1993-1994 Silly season
4th Part
(click here to return to the beginning)
Williams-Renault. 1993 year champion team had a very good package, in spite of FISA-FIA's imposed ban on electronics gizmos: new FW-16 with Renault's RS6 engine and strong pair of drivers were good enough to claim both titles. Besides that new title sponsor Rothmans ltd filled devastated - after 'Canon' and 'Camel' retiring - team's budget with lots of money.
Because Prost had decided not to participate in 1994 World Championship Williams couldn't use number '1', so the second year they had to paint 'zero' and 'two'.
Tyrrell-Yamaha. Last year was one of the worst in Tyrrell's history, no place in championship and no point finishes, so before the new season everything in team looked more optimistic. New chasis '022' with traditional nose, instead of modifications of 1990 year '020', looked very good on pre-season testing. New version of Yamaha's engine OX10, prepared by John Judd's Engine Developmets ltd proved to be one of the most powerful in peloton. The only problem for team were the pilots. Veteran Andrea de Cesaris was replaced by Mark Blundell, who, like Italian, didn't seemed to be an F1 star. Ukyo Katayama thanks to Yamaha and Japan Tobacco (owner of Mild Seven cigarettes brand) recive a chance to spend another season in Tyrrell.
Benetton-Ford. Another year have begun with Schumacher's and Briatore's hopes on champion title. But unlike 1992 or 1993 this year Benetton team had more chances: absolutely new engine (Ford Zetec-R) based on old good Ford HB; new chasis '194' and Schumacher who was going to fight for title. Like Williams team, after 'Camel' withdrawing, Benetton had to find a new sponsor and they found it in Japan. Japan Tobacco Inc brought 20 millions $ to team budget to put Mild Seven's logos on Benetton's surfaces.
McLaren-Peugeot. Appearance of Peugeot in F-1 was another big news of mid-season. At first Frenchmen talked with three teams: Jordan, Benetton, Larrousse and only then with McLaren. The preliminary agreement was achieved with Larrousse, Peugeot's engineers even visited team's factory to see the possibility of instalation their engine on LH94 chasis. But after some telephone calls from McLaren's HQ Jean-Pierre Jabouille (director of Peugeot Sport and F1 program) conluded a three-years deal with McLaren's chief Ron Dennis.
Ron Dennis had to be happy with that deal - at last, after Honda left F1, he got a factory support from a big car company. But there was one little problem: Peugeot was a newcomer to F1 and Dennis ought to know that there would be no great success for the first year. Moreover with Ayrton Senna's leaving and Prost's not wanting to come back McLaren team got another problem with driver's staff. Mika Hakkinen was too young to take lead and Martin Brundle had to much disappointments in F1.
Footwork-Ford. It could be heard too strange but at the beginning of 1994 there was a high probability of team's not participating in the approaching championship. The reason was that team co-owner Vatara Ohashi (from Footwork corporation) ended fininacial help (because of financial crisis in Japan) and without Japanese money team was going to be a bankrupt. But Jackie Oliver and Alan Rees could solve that problem: they found new sponsors (for example 'Lee Cooper' - the biggest Europian jeans maker) and hired two pilots who had good sponsor's support.
Lotus-Mugen Honda. What had Team Lotus before the 1994 season? We can say that it was only a hope. A hope in future? Definitly no. It was a hope in miracle. Try to judge yourself why it was so. One of the greatest teams in F1 history before 1994 had not enough money to build a new chasis, to buy a good engine and even to have sufficient km of testing in mid-season. So they had to use chasis 107C - wich was a clone of 107B chasis, but without active suspension - and a year old Mugen Honda's engine MF351HB, wich was called ZA5C. With this package there couldn't be any success in races. The only thing that helped to improve the situation was the pair or it sould be said a three of drivers (Lotus team was the only team in 94 which wrote in its application three surnames of pilots): Johnny Herbert - was considered to be one of the best drivers; Pedro Lamy - International F-3000 runner-up and Alessandro Zanardi (who had to replace Lamy during the season) - ex-International F-3000 vice-champion.
Jordan-Hart. After 1992 year (when team, for not being a bankrupt, collaborated with Yamha corporation) team's condition became more stable: a good budget, chasis, Brian Hart's engine and pair of ambitious young drivers meant good prospects for the coming season.
Larrousse-Ford. The problems of this small French team have begun not with Peugeot's decision to support McLaren instead of Larrousse team, it has begun with Lamborhini's finishing supply its free engines to team. In Crysler (who was the owner of Italian car brand) wanted to get a contract with a top team (there were some negotiations with McLaren team but with no effect) and when they understood that it wasn't possible their F1 program was immediatly closed.
But neither Lamborghini's withdrawing or neither decision of Peugeot's direction didn't stop Gerard Larrousse and Robin Herd from taking part in 1994 F1 World Championship. They got enough money to buy Ford HB engines by engaging Beretta and selling bolide's surfaces to Danone Group (owner of Kronenbourg and Tourtel beer brands).
Minardi-Ford. If you look at Minardi team's history you'll see that every year was, is and surely will be a fight for surviving. 1993-94 mid-season wasn't an exception, but thanks to BMS Scuderia Italia financial failure, Minardi got a new sponsor Lucchini company (ex-BMS Scuderia Italia's sponsor), a veteran Michele Alboreto (ex-BMS Scuderia Italia's driver) in a cockpit and a couple of new words in team's title wich became sound as "Minardi Scuderia Italia".
Ligier-Renault. By the beginning of 1994 French team had an old Renault engine, past year's chasis, but new pilots, new manager and new owner. Why was it so? Because during the winter Cyril de Rouvre (the owner and team manager) was arrested in France for his finacial machinations and Ligier team could go to nowhere like many others have done before, but thanks to support from French goverment, Seita (owner of Gitanes Blondes and Gauloises Blondes brand) and Elf with Renault it didn't. Then Briatore bought Cyril's shares (to get the next year Renault's engines for his Benetton) and put his companion Tom Walkinshaw to manage the team. So the only problem for team was a year old car. The pilots were not the motorsport stars but were pretty strong to fight for the good result.
Ferrari. Scuderia Ferrari after two years of shame began to rise from the knees. It could be seen because of the absolutely new chasis 412T (designed by John Barnard) which had to be much better than the evil F93-A (cause nothing could be worse than F93-A). With the most powerful engine in peloton and a strong pair of drivers the task to improve team's results was possible.
Sauber-Mercedes. The second year of Sauber team's participating in F1 promised to be very successful. Partners from Mercedes-Benz became the main shareholder of Ilmor engines and officially entered in F1. Thanks to support from one of the biggest car company of the world Sauber was considered like one of the top teams. In pre-season interviews Ron Dennis and Franck Williams even have said that Sauber could win one or two races.
Simtek-Ford. Simtek team was a newcomer to F1, but Simulated Technology wich established this team had made in 1992 a car for Modena team so they had some experience in F1 design. The mission for the first year for team was to qualify both cars for the race. For this David Brabham (whose father provided team with some money) and Roland Ratzenberger (for the first five races) were hired.
Pacific-Ilmor. Pacific was the second newcomer and the main competitor to Simtek for the place at the starting grid. Actually, the team's debut was fixed on 1993, however Keith Wiggins (team's principal) wasn't able to find enough money and so team spent that year in International F-3000. Nevetheless at the beginnig of 1994 Pacific team had the smallest budget, the only good news was that British team had a strong (like Wiggins said) Ilmor engine (they spent 40% of money to buy it), but it was two years old (Simtek team had a two years old Ford HB engine). The chasis PR01 that team used had even more demerits than engine. Firstly, it was developed in 1991 (!) by Adrian Reynard (it was his F1 car project). Secondly, since that it wasn't modified at all (only to correspond the regulations). Thirdly, the weight of PR01 was 525 kg (the minimum weight limit according the rules was 505 kg). And Fourthly, PR01 had manual gearbox instead of semi-automatic that all other team had. Thanks to the gearbox Pacific's pilots were losing 0.3-0.5 second to shift 'up' or 'down'.
About the pilots it should be an individual talk. First pilot was Paul Belmondo (yes, his father is Jean-Paul Belmondo). Thanks to father's money he bought a sit in Pacific's cockpit for the whole season. The second driver was Bertran Gachot. He was a good driver, but in 1993 he had no racing practice and moreover he was the heaviest pilot (81.5 kg on pre-season weighting) in peloton.
It's clear that with such car and pilots Keith Wiggins could expect a really "fantastic" result.
TBFOC, 2003.