1/43 Model Review: 1994 Simtek S941 Ford

Background

Simtek Research, set up by Nick Worth and Max Mosley, had been around for a few years, designing parts for Ligier and helping the FIA. In 1990 they designed a car for BMW, but they decided to concentrate on Touring Cars, so the design was sold to the Andrea Moda team for the 1992 season. They were going to design a car for the new Bravo Grand Prix team, but for the sudden death of one of their backers.

Wirth entered his own team in 1994, with Roland Ratzenberger recruited alongside David Brabham, son of Jack Brabham, a shareholder in the team. Ratzenberger didn't qualify in Brazil, finished 11th, but last in Aida. In Qualifying for the San Marino GP, he knocked his front wing in an off, but eager to set a lap time, did not get it changed. In the 190mph Villeneuve corner, the wing failed, and crashed heavily into the concrete wall taking his life. He would be the first death in the sport in 12 years, but was overshadowed when the very next day, Ayrton Senna also lost his life in the race.

At the Monaco Grand Prix, the Simtek team only ran one car out of respect. Andrea Montermini was to drive for the team in Spain, but had a terrible accident in practice that meant he did not take any further part (you can read more about that here: https://fongugp4.blogspot.com/2019/01/1994-11-crashes-that-changed-f1.html). Jean Marc Gounon was already scheduled to take over the seat at the French Grand Prix, bringing much needed funds to the team. Domenico Schiattarella and Taki Inoue also drove for the cash-strapped team.

The reality was, that this was a rubbish debut season, the car was so slow but for the even worse job done by the Pacific team.

Minichamps

Minichamps 430940031

Only Minichamps, to my knowledge, have created a Simtek model, and it is a nice once from them. This is the early season version, although it has bargeboards which only appeared later in the season.
Score 7/10

Minichamps 430940032

I'm not entirely sure when, but Minichamps released an updated model some years later under the same item code. You can tell as it lacks the barge boards, and it has an updated driver model and helmet. The colours have also been nicely tweaked, a really lovely model.
Score 8/10

Only the two drivers were released by Minichamps, all from the early season, though they had six drivers in total that year.

Click here for my other 1994 model reviews: https://fongugp4.blogspot.com/p/1994-model-review.html