GP4: 1996 Sauber C15 walkaround part 1

This is the 1996 Sauber C15 Ford. This was the second season where Sauber enjoyed works Ford engines, and it was Ford's first V10 in Formula 1. Ford would be preparing with Jackie Stewart and Paul Stewart for 1997 with the new Stewart Grand Prix, leaving Sauber to seek a customer engine deal with Ferrari whom they have long been associated, and even in 2019, they dropped the Sauber name in deference to the Alfa Romeo brand. You can read about how the car fared in the 1996 season as part of my model review: Sauber C15 Model Review

The 1995 Sauber C14 I created for the GP4 mod was one of the later cars that I had created and so it was noticeably better than some of the other cars in the mod. Though the 1996 car was built from scratch, the 1995 car was used for reference here or there.

My 1995 Sauber C14

The car is quite different from the 1995 car, with only really the lower rear wing that could be somewhat borrowed. The front wing went back to being a two element rather than 3 element. The nose and monocoque are a little more slim-lined than the 1995 which began life being a low nosed car. The airbox is much bulkier with a larger intake for the new V10 engine. The sidepod openings are also noticeably bigger. They have also adopted an additional wing element over the rear suspension taking its inspiration from the 1995 Benetton. The diffuser has also been developed, with many of the teams coming up with some interesting solutions which we will delve into in later.

I've managed to get some 'plan' shots from zmodeler before we get into the 3D views. Compared to some of the other cars on the 1996 grid, the Sauber looks quite bulky, with a larger nose and a wide airbox.

This car was mapped and painted by Bernard aka Gezere. Having painted all the Toro Rosso's since 2006 to today and a fair few Red Bull cars as well, I was glad that he turned his talents to one of my cars. He also did a stunning texture on my 2008 Toro Rosso STR3.

Overall, I'm really pleased with how this car turned out. I'm happy with the proportions and the textures are really nice too. I'm also quite pleased with the modelling techniques I've employed and how smooth the final model looks.

Look out for part 2 and part 3 coming  up. You can see my other walkarounds from the 1996 season here. In the meantime, here is a video of my car in rfactor2.