Background
Incredibly, 1998 was the last season
McLaren have won a Constructors' Championship. Considering they had the best car in 1999 and arguably 2007, 2008 and 2012, for a team that has been so used to running at the front end, it has a poor conversion rate for titles (since the early 90s).
The 1998 F1 Season saw a host of new technical regulations aimed at slowing the cars down that saw most prominently narrow track cars and grooved tyres. It provided new designer, Adrian Newey, with an opportunity to shine, and the car was nearly a second quicker than anyone else in qualifying at the first two races. After winning four of the first six Grand Prix,
Schumacher and
Ferrari began to fight back, albeit too late to meaningfully challenge for the Championship, though he did manage to keep the fight alive till the final race.
Hakkinen won eight Grand Prix, to his team-mate's one victory, to deservedly take his first Drivers' World Championship, and the team the Constructors' World Championship.
For me this is an iconic car, but there's also not many models of this car as you will see below, just one offering from McLaren (in various boxes) and a couple from Tameo.
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| Minichamps 530984308 |
I wasn't a fan of the change to narrow track cars for 1998, I'm not sure anyone was, but I think the prettiest car of that year was this McLaren, designed of course by Adrian Newey. Minichamps have created a nice model. The thing that bugs me is the red on the nose, there's way too much of it. I can kind of forgive the airbox that looks like it's just stuck on as though they forgot about it until it was too late. It's a shame, because the rest of the model is quite nice.
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| Minichamps 402989901 |
The twin car set, that comes with Hakkinen's
MP4/14 car, features exactly the same car as the standard model above, so there's not much more to be said.
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| Minichamps 436980008 |
Several years later, the car was announced to be released in the
World Champions Collection, I was looking forward to the car being updated, but I was disappointed to find that it is the same model, not a single thing has been changed as far as I can tell.
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| Minichamps |
The model comes in other packaging, the team version with tobacco sponsorship factory applied.
Score: 7/10
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| Tameo TMK261 |
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Tameo TMK269
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You can get this car in McLaren's papaya orange which the team ran in pre-season testing and the race edition is based on the Japanese GP where Hakkinen sealed the championship from Schumacher. This is a fabulous model from Tameo, it really captures the essence of the car for me, the shape is perfect, the beauty is in the simplicity and elegance of the shapes, and the details are nicely done too.
Score: 10/10
