OCTOBER 30, 1995

Pacific to announce Judd V10 deal for 1996

THE Pacific Grand Prix team will shortly announce that it has agreed a deal with John Judd's Engine Developments company for the supply of ex-Yamaha V10 engines for next year.

THE Pacific Grand Prix team will shortly announce that it has agreed a deal with John Judd's Engine Developments company for the supply of ex-Yamaha V10 engines for next year. These will be known as Judd V10s and should be a lot more competitive than this year's Ford V8 engines - which were the team's only other option for the future.

Judd - which is part owned by former World Champion Sir Jack Brabham - entered F1 in 1988 supplying Williams, March and Ligier with V8 engines. Judd V8 customer engines were raced by Brabham, March, EuroBrun, Lotus and Andrea Moda up until mid-1992 but by then Judd had embarked on a V10 program with Scuderia Italia. At the start of 1993 Judd began an exclusive relationship with Yamaha, helping the Japanese manufacturer to become more competitive in F1. With Yamaha now moving to a completely new 3-liter V10 engine, the modified 3.5-liter units will become available and these will be supplied to Pacific as Judd engines. They are likely to be prepared by an engine tuning company - probably Neil Brown - and will not affect the Yamaha program at all.

Pacific is also expected to announce that it has signed a new contract with driver Bertrand Gachot - who is one of the three shareholders in the Pacific team. The team is hoping to finalize a budget which will enable them to choose a second driver for 1996 on talent alone, but this will not be easy. There are, however, quite a lot of F1 drivers about at the moment with money available and with one or two teams likely to be in difficulties in the winter months, the team, should be able to land a sensible driver with money.

Gachot, incidentally, is expected to stand down for the Australian GP to allow British Formula 3 Champion Oliver Gavin to race.