1994 Formula One Season - Pre-season

Pre-season

The big news in the paddock after the 1993 season was the retirement of defending World Champion Alain Prost after winning his fourth title, and his replacement at Williams by long-term rival Ayrton Senna. It was commonly thought that Senna's move to Williams was a factor behind Prost's retirement, which in a later interview was proved to be correct.

• Williams retained Damon Hill to partner Senna, and test driver David Coulthard would replace the Brazilian following his fatal accident.
• McLaren, having lost iconic driver Ayrton Senna, promoted Mika Häkkinen to team leader and brought in experienced Martin Brundle. Following a year with customer Ford power, the team had works Peugeot engines for 1994.
• Benetton kept Michael Schumacher on board, pairing him with JJ Lehto. The team's Dutch test-driver, Jos Verstappen, and Johnny Herbert also drove for the team during the season.
• Ferrari retained their 1993 driver line-up of Jean Alesi and Gerhard Berger.
• Sauber replaced JJ Lehto with debutant Heinz-Harald Frentzen to partner Karl Wendlinger, though the Finn would return after injury plagued his time at Benetton.
• Jordan retained their final line-up of 1993 with Rubens Barrichello and Eddie Irvine.
• Larrousse, now powered by Ford HB engines, signed Olivier Beretta to partner Érik Comas.
• Tyrrell retained Ukyo Katayama and replaced Andrea de Cesaris with Mark Blundell.
• Ligier signed returning Éric Bernard, who had been out of F1 racing since 1991 and the newcomer Olivier Panis, with both drivers from the previous year, Martin Brundle and Mark Blundell moving to McLaren and Tyrrell respectively.
• Footwork faced a difficult year, having lost the Footwork sponsorship and the Mugen-Honda engines. Driver line-up was also changed completely, as Christian Fittipaldi and Gianni Morbidelli joined the team to pilot the new Ford-powered cars.
• Lotus, despite obtaining the Mugen-Honda engines deal, was also facing a difficult future restricted by financial problems. Johnny Herbert and Portuguese driver Pedro Lamy started the season, but the Lotus cars would have 6 different drivers during the 1994 season, which would turn out to be the famous marque's last as a going concern.

1994 saw two teams making a debut. Simtek-Ford paired Australian David Brabham, who was making his first appearance in the sport since the 1990 season, with Austrian rookie Roland Ratzenberger. After the latter was killed at Imola, a number of other drivers took the second car. Pacific-Ilmor went for experience with Paul Belmondo and Bertrand Gachot.

Following a disastrous 1993, BMS Lola merged with Minardi, the team changing its name to BMS Minardi. Experienced Michele Alboreto and Pierluigi Martini were chosen as drivers.

Additionally, two of the top teams unveiled new colour schemes, reflecting new sponsorship deals after Camel withdrew from Formula One. Williams' new sponsorship from Rothmans saw them adopt navy and white with gold and red trim, while the Benetton team went from yellow to the pale blue and mint green of Mild Seven.