THE FORGOTTEN 90s TEAM? The Story of Pacific Grand Prix (1994-95)
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- Опубліковано 4 чер 2024
- Simtek are remembered for all the wrong reasons plus the MTV sponsorship. Forti is remembered as being bright yellow chicanes that ended up on the end of a wrong business deal. Life were rubbish with a rubbish and Andrea Moda was a farce. As were Lola, come to think of it.
But in the middle of it all, was Pacific. A team that tried to do what Eddie Jordan did but ended up in the category of Underfunded and Slow. But they had a history behind them that should have meant some sort of success beyond the two full seasons they did.
So what happened? Let's have a look...
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That Coulthard thing reminds me of 2008, when BMW stopped developing the car despite getting a 1-2 in Canada, and Kubica leading the points. Genius move. Champagne all round.
It was a bit of a weird move at the time, but in hindsight looks like complete lunacy because they whiffed the 2009 regs and then sold up due to the credit crunch.
Think I also read something about Belmondo being offered the final grid place at Imola, but he declined it out of respect for Ratzenberger.
Yeah he did.
That’s correct.
"Silver Poundland Benettons". Nice 👍🏼 😂😂
Death cigarettes! That’s definitely a marketing angle
They do exactly as they say on the tin!
Definitely a story from the 90s with that name
Yep. I remember those. They caught all sorts of flak for the brand, the advertising, not being part of the "established" tobacco companies and the warning "If you don't smoke, don't start. These cigarettes will kill you."
and, IIRC, they came in black coffin shaped packets 😂
I’m not sure there was ever a good time to launch that product.
Fun fact: Keith Wiggins' time in American open-wheel racing also ended with a failed partnership with Lotus in 2012. Honestly kind of a sad way for that all to end, because man, I got into IndyCar around 2010-ish & I have so many fond memories of that green-white #78 & Simona behind the wheel (especially 2011 Pole Day for the 500).
Also fun fact: you'll never guess who drove for Wiggins at one point... Yes, ROBERTO MORENO!! The full 2003 ChampCar season (even got a 1-2 with Mario Dominguez in Miami, though Dominguez was the winner).
I really liked the 1994 livery. The pink and blue swishes looked cool. The 1995 livery was beautiful too.
Reminds me of those McDonald’s water cups.
@@nolancain8792 The most 90's design ever! The Footwork from the same year was deliciously 90s as well!
Fun fact: the Pacific Grand Prix website was still up for more than 20 years after the team died, kinda like how the Space Jam website from 1996 is still up.
the Pacific website is long since gone however.
I was lucky enough to have a visit to their factory in 1995 through the Grand Prix Contact Club. This happened after their transporter caught on fire in the Mont Blanc tunnel. They did manage to save the cars but everything smelt of smoke.I
It was an interesting visit.
I totally forgot Pacific (the team) existed. When I hear Pacific Grand Prix I think of that one time F1 visited the totally underrated Okayama International Circuit for the only running of the Pacific Grand Prix in 1994.
Am pretty sure the Pacific grand prix was held in 1994 and 1995 - just checked and it was held twice
@@ferrariman195 Twice yes. The circuit is sort of unsuitable for big formula cars and big GT/Prototypes as well - it was built as club circuit.
@@palm92 yh that and the track was in the middle of absolutely nowhere and hard to get to
@@ferrariman195 Many such cases in Japan!
The second race was in the fall. If im not mistaken, it was the race that The Michael clinched his 2nd title.
A football manager reference? You love to see it
“The event horizon that is the formula one finance’s black hole” Your a poet Aidan. Thanks so much for all the great content. Cheers.
Ahhh Pacific...when you go up the ladder to F1 and then it doesn't work. I love your videos Aidan, you always give information that I never knew. It's amazing! Even in topics that I thought I did know everything!
On the subject of Belmondo fun (kind of) fact. his dad along with fellow French legend Alain Delon was in the last scene of a gangster film which the BBC abruptly ended to News flash that Princess Diana had been in that car crash in Paris.
I think Pacific are forgotten because even the people who were hospitality guests of the team ended up being plied with large amounts of Ursus vodka at races.
The most volatile and unstable teams always seem to have the prettiest liveries
Geez I'm 50 and a book bore so I remember all those huge yearbooks for different sports that used to carry the Rothmans name from Football to Rugby League.
As a kid Pacific fascinated me, couldn't believe there was an F1 team from my town that I had never heard of. TBH I had never heard of them till GRAND Prix 2 PC game and I remember reading Thetford in the huge game manual and got all excited however I never once saw them actually performing on TV! Oh and death cigarettes? Is that even real!? Great video!
The Pacific PR02's nose section sort of looks like the Lotus 112...I wonder if some of the concepts from that car were put into the PR02.
The PR01 also briefly reverted to a low nose near end of 1994 - the photos of it are hard to find however. The PR01 also had a weird single post battering ram nose that was never used outside of testing.
I started watching F1 in 1994 and was (for some reason) immediately drawn to these back-of-the-grid newcomers, so in my opinion, Simtek, Pacific and Forti are the three greatest teams in F1 history 😂
Love these minnows stories, can you do a video on them all from the 80s and 90s?
Death Cigarettes? Isn't that kind of truth in advertising?
Might be the most truthful advertising ever thought of (even if its also arguably the most blunt as well)
I was not expecting a football manager reference, more of my interests overlapping! Cool
Thanks for the heads up, Aidan... have totally forgotten about "Bebel junior" racing in F1 back then.
P.S. That Guy Ligier was a guy alright, but the French pronounce his name "gi". ;)
I dunno, the backmarkers in 94-95 always seemed to have some good liveries though and awful performance. Man if only races were won by the best looking cars. Actually now I wonder how that would have changed the seasons points using the old 10-6-4-3-2-1 system
EDIT: Wait is that the same Keith Wiggins that would later go on to end up Stateside? Huh, I always assumed he just started in Indycar/CART and worked his way up there, never knew he was part of Pacific, and man those cars got a raw deal in GP2 as well with the AI coding, spent many hours modding GP2 back in the day. Pacific got deservedly screwed by Sir Geoff, and then the anoraks took over and royally turned that up to 12
Yes, same guy. I never knew he was in Formula 1, I always knew him as the HVM guy Simona was driving for when she got into IndyCar.
5 laps down..... Geez makes me wonder how the greatest motering contribution to come out of Tamworth Staffordshire namely Reliant never thought about putting together an F1 Team. Imagine the car they'd put out and it would probably lap an Life car even with 3 wheels!
There was a story that Pacific were hopeful of getting Hart engines after Jordan went to Peugeot. Would have been interesting if that had happened.
Been hoping for a video on Pacific for a while now, glad to see it!
The last time I even thought about the Pacific team was playing Grand Prix II back in the 90’s.
The team also disputed Mika Salo's Tyrrell deal in 1995 claiming that Salo signed with Team Lotus before the team went under and what remained from the team was purchased by David Hunt (brother of 1976 champion James Hunt), who basically merged whatever he had with the Pacific team and as far as Hunt was concerned Salo was a Pacific Racing driver. The Contract Recognition Board ruled in February of 1995 in favour of Tyrrell
Minardi deffo had Mild Seven sponsorship in 1997, as Ukyo Katayama drove for them that year. Weird livery, the blue logo along with white, black and orange! It's one of my favourite Minardi liveries though!
They did, but I was specifically thinking of 1994.
@@AidanMillward Ah, apologies, I misunderstood that you meant specifically that year!
Considering that the Pacific island and tax haven Nauru only has one road which circles the entire island start to finish I'm surprised the Pacific Grand Prix never ended up there. At least it would have lived up to its name! If that idea sounds daft remember Las Vegas had a race in a Casino Car Park!
I remember pouring over magazine images of the 1994 Benetton and the Pacific and thinking the same thing. Also, the 1995 Benetton and the Ligier of that same year..
Hello Aidan: The "as well made as a piece of toilet paper", gave me a genuine laugh. Thank you.
Great video, also loving the sereis, kind of a "how hard can it be?" sereis
Somewhat forgotten, yes. I remember playing GP2 back in the days, and while the other backmarker team (Simtek) had that cool blue livery, Pacific was just... gray-ish and boring. And quite often not in the races.
The chicane in Monaco in 1994 had less of a tyre wall and more of a slighty padded end of a rail sticking out, and Wendlinger hit that side on.
Given the context of his interesting time in F1, "Taki Inoue's Footwork" kinda sounds abit funny. Rather cruelly ironic that a team Named "Pacific" couldn't start the Pacific Grand Prix.
And finally, "Death Cigarettes" is certainly a choice for a name (a choice that really comes to the fore considering when they were supposed to be on the car...bad timing indeed)
I remember Paul Belmondo most from the moderately successful racing team he ran in FIA GT in the 00's. They ran Vipers in white blue and yellow with Corona beer sponsorship iirc, and I watched them win the Silverstone 1000km in '02 or '03 where eventual Maserati MC12 driver Fabio Babini managed to hold off the charging Lister Storms and take the win from the faster factory cars.
That took me back! I wouldn't want to list all the "dead" teams since I was born, it would make this video about 3 times longer!
Excellent 👍🏻
I think Tyrell would be a good team to cover if you already haven't. Good to see how it changed from Tyrell to Mercedes. Love the content coming out lately 👍🏻
I did Tyrrell about a month ago. Referenced it in this video. 😅
@AidanMillward
Haha I know, I posted the comment and was like......oh he's just said it! Good channel this though. Love the F1 and Indy Car content 👌🏻
Pacific always reminds me of the respect that Belmondo showed in rejecting the last grid place at Imola in 1994, out of respect for Ratzenberger.
JJ Lehto was a very quick sports car driver . Steve soper said he couldn’t match him in the same car.
Pacific were the Crewe Alexandra of F1. They were there but nobody cared.
Or Darlington. Spent a boat load of money to get to the top but ended up disappearing
At least Darlington had a gangster for a chairman at the time.
@@AidanMillward Unlike Pacific, Darlington had shed loads of cash.
The PR01 was also originally intended to race in 1993 with Michael Bartels driving.
The Blue Jays jersey and cap ☺️!!!
(I’m canadian. French canadian. Yeah… i know. Sorry)
Oh and great, GREAT content btw! As always.
Shows how good Jordan and Sauber’s first seasons were
They had no drama and were bad, no wonder they were forgotten atleast teams like forti were funny to laugh at
Grand Prix 2 anyone?
God, I miss being those silver bathtubs and absolutely obliterating Bertrand Gachot
Fittipaldi was at Minardi in 92' I remember their Lamborghini Engines.
Allegedly, according to unracedF1, there were rumors that Pacific would be driving for the 1996 season, with Keith Wiggins selling the team to George Paulin, the husband of Cecilia Ekstrom(The namesake of the mysterious Ekstrom Grand Prix(Could be a potential video, perhaps?)), but nothing came of it.
Btec Benetton, I have a real soft spot for early to mid 90s f1 backmarkers.
Christian Fittipaldi drove a Minardi-Lamborghini in 1992, not a Footwork. Also Leyton House went back to being called March that year. Just pointing that out, no offence intended! 🙂
There are a couple of Pacific chassis in Mondello Park as there was help from Martin Birrane who owned Lola and Mondello to help Pacific stay afloat.
By the end of 95 Pacific were even worse than Forti. And I remember Damon hill saying "there must have been 10 Fortis out there today as I seemed to overtake one every 5 minutes."
Thanks Aiden. The 107% rule should be 103%. I don’t know how many of your other fans do karting but on my fiftieth birthday, I won my first open race at MK DAYTONA. It was time limit plus one lap. I completed 30 laps. The person in last place completed 20 laps. It is absolutely terrifying seeing a back marker 100 yards ahead entering a 90 degree corner that I’m going to be entering fully committed and at a speed where if I brake, I’m going to have a big accident and not knowing where they are going to be when I get there.
Btw. At MK DAYTONA, you’re entering the fastest corner at over 50 mph and it’s blind.
Pacific nearly got the last laugh at Belgium 94 - expected to pack up early, Gachot had actually qualified on the damp Friday due to Footwork having a breakdown but Fittipaldi scraped into the race on the wetter Saturday session and pushed him out again, having sent his teammate out to clear some water.
1990? I’m 1989 baby
"...while Red Bull seems to sponsor... well, anybody at this point!"
And here I have 'r'Bernie concerned about a bit of red on a Leeds shirt... At least the logo'll be blue for the Away kit! There's that! I wouldn't mind, either, but it's not like there are no Yorkshire teams with red in their kits! Barnsley, for example, their Home kit is red!
What's the opposite of pole position? Paul Belmondo.
(1994 paddock joke)
The one good thing about the 94 Pacific was the livery.
I loved the 94 car I thought it looked ace.
You forgot Honda & Brawn that came and gone even tho it is now Mercedes.
“List incomplete”
Nothing was forgotten.
is that the team where they came to arrest him and he had grenade ?
I recommend listening to Karl Wendlinger's episode of Beyond the Grid. Really interesting.
Aside from his stint with Jordan, Gachot drove for a list of teams that reads like a who’s who of shit late ‘80s/early ‘90s F1 teams. Onyx, Rial, Coloni, Lola, Larrousse, and Pacific. Some obvious omissions in the form of Andrea Moda, Life, or Simtek, but still an impressive record.
I've loved your videos for years, and the comment about andre the giants aerodynamic properties has had me crying for the past 5 minutes, thankyou so much for the effort you put into these videos mate I love every single one 🤌🏻
We're the same age Aidan! Sorry to go off subject.
Red Bull gives you wings. Marlboro gives you Wiggins.
Edit: didn't Oliver Gavin go on to be the F1 safety car driver for a while?
Keith went on to co own Minardi Team USA with Paul Stoddart.
And it was not a facking faaarce.
I mean, if you ask Seabass it was, or that was more down to sex toy magnate Doornbos getting his elbows out and sticking it to the Newman/Haas driver. That race at St. Jovite is still a great watch, Doornbos was absolutely on it that day and then not giving up. Minardi Team USA were awesome
@@jacekatalakis8316 Well Nobby Bobby was Dutch. He was gonna do it in a crazy and sexy way! If you read the press release, you'll die of laughter.
He actually bought the old Bettenhausen operation in 2000. More like Stoddart came to him. Solid team in CART's most competitive era (1996-2001).
Even funnier, considering the channel: his 2 drivers for the 2003 season were Mario Dominguez &... yes, Roberto Moreno.
@@philipdawson7800 I never did find out the end result of the beef between Fernandez and Mario in 2002 at Surfers really, all I remember is Adrian was all you have nothing to celebrate soundbites. I swear there's a vid on the 02 Surfers clusterfuck on the channel?
Also sheesh, 6 degrees of Moreno, well then. Kevin Bacon got nothing on Bob
4:55 - did you mean "princess Monaco of Kent"? 😀 (if you get this reference, you've watched British TV)
Leyton House went back to being just March in 1992
9:08 Randy Rhoads livery
Arrows as well
Jake's on the desk ❤
They also wanted to run Oliver Gavin in 95 at one point. Really curious how that would've panned out
Edit: you mentioned it yay
Checked 1995 season stats and I can tell you that with 107% rule, Gachot and Montermini would have qualified for TWO RACES (Gachot on season opener Brazil and Canada, Montermini on Canada and Portugal [he was 106.997% of the pole time. 107.005% on Spain's pole]). Moreno would have qualified ONCE! (At the last race) and Diniz for none (even the legend Taki Inoue would have DNQ'd 5 times). For comparisons, in 5 attempts, Verstappen would have qualified 3 times in the Simtek and Schiattarella once
Ah yes the Reynard debacle - Rory Byrne and Pat Symonds only took that job up because they were sick to the back teeth of John Barnard's way of dealing with them. When they mentioned this to Flavio, Flavio respected them because they had been good workers and felt something had to be done. So Flavio sacks Barnard, and I think he must have sent in a bad word about the Reynard thing as they struggle to find sponsorship and Rory and Pat go straight back to Benetton for 1993. If it wasn't so comical, it could be seen as tragic.
the 94 Pacific livery was incredible looking, to bad the car was absolute shit
"Poundland Benettons"
Very odd hearing an FM reference on an F1 video...
Huge fan of Jack 😅
Good job I wasn't drinking did you just say Death Cigarettes......... Yeah in the grand book of great marketing programmes up there with Chevrolet marketing the Nova in Mexico untill somebody told them what Nova meant in Spanish!
What do we think of Bertrand, crap teams notwithstanding? His career does suggest some potential that was never realised
Good at punching.
@@JohnSmithShields was it a punch or CS gas? I've heard both versions
@@camillaquelladegliaggettiv4303 my understanding was a punch.
They are trying to ballon the value of their teams. Supply and demand but there are just a set amount of teams meaning their value goes up. Artificially or not. It’s not right smh
Creme del a cràp 😂😂😂
Wet 1 ply toiletpaper
2:05 I'm happy to have stopped both skijumping and motor racing at a point where they weren't that much involved. I'm so sick of this company: homophobic, pressurizing, populistic etc. They are just like Trump but as a company, believing with their name alone or with money they can buy anything. If my homeland Karelia is one day re-united and an indpendent republic, companies like Red Bull will be banned there.
No views in a minute
...@2:10 you mean Like Red Bull Sponsoring an F1 Team is NOT the same as it is to Marlboro because to Red Bull F1 is just, well, the latest thing bit NOT how they actually make Money?
Good Spot, Aidan, good Spot 🫡🤩🤓