  The importance of a isospin dependent nuclear mean field (IDMF) in regard to
the pion production mechanism is studied for the reaction $Au+Au$ at 1
GeV/nucleon using the Quantum Molecular Dynamics (QMD) model. In particular,
the effect of the IDMF on pion spectra and the charged pion ratio are analyzed.
It is found that the inclusion of a IDMF considerably suppresses the low$-p_t$
pions, thus, leading to a better agreement with the data on pion spectra.
Moreover, the rapidity distribution of the charged pion ratio appears to be
sensitive to the isospin dependence of the nuclear mean field.
