The Williams was already the dominant team since the middle of 1991, with its perfected active suspension and other driver aids. The FW15, originally intended for the 1992 season, was shelved because the FW14 still dominated the 1992 season. The FW15B was a conversion to 1993 rules for pre-season testing, whilst the FW15C was used during the season. There was an FW15D in testing too, as well as the revolutionary CVT car.
The car continued to dominate F1. Alain Prost was signed, with the French engine connection in the middle of 1992 after a season out of F1 having fell out with Ferrari. Mansell, the 1992 champion, refused to work with Prost again after their time at Ferrari, and left for Indycar. Damon Hill, the test driver, was eventually called up to take up the second seat.
The car dominated the season, with Prost able to use his experience over the young Hill to take 7 wins in early and mid season. Hill took 3 wins in a trot, his first in the sport, towards the end of the season as he got used to the car and bad luck left him, and the team won both titles, Prost winning his fourth Drivers' Title.
This was the last car with driver aids until the early 2000's when traction control was allowed again, and it was Prost's final season in F1. He had signed a two year deal, but after Williams signed Senna for 1994, Prost refused to work with him again, and agreed to leave the team for Senna's arrival. He did flirt with coming back with McLaren after another year out, but it was uncompetitive and the team were going through a rebuilding phase.
The 1993 Onyx cars were another step in improvement from Onyx, with mirrors, new tyres, and slightly more accurate shapes. The sidepod inlet is very angled, whilst the car in real life was more curved. The car is labeled the FW15B, which never raced in 1993, but they raced the C spec version of the car initially designed to be used in 1992. Score: 5/10
The Quartzo car comes in two editions, one with the driver figure in the car, the other with a standing figure and a podium. The car is the same base as the Onyx car, the one with the standing figures has slightly different mirror mounting points. Score: 5/10
The original Minichamps car comes in the new chequered flag box which has become standard for their models. But Gode also produced a number of German GP versions of their 1993 cars. Whilst Onyx had angled sidepod inlets, the Minichamps have a straight version. Score: 6/10
Minichamps 402929301
The car received a bit of an update when it was included in the two car World Champions set, which has better decals and an updated driver figure.
Minichamps 436930002
When the New World Champions Collection version was released, I was hoping for a new resin model, but instead we have the original car heavily updated. At least the rollover hoop has a 3D hole rather than a sticker. The update is nice, the helmet shape is much better, the colours more vivid, the decals are of better quality. Score: 7/10
I'm personally quite disappointed with Ixo's attempts at the 1992 and 1993 Williams. It's just quite basic from some of the other angles of the car, and doesn't quite capture the essence of the car. In that regard, I'd say that I'd prefer the early Onyx/Quartzo versions over this. Score: 4/10
By far and away the best version of the FW15 is to go for this Tameo car. I don't think its perfect by any means, I've seen better Tameo models. You shouldn't be able to see the steering wheel, that was covered by the top of the monocoque for example. But it's still a very good model.
Whilst I have the F1 2013 version of the 1996FerrariF310 in Zmodeler, I thought I would do a bonus article having a look at their car. As mentioned in my previous post, the car is made by professionals who probably had access to more source material than I would personally have time to find myself. They also had less to worry about in terms of polygon count so they could throw much more resource into the car that we are limited to in GP4. So the cars in F1 2013 are incredibly accurate, and more detailed than what GP4 might be able to handle.
This is the low nose version of the car, and you can see how the nose itself is slightly raised from the front wing as mentioned in my previous posts. The front wing as added detail on the vanes with a joining support wire. This model has 3D bodylines, as my cars also do. You can see that there is more detail on the suspension and the wheel hub. The smaller bargeboard hidden in the suspension is beautifully done, as it's not quite straight, but looks almost warped, a nice touch.
The nice work on the bodylines can be see in this shot above. The integration of the rear of the side head rest protection is nicely done, with the front part being quite flat, whilst it is much more curved by the fuel cap and rearwards from there. The head protection itself is wonderfully detailed. The seat is nicely recreated, though there's not too much else in the cockpit worth mentioning.
The rear of the car has some lovely details and I wanted to show the wireframe so that you can see some of the details and modelling techniques used to create them. One of the things I try and do is to make sure all my polygons face the same way, |\|\|\|\|, where as there's some difference on this car around the rollover bar.
There's some nice detail on the hump at the rear of the engine cover, and the suspension pickup points. The rear fin has some nice detail as does the rear wing itself.
When I said the GP4 car took a few liberties in the diffuser region, it was to this car I was comparing it to, which from what i can tell from pictures is much more accurate and well proportioned. You can see some of the complexities of the rear suspension from this angle and how tightly packaged it all is, something you don't necessarily appreciate unless you try and make it yourself.
Finally here's a nice shot of the car where you can see the detail on the seat, the hump in front of the cockpit with bodylines on it, must have taken a while to get that right. The conversion to 3DS format has knocked the normals a bit, so the sidepods don't look as smooth as it does in game.
I think it looks great in game. If this car was to make it into a newer game, I'd expect to see more polygons and more details than before, particularly on the insides and the cockpit which are lacking a little in detail in F1 2013. I hope you enjoyed this slight detour from my regular postings, but I always try and follow modern techniques to further improve myself and my modelling.
For the third part of the walkaround, I will be looking at the cockpit, the rear of the car, and some of the internal parts of the 1996FerrariF310 created by Nick Ovey and Ebi Attard. If you missed the first two parts, you can read them here, part 1 and part 2.
The cockpit is pretty basic, at a time in GP4 when there wasn't really much attention put into making cockpits accurate, as the in cockpit view used a generic model for all cars. Some nice touches are the onboard camera, as placing the camera on top of the rollover bar started to become the norm in 1996.
The wireframe is shown on the shot above, so that you can compare some of the techniques used on this car compared to some of my cars of a later period. The same philosophy applies with more polygon usage around curved regions, whilst large polygons are used for flat surfaces.
The Ferrari were one of the teams caught out with the side head-rest protection regulation, new for 1996. They had the highest of all the teams, something that affected the flow to the airbox above the drivers head, and it was common to see Schumacher and Irvine to drive down the straights with their head as over to the side as they could manage.
Moving onto the rear of the car and this is an area where perhaps artistic license ruled over accuracy, though it is not bad by any means.
There have been some lovely photos of the car with its engine cover off, so it was good to see that faithfully recreated on this car. whilst it is basic and a lot of it covered by the radiators, it's good enough for you to get an idea of what is there. Ferrari were quite unique in that they didn't run a black airbox, with the prancing horse featuring prominently on it.
Here is a shot of the inside of the car from the rear. For comparison, I have a screenshot of the F310 created for F1 2013. It's a shame that the car doesn't make it into the classic part of the 2018/19 game.
As you can see, the 2013 model uses many more polygons and attempts far more detail but the proportions are pretty similar. What I'm saying is that though the GP4 car, created by amateurs and aiming for less detail, have done a fantastic job and holds up well against the F1 2013 version which was created by professionals with probably better source material to work from.
The Monaco GP can either be a procession or absolute chaos, though in the Pirelli years in particular, it has been much more the former. 2019 was again more procession than chaos, but there was enough tension to keep you interested. At the end of the day, you look at the results and you think I don't need to see the race, but the intrigue and tension is all in how the race unfolded, with Hamilton under pressure from worn tyres from Max Verstappen who had a five second penalty hanging over him.
Usually the most interesting part of the race comes in qualifying, with overtaking almost impossible around the streets of Monte Carlo. In practice, the Mercedes duo looked strong, with Max Verstappen looking a step behind but threatening, and Charles Leclerc looked fast in FP3 and looked like he might challenge for pole. Ferrari had a terrible session though, Vettel hitting the wall twice, Leclerc missing the weighbridge, but worst of all, Leclerc didn't make it through Q1, as Vettel bumped him out of Q1 with his final lap. Ferrari made an error in not letting Leclerc do a second lap and the race for pole position was a bit less interesting.
Ferrari's woes continue
Leclerc seems to have the pace, but in Baku and now in Monaco, he did not deliver pole position like in Bahrain, however you'd expect Vettel to be right up there, but he wasn't. Come the race, Leclerc made some amazing overtakes on Norris and Grosjean, but tapped the inside barrier when just about alongside Hulkenberg's Renault, which caused a puncture and through driving too quickly on the way back to the pits ripped off most of his floor. Vettel on the other hand managed to finish in second place and one wonders why his tactic was to hang back from Verstappen and play it safe. If he had put more pressure on Max, it might have put him under more pressure and the slight touch between him and Hamilton may have been worse and Vettel could have swanned through to an unlikely victory. Vettel looks like a shadow of his former self at the moment, perhaps the mistakes of previous years has made him be a bit more cautious. We need Charles to calm down a touch, but we need Vettel to step up.
Stars
Max Verstappen was voted driver of the day and, as he has been since Monaco last year, has been truly excellent ever since. He didn't take any untoward risks, and for the first time in Monaco he didn't end up in the barriers all weekend. The pit release was not his fault, though he could have left a bit more space, but Bottas was in his blind spot. But finishing second on the road was well deserved, even though it ended up being fourth.
I think Carlos Sainz had a great weekend, my personal driver of the day and weekend, as did both Toro Rosso drivers. Sainz managed an incredible pass on both Toro Rosso drivers to claim his joint best finish of sixth place after a great qualifying performance. Good strategy saw off the threat from Ricciardo, who also had a really good weekend, and Magnussen in the Haas. Kvyat has made it into Q3 again and Albon showed some great pace throughout the weekend.
For a change, Williams were able to mix their cars in with the tail end of the midfield. Despite some dubious corner cutting on the first corner, Kubica was running well before being pitched into a spin by Giovinazzi. Pitting soon after the safety car returned meant he ran alone to the end but finished ahead of the Italian's Alfa who was penalised for the collision. Russell was caught up in the blockage, but squeezed past Giovinazzi in the process, and having good pace and good strategy, finished ahead of Stroll and both Alfas. This was a much needed step forward for Williams, but I fear it's a one off with the peculiarities of the Monaco track, they were a little behind in qualifying pace, but there were times their race pace was well in the midfield.
At the end of the day, it was Hamilton who claimed pole position and the victory, and had we not known about his tyre issues, it would have been a lot less interesting. Of course it was a no-brainer to stay out on those tyres and creep around to the end rather than pit and finish in fourth or fifth - they had to take risk. If Hamilton wanted to, like in Abu Dhabi 2016, he could have driven a lot slower, but unlike China 2007, he made it to the end without error, surviving a small tangle with Verstappen. Remarkably, this was only Hamilton's third victory at the Principality.
A weekend to forget
Hulkenberg was disappointing this weekend. He wasn't that far off in qualifying, but he was a step behind the 2018 race winner throughout the weekend.
Racing Point struggled all weekend, Stroll in particular was poor all weekend, even getting in the way when being lapped. Perez avoided disaster as he nearly ran over two marshalls coming out of the pits during the Safety Car period.
After this incident, I’m just very happy with the outcome of my day. That we all can go back home safe and sound with our families. For the safety of the marshals I hope it never happens again! 🙏 #MonacoGP#Checo11pic.twitter.com/PP8Me3Frlz
The Alfa Romeo's also struggled, with Kimi racing around a car that was 'crabbing' around, not a great 300th GP. Giovinazzi finished last despite both cars making it into Q2.
Haas could have delivered strong points finishes, but Magnussen, after losing out on strategy, received a post race penalty for his corner cutting defence against Perez, but Grosjean managed to finish in 10th considering he was well back when fighting with Leclerc at the start of the race.
Takeaways
For all the dullness of the racing in Monaco, I think it still has a place on the F1 calendar. It's still amazing to see the world's fastest race cars try and squeeze quick lap times from the streets of Monaco with only barriers as the track limits, particularly in qualifying. The cars are so close to the spectators and cameras, you feel a sense of the speed of these cars. The event itself is entirely unique and prestigious and F1 needs that variety in the calendar. I'm not saying I want 20 events like this, but one of them out of 20 (or so) races is fine.
This was the end of the Mercedes one-two streak, and it took some quick pitstop work from Red Bull to force it. But still, Mercedes have won every race so far.
F1 is about the fine margins and making sure you are on the right side of them. Hamilton got pole by 0.086 seconds, which is such a small margin. Bottas did well to keep his place at the first corner from Verstappen, but at the pitstops, the Mercedes team were a little slower which caused the collision. Bottas might be close to Hamilton on pace, but when it comes to the fine margins, Bottas seems to be on the losing end at the moment. When Rosberg won his championship, Rosberg made all the most out of the tiniest of gains and made sure he was on the right side of all the marginal calls. These fine margins are what separates the good from the great. Having said that, Hamilton is not firing on all cylinders just yet, he hasn't needed to, but the form he was on particularly in the middle of last season was formidable. With the Championship lead his, it seems like Hamilton can cruise to the title without having to reach the heights of last season.
Gasly is getting closer to Verstappen's pace, but he is still some way off. In the race, he should be comfortably running closely behind the leaders. Instead he is running his own race and pits for the obligatory fastest lap attempt. One wanders with Kvyat's strong performances of late whether they may switch seats before the end of the year.
The weekend featured many tributes to the late Niki Lauda and rightly so, with his tribute helmets finishing first and second, a lovely touch. Below are links to my model reviews of his 3 Championship years.
The high nose created by the Ferrari is very reminiscent of the Minardi high nose adopted in 1995, with the bulbous undersection and the angled supports. Personally I loved the look. The front wing is simple but accurate, Ferrari running three elements, which wasn't unique or new, but most other teams ran simple two element front wings.
New rules for 1996 meant that the front wing endplates must be rounded to avoid punctures on collision. Ferrari's version is notably quite rounded. You can see the vanes underneath the front wing and the undercut at the rear of the endplate, something they had developed on their 1995 car. The nose should have been easy to integrate, but I had to make a slight adjustment to the top of the nose and the angle to make sure the high nose was not too low. The textures are nicely integrated with the shape with the bodylines and how the suspension connects with the monocoque.
Moving towards the cockpit, there is the small bump in front of the cockpit. This I believe is to do with a regulation with the steering wheel, that as the steering wheel turns, the wheel must not exceed the height of the monocoque.
You can see the bargeboards on the F310 and the floor as it guides the air underneath the sidepod and towards the diffuser.
Here is a close up of the underneath of the sidepod, nicely done by Nick and Ebi. The curvature of the top of the sidepod is spot on for me.
Here is the front of the sidepod, again I think this is beautifully done and kept at a very low polygon count, whilst keeping lovely smooth normals.
Next up in my walkaround series from the GP4 1996 mod is this one. The FerrariF310 I wasn't really involved in, the main shape and work being done by Nick Ovey and Ebi Attard. I only got involved with helping them get the car in-game and creating the high nose, so that will be the car that I will review. If I remember correctly, this car was released years after the original McLaren, but a little before the Benetton by Oggo. So in my review, it's not for me to judge it according to the standards of some of my later works when I was pushing the boundaries of accuracy.
The car has good proportions overall, and is a pretty accurate shape. The car has lots of nice source photographs so that you can get some really good reference shots for modelling. What I did forget to update on this car was the rear winglet endplate, which should have been updated from the early season version.
If you notice from my other cars from the front and rear views is that everything lines up nicely, the width of the front wings, the sidepods etc. Sadly on this car the rear winglets exceed the width of the rest of the car.
The John Barnard designed Ferrari for 1996 season was known as the truck, because of how it handled, perhaps not fitting for the arrival of double World ChampionSchumacher. Somehow, he managed to eek out three victories in a car that didn't deserve to be challenging the Williams at all.
The car started out the season with a low nose, though the nose itself was slightly raised giving more surface area to the front wing. This concept was ditched by the Canadian Grand Prix. There was no change to the main chassis to accommodate this, so the high nose had to be raised from the bulkhead forwards, which led to the slightly awkward bulbous shape. Compare this to the F310B for the 1997 season when nose and chassis were designed together in a more tightly fitted and slender and sleek shape.
Barnard also returned to a raised sidepod, something similar to the double floor concept tried (and failed) on the 1992 car. From this angle, you can see the sidepod is completely separated from the floor until the very rear.
This is the successful 1992 Williams car that brought Nigel Mansell his only Drivers' World Championship and saw the team dominate the Constructors' Title. The car is a reliable evolution from the previous year's car, the FW14, which showed great promise in 1991 season, but was unreliable. Having hired Adrian Newey from March, they perfected their cars, integrating driver aids such as semi-automatic gearboxes, traction control, and an unmatched active suspension. These all came together to dominate the season, with Nigel setting various records along the way.
Back in the 90s, there were two options, you could go for Onyx, or you could go for the relatively new to the market Minichamps. Onyx had been producing models for a few years, and their 1992 collection was showing signs of improvement from some of their earlier more basic attempts. This Williams has relatively good proportions and is instantly recognisable. Score: 5/10
As mentioned above, this is one of the early Minichamps models, only featuring a couple of 1992 and 1993 cars initially. The cars featured more detail than the Onyx version, and though it wasn't particularly hard to find on second hand markets, were still traded at higher than the original retail price. I have managed to own a couple of these models in my time and I've always managed to make a tidy profit from it over the years. Score: 5/10
Minichamps 402929301
The car was updated for the 1992 and 1993 World Championship two car set, along with the FW15. New wings, new driver figure, updated suspension and added mirrors were all added to the original model. However it could have really done with an overhaul. Score: 6/10
Minichamps 436920005
The car did receive an overhaul and we got the long awaited resin version in the World Champions Collection in 2017. This model is fantastic from Minichamps, a fitting tribute to one of the most dominant cars in F1 history. The shame is that the driver figure looks a bit too small and lost in the cockpit; I don't think Mansell can see out of the cockpit! Without the driver figure, I would have been tempted to give this a score of 9. Score: 8/10
Ixo's attempt at the car is not a particularly good one in my opinion. I don't think the nose is particularly well shaped and the front of the rollover bar is a bit of a mess. I've seen better budget cars. Score: 5/10
This Tameo car is based on the opening race from the South African GP. I found the front wing on this car way too big, though it's not that clear in the picture above. It's a real shame because the rest of the car is of the highest quality, even over the latest Minichamps resin version. The clarity of the body lines being one of the nice features, and the stepped floor at the rear of the sidepods, the gurney flaps, the gap between the separate wing elements are all fantasticly modelled.
The new McLarenMP4/6 now housed a V12 Honda engine but was no match to the WilliamsFW14's. The Williams suffered terribly with reliability problems, and Senna duly took victories at the first four Grand Prix, including an emotional Brazilian Grand Prix where he was stuck in 6th gear. As Williams began to dial their car in, Senna consistently scored podium finishes, ending the season with 7 wins and 5 other podium finishes, clinching his third, and final, Drivers' title and the team their fourth Constructors' Championship.
This is another early Senna Collection release with a nice but basic version of the McLaren MP4/6. Score: 6/10
Minichamps 540914391
A later addition to the original Senna Collection is this updated model from the 1991 German GP. This is a nice update, although I found these helmets a little small.
Minichamps 540914301
The updated car featured in the new Senna Collection, though it is back to the generic non-tobacco version, presumably from the British or French GP. Other than the decal changes, I can't see any new updates to the shape. There have been a fair few version of this updated model released over the years:
I don't know too much about this version at all, but it is unique in that it comes with wet tyres and also with blank spaces for the tobacco advertising.
This fantastic tall box edition with a standing figure is a very nice update from the Brazilian GP mentioned earlier.
There was a very small limited run of 300 for the 50 years of McLaren series recently for the Japanese Euro Sports magazine. Score: 7/10
Here is Onyx's version produced back in 1991. It's a shame that the rear wing decals aren't quite right, but it's hard to complain for the price. Score: 4/10
Ixo have done a nice job in making this budget car, this particular version made for the Brazilian market initially which comes with a driver figure. I think I'd still prefer even the original Minichamps car, but this is not far off in quality. Score: 6/10
True Scale Models have produced a couple of race specific cars, and I do love it when modellers put some effort into some of the differences between races, especially on the shape with the most obvious change being the rear wings. These models are fantastic, you get a great shape, nice decals and good detailing.
This Japanese kit maker have produced some excellent, top quality models and these cars are no different. The level of detail is exquisite, I can't find any faults. I love how they do the gurney flaps, the radiator, the suspension pickup points, the cockpit and the rear end.
I can't find any particularly high resolution of this car, but I've found some detailed shots here:
