pacific Racing with 01 being their first year in Formula One, hence the name. The PR01 was driven by Paul Belmondo and Bertrand Gachot for the whole season, with the test drivers being Oliver Gavin and Giovanni Lavaggi. Pacific lacked a single main sponsor for the 1994 season and the car ran with many different names on the sidepods, including Ursus Vodka.

Despite having power supplied by Mercedes-connected Ilmor the Pacific Grand Prix team suffered from that perennial problem of new Grand Prix teams - money. The PR01 was an attractive car, however it was designed for the 1993 season. It was seriously off the pace and more often failed to qualify. The car only ever made it to the grid seven times and never finished a race.

[edit] Chassis

The chassis featured a V10 from Ilmor.

[edit] Aerodynamics

Most of the PR01's aerodynamics and design on a whole was based on Reynard's Formula 3000 car, with 'best guess' aerodynamics as the car had undergone none of the vital wind tunnel testing required to refine the car's aerodynamics. The car only a few dozen miles of track testing either. No major upgrades were made and because of this it suffered from fundamental problems. Modifications were meant to be done after the tragedy at Imola, but they never happened. Pacific did, however modify the car on the plank of the suspensions, which consisted of a push-rod, but they proved to be insufficient.

[edit] Engine

The naturally aspirated V10 3.5 L engine from Ilmor was found out to be a shocking two years old and was therefore underporwered by 1994 standards. The engine was never given an upgrade.

[edit] 1994 season

Bertrand Gachot in the Pacific PR01

Main article: 1994 Formula One season

The PR01 was used in every race of the season. At the 1st round of the season in Brazil, Belmondo failed to qualify, but Gachot managed to qualify. Unfortunately, he crashed out of the race. They both failed to qualify for the next round in Aida, but Gachot qualified for Imola only to retire with an oil-pressure problem. Belmondo and Gachot qualified for the next two rounds of the world championship. This would be the only two rounds of the season Belmondo would qualify for. Gachot qualified for the 6th round in Canada, only to be hit by an oil-pressure problem again. This would be the final time any of the two cars qualified in the season as Gachot and Belmondo did not qualify for the remaining ten rounds of the season. The team even considered withdrawing from the championship in order to work on their PR02 chassis, however if this happened, they would have had to pay a substansial fine.

[edit] Complete Formula One results

(key)

Year	Team	Engine	Tyres	Drivers	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	Points	WCC
1994	Pacific Racing	Ilmor 2175A V10	G		BRA	PAC	SMR	MON	ESP	CAN	FRA	GBR	GER	HUN	BEL	ITA	POR	EUR	JPN	AUS	0	NC
				Paul Belmondo	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	Ret	Ret	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ
				Bertrand Gachot	Ret	DNQ	Ret	Ret	Ret	Ret	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ

v • d • e Cars that competed in the 1994 Formula One season

Williams FW16 • Williams FW16B • Tyrrell 022 • Benetton B194 • McLaren MP4/9 • Footwork FA15 • Lotus 107C • Lotus 109 • Jordan 194 • Larrousse LH94 • Minardi M193B • Minardi M194 • Ligier JS39B • Ferrari 412T • Sauber C13 • Simtek S941 • Pacific PR01