Name and livery The car name
PR01 is named after
Pacific
Racing, with
01 being their first year in
Formula One. 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. Despite having power supplied by
Mercedes-affiliated
Ilmor, the Pacific team suffered from the perennial problem of many new Grand Prix teams, namely a lack of finances. The PR01 was designed for the
1993 season and ended up being seriously off the pace in 1994. More often it failed to qualify, with the car only ever making it to the grid seven times and never finishing a race.
Aerodynamics Most of the PR01's aerodynamics and design as a whole was based on Reynard's stillborn car, due to be raced in 1992. Several very experienced personnel were involved in the project, including
Rory Byrne, then recently from Benetton. During 1991, Reynard concluded that the project would not be ready, so the entire program, including the Enstone factory, was sold to
Benetton. Reynard's aerodynamic research data was sold to Ligier and Pacific. The design was refined by Pacific 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 had only a few dozen miles of track testing. No major upgrades were made and because of this it suffered from fundamental problems. Major modifications were meant to be carried out after
the tragedy at Imola, but they never happened. Pacific did, however, modify the car on the plank of the suspensions, but this proved to be insufficient to improve the performance of the car. The team also introduced a low nose during the season.
Engine The
naturally aspirated 3.5 L
V10 engine from
Ilmor was of a two-year-old design - underpowered by 1994 standards; it was not upgraded. == 1994 season ==