Berger and Alesi would start the 1997 season with Benetton for their second year at the team, but Berger missed three races mid-season and compatriot Alexander Wurz deputized from the Canadian Grand Prix. The car was more competitive than its predecessor, with Alesi and Berger scoring a pole position each, and Berger dominating an emotional German GP weekend on his return and after his father's death. Wurz scored a podium in only his third race at the British GP, earning himself a drive for the following year.
Minichamps produced their Benetton B197 in diecast metal. As usual, it is well done in proportions and the livery and logos are of a good standard. The helmet looks nice, particularly Wurz's more complex design. I do seem to have an issue on every model I get with cracked decals just in front of the sidepods, and I've had like 6 of these models. Wurz's model comes based on the British GP with a limited run of 2,222 pcs. Score: 7/10
This Tameo model is based on the Monaco GP and comes with wet tyres. Whilst the Minichamps looks a little bulky, this model has much more refined and detailed shape. In many ways, I like the shape of the car, I quite like the simple livery, but I find the logos (on the real car) just too oversized and makes the whole thing too cluttered, it's hard to find a space where there isn't a logo from the side view. Anyway, Tameo represents the real thing very well indeed. Score: 9/10
Lewis Hamilton repeated last year's victory and wrapped up 2019 with a perfect weekend. He started on pole, his first since Germany, and ran away when the lights went out.
Leclerc ran in second for much of the first part of the race, but not for the first time this year, the race pace was not there for the Ferrari and he was being chased home by Bottas who had started at the back of the grid following two power unit changes. Ferrari were also fined for a fuel discrepancy.
The main intrigue for the race was the battle for 6th place in the Drivers' Championship where Sainz and Gasly were coming into the race tied on points. Gasly was taken out by Stroll and broke his front wing on Perez'sRacing Point at the first corner, and from there, he was never in contention, but if Sainz did not score, Gasly would seal the position on count back. Sainz was on a slightly compromised strategy, having made it into Q3, so McLaren gambled with a late pitstop onto the softs which dropped Sainz back to 14th. With some great moves, including a great lunge on Hulkenberg on the last lap for 10th and the one point he needed to finish in 6th. That's a great achievement, capping off an impressive season for Sainz and the McLaren team, with Norris having a strong race too, after an impressive qualifying. His end of race team-radio was also moving as he transitioned from laughing to crying.
Sergio Perez is in form at the end of this season and starting from 11th, earned a best of the rest finish with a brilliant late move on Norris. With stability this year in preparation for next year, we hope the Racing Point team will once again punch above their weight next year.
A lot of teams struggled to match their speed from last year, Alfa, Haas and Williams in particular really struggled to get their tyres working.
Being the last race of the season and unusually all the seats for the following year confirmed, it's time to say farewell to Hulkenberg and Kubica. It's a shame that Kubica had such a scruffy final race, tangling with his team-mate and with Giovinazzi. But it's been amazing that he even had a drive, considering the accident that he has had, and the work he's put in to get the drive is nothing short of inspirational. Sadly, the car was not easy to drive and slow, and he struggled more than Russell and looked second rate all season. Nico had a relatively good weekend, he's not been shown up by any of his previous team-mates, but against Ricciardo, he's not been as strong. Renault have had such a poor year by their own standards and Nico has been somewhat anonymous this year after such a strong couple of seasons for them. He deserves another drive, but then again he's been at it for nearly a decade.
Let's talk about Ferrari. You'd think that by the end of the season, every team is well on rhythm and performing flawlessly at near enough their best. Both drivers had minor offs during practice, symptomatic of their error strewn season. Then Leclerc didn't get his final lap in qualifying in a misjudgement of when to send the cars out. Then there was the fuel discrepancy. Then there was the stacked pitstop when there was no need and it was botched. Their car was phenomenal on the straights, but so poor in the tight twisty section, and their race pace and tyre management was a bit off. Leclerc was the one who managed it better, finishing some 20 seconds before his team-mate. It all kinds of sums up Ferrari's year really. We know Ferrari can build a competitive car, they will surely learn from the decisions on the car philosophy from this year and come up with a beast for next year. But if you look at race management, race strategy, getting their drivers to perform at their best with minimal mistakes, Ferrari seemed to have gotten worse, not better this year. So if they want to be in with a shout of the Championship next year, they've got to sort all this out, because Mercedes and Hamilton will be looking for records next year, and Red Bull and Verstappen will be in contention too. 2020 is looking like a tasty prospect, but we need Ferrari at their best, because it will bring out the best in everyone and hopefully great viewing for us.
Apologies I have not been posting much of late, I have been quite busy with life, but hoping the new year will bring some more content.
I almost think that Brazilian GP was a fitting way to end this season, one that started off with so much hype but ended up so drab and dull, to finish with a Grand Prix which you didn't know who was going to win, lots mistakes, midfield teams on the podium, wheel-to-wheel racing and team-mate crashes. There's not really been an exciting Abu Dhabi GP that I can remember, even though I actually quite enjoy driving the track.
Max Verstappen took a brilliant victory, as many said it was redemption from last year's mishap, whilst Hamilton made the rarest of mistakes in wheel-to-wheel battle with Albon, kudos from the champion to hold his hands up immediately after. But Gasly on the podium, and Sainz joining the podium after Hamilton's penalty after starting from the back of the grid were mighty achievements. Although it didn't mean anything in the end, that drag race between Gasly and Hamilton to the line was great viewing.
Vettel has been strong the last few races, we have to acknowledge it hasn't been the Leclerc show that it was at points this season. Both drivers have been incredibly close, which is a good thing for the team, and a good thing going into next year when, we all hope, there will actually be a three team battle for the championship. Vettel got the team-leader and favourable decisions early in the year, and both will be looking to be the 'favoured' driver in those 50-50 decisions next year when it might mean something. Firstly, Leclerc's move on Vettel was brilliant! A late lunge, but decisive, got his car firmly alongside into the corner entry and it was just a sweet move - perhaps Sainz's move on Perez being the slightly better and riskier one. Vettel would have been surprised by that, and would not have wanted to let that decide who was going to finish ahead. He got a good run out of turns 1, 2 and 3, and had a good slipstream and was going to get back ahead of Charles - the pass was inevitable.
What happened on that straight was all posturing. Leclerc only gave Vettel one car's width and no more - fair and hard, that's what we want. Vettel was a bit on the grass, but he made it through with his momentum. But then, something akin to Turkey 2010, Vettel moves to the middle of the track. He was ahead, but he had not cleared the car behind. He wanted to assert his authority by pushing his opponent into a compromised line into turn 4. I get their motivations, I get the subtleties of what the drivers were saying to each other. But I've said this in a previous post, I don't like how Vettel moves across, Leclerc had every right to keep going in a straight line. I think everyone understands that. But Leclerc did it to Norris on lap 1, he kind of did it to Bottas in Hungary, whilst Perez got a drive-through penalty for hitting Sirotkin in the 2018 Singapore GP. I get the posturing side, but I don't like it personally.
But back in 2010, Red Bull firmly stood by Vettel, their up and coming superstar, who at that time was behind Webber who was the more credible title challenger. This season, Ferrari have been more outwardly critical of Leclerc and his mistakes and when he has not followed team-orders, whereas again, they have been more defensive of Vettel on his obvious errors this season. Battle lines will be drawn now by the team, but it remains to be seen if either driver will do their own thing anyway, both have evidence that they are not easily contained. This is a fascinating inter-team battle that we can enjoy, hopefully for a while to come. I've been very critical of Vettel, but he's still a deserving multiple World Champion, and is still an incredibly good driver. We knew Leclerc would give him a hard time this season, but Vettel hasn't been blown away as some predicted, neither has he switched off as he did in 2014.
Stars
This was a great fight between Verstappen and Hamilton, with Vettel having an outside chance on an alternative strategy before the safety cars ended his challenge. But you felt that Max was always on top of the situation, even when he was behind, and even nearly being wiped out by a Williams unsafe pit release, you were confident he was going to find his way back to the front. He passed Leclerc and Hamilton in straight succession, great race craft there, and his second pass on Hamilton around the outside of turn 1 was sublime. The Red Bull has been mighty in recent races, and Max delivered pole position, and arguably had a marginally better race car, and he delivered a drive of a champion.
Albon was a little behind the pace in qualifying, but he was also having a good race and in the running for his first podium position. It's somewhat ironic that the favoured Red Bull driver to take the second seat in that team next year is the only one without a podium finish this season. He's deserved it, but now he needs to start getting closer to Max's performance. A solid showing from Alex this weekend. He also put in a great pass on Vettel. I don't buy the 'he left the space on the inside' on that corner, it's rare for an overtake to happen there, and Alex took a normal line into that corner. It was for Hamilton to make a decisive move, which he didn't, so for me, there's no fault on Alex's part there, perhaps if he had seen Hamilton make the lunge he could have given a bit more room, but again I would not fault Alex here.
Gasly got a podium, and he deserves it after some of the performances he's been putting in at Toro Rosso this year. He was the best of the rest comfortably, in qualifying and the race, and on a day when five of the top six cars ran into various issues, which is so so rare, he was there to pick up the plaudits. Now Toro Rosso have an outside chance to snatch fifth place from Renault in the Constructors' Championship at Abu Dhabi. That would be mighty for the small Italian team - and a great humiliation for Renault if that were to happen.
Carlos Sainz, for me, has been great this season, and for the performance he put in to rise up the field, yes the safety car played into that, but he made the most of all of it and ended up on the podium, although he was present at the presentation. You've got to wonder how does it take longer to get the classification get confirmed than it does to actually run a race is somewhat beyond me, but the stewards were busy boys to be fair. Anyway, McLaren end their drought of podiums and continue their ascendancy by confirming their 4th placed finish in the Constructors' Championship, but poor old Norris struggled on his hard tyres that hampered his progress. And on a day when two of the podium finishers were midfield runners, Hulkenberg (who hasn't had a podium finish in F1) finished well outside the points.
George Russell finished in 12th position, 1.6 seconds away from the points. It's hard to judge his performance when compared to Kubica who hasn't really been that close to the Brit, and in a car that's not the easiest to drive and not quick at all. Williams could have done better than release Kubica into Verstappen, who not only had to avoid the blue and white car, but braked so hard he nearly went into anti-stall.
Despite a clash with Magnussen and a penalty as a consequence, I have to say Daniel Ricciardo put in a good performance. The Haas were so slow at some points particularly after a safety car, where they were bunching up the field and cars were driving clean around the outside of the train behind. Anyway, you could forgive Ricciardo going for the lunge when Magnussen gave him little room, but Ricciardo doesn't have the confidence or braking ability the Red Bull used to have. But a great recovery, some fantastic late race passes means he redeems himself for me and was rewarded with an excellent 6th - where did Hulkenberg finish again?!
Finally, a nod to the Alfa team who got a great double points finish after a solid weekend.
Need to improve
Where was Bottas again? There's Hamilton harrying for race victory, whilst Bottas is just an also ran and he retired triggering the safety car that made the race so much fun.
Stroll was a unlucky to be caught out by debris from the Ferrari's but as Perez has excelled in recent races, Stroll is just invisible and a fair few steps behind. He is still good at starts, but if his father wasn't running the team, I'd rather see Hulkenberg return than give Stroll another year to be honest.
Haas could have got some points in this race, had their strategy and ability to manage their tyres were not ruined by the safety cars. Magnussen just couldn't hold off Kvyat on the final dash to the flag. We do hope that they will progress next year, as they are battling with Williams on race days, when their car is quick enough for Q3 and points.
We just hope for better in Kubica's final race with the struggling Williams team.
I love Team Radio
This was a rollercoster of emotions on team-radio highlights from this race, from Gasly's release of joy, to Norris bemoaning his bad day, to the gut renching way in which Albon tried to come to terms with what could have been. What makes sport great is the people, and when there's emotions bursting out from their passion and hard work, it's what makes F1 so enthralling and memorable to watch at times.
McLaren kept the Mercedes engine for the third year, and the combination of Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard for a second year. The biggest change was the livery, having lost Marlboro sponsorship, the cars were no longer the distinctive red and white for the past 23 years, but in recognition of their relationship with Mercedes ran a silver livery with West sponsorship. The team ran in traditional McLaren Orange before the livery launch. The car was very promising, but the unreliability of the Mercedes motor masked their potential. Hakkinen retired from leading positions on three occasions and Coulthard suffered the same fate in Canada.
Coulthard started the year with a race win, the second of career, and the first for McLaren since 1993. Coulthard was able to convert another race victory at the emotional Italian GP, dedicating his victory to Princess Diana's death the previous week.
The car was found to have two brake pedals for brake steering after a photographer snook a camera into the cockpit at the end of the season. The technology was soon banned, but was put in the MP4/12C road car which featured many of the F1 cars technology. Hakkinen finally won his first Grand Prix at the finale in Jerez, after coming to an agreement with Williams who was nursing a damaged Villeneuve after Schumacher tried to take him out.
I remember back in 1997 when one of my friends was on a family holiday in London at the same time that Mika Hakkinen was doing a signing session at the Alex Reade model shop and he bought this model and was able to get Hakkinen to sign it, I was obviously well jealous. Anyway, the model comes in the new silver race livery, which Minichamps have done a great job with, and also the pre-season orange livery. The model is a good representation of the car, no real complaints from me. I particularly like how they integrated the sidepod into the winglet and onto the rear endplate.
As with other McLaren cars, the main car is available in Mercedes box and also in Team McLaren editions.
Tameo have likewise produced a pre-season orange version as well as the race car. This high end model is superior to the budget diecast Minichamps model, featuring much more detailed modelling, finer details. It's nice they have made an effort around the fuel cap opening, all the cameras on the car and the rear end is just beautifully modelled. My only tiny nitpick would be the lack of body lines around the cockpit head protection. Otherwise this model is pretty much perfect to me. Score: 9/10
Valterri Bottas took pole position and won the race, putting in a great performance, but this race will be remembered as the race where Lewis Hamilton sealed his sixth Championship. Hamilton was nowhere in qualifying, ending up in fifth place, but his race was impressive. Making a good start, he passed Vettel's car in the Esses, that shouldn't be possible as Vettel struggled to switch his tyres on. But even still, he could have waited till the hairpin or the long straight, but ever the showman and racer, he decided to line his car up and overtake him around the outside. He then proceeded to make the slower one stop strategy work, even defying team orders as he knew his tyres wear (1 billion times better than AWS Insight's awful guess work graphics). When Bottas came to overtake, he made him work for it, it was for victory after all. So for me, arguably, Hamilton drove a better race, but he had already lost on Saturday's performance, whilst Bottas did incredibly well to get pole position, breaking Ferrari's streak, and did everything he needed to do to win fairly comfortably.
Verstappen had a normal race for him, after a run of not so straight forward races, being ready to pounce for victory should Bottas race come undone. He chased down Hamilton but it wasn't quite enough for us to see the wheel-to-wheel battle for second place - Hamilton managing his tyres and his pace to perfection. Albon would have been much closer in qualifying had he not exceeded track limits on his final run, but he bogged down at the start and was squeezed in turn 1 and yet again was left to fight his way back through the field. He's becoming very good at it, but it's becoming all too common a story. He could do with a normal weekend where he's on the right strategy and mixing it with the other top two teams, rather than picking his way through the midfield again.
Ferrari were nowhere on the first stint, more dramatic in Vettel's case as he was passed by Hamilton, Leclerc, Norris and Ricciardo in short succession. Leclerc ended up over 50 seconds behind Bottas at the end of the race. We thought they had understood their car and put upgrades on to make it work at all kinds of tracks, but it was the same story as earlier in the year when we expected more from them but they ended up being so far behind. Vettel's suspension failure raises some eyebrows as he hadn't really gone off, and he didn't have much contact - yes it was a bumpy track, but the suspension shouldn't fail like that and it could have been worse and spewed him into a barrier at an awkward angle.
The battle between Ricciardo and Norris (and Sainz to a degree) was brilliant, as both cars were on form at the head of the midfield, and both racing to be best of the rest. If Norris had another lap, he probably would have finished ahead of Ricciardo, but both of them had good weekends, with Sainz being caught out with Albon at the start.
For a second race in a row, Kvyat earned himself a penalty on the last lap and which has bumped him out of the points again, and the 'torpedo' nickname is quickly returning.
Sergio Perez was for me the other standout of the midfield, dragging his Racing Point into the points again, producing some great overtakes along the way after starting from the pitlane.
A quick nod to Raikkonen, last year's winner, who put in the kind of performance he was doing week in week out at the beginning of the season, but the car has clearly fallen behind the other midfield teams.
As much as Ferrari's suspension failure shouldn't have happened, (and the crack found in Verstappen's wing), but Magnussen's brakes failing is another big no-no in car failures you should never have.
We've had a great second half of the year, building up anticipation for the next year, but, we've been here before and certainly for 2019, it was an anti-climax as Mercedes won 8 races on the trot, setting records for 1-2s in a row. 2020 isn't a right off now that the 2021 rules have been confirmed, but you have to think there will be some teams who will give up on 2020 pretty quickly, particularly the less funded teams. Even the bigger teams will be looking to make the most of the resources whilst they have them.
The 1997 season was all change for Jordan, signing rookies Giancarlo Fisichella and Ralf Schumacher, although Fisichella had driven for Minardi for a few races the previous season. Gone was the gold livery, and the start of various nature inspired liveries. The snake livery remains the most striking and memorable of the 5 liveries it ran up to the 2001 season. The teams fortunes seamed to have turned for the better, being a regular points scorer, which included three podium finishes and scoring its highest haul of points at the time. Fisichella was particularly impressive in the car, scoring a second place at the Belgian GP, and being in contention for the win at the German GP before a puncture dropped him down the order. Schumacher recently claimed that he could have won the Argentine GP if he hadn't tangled with his team-mate.
The model is based on the early season car, with the shorter sidepods. The livery seems to be a mish-mash of non-tobacco liveries they ran during the year. The team ran mainly yellow wings in France with some extra ribbons rather than text, whilst at the British GP they amended the snake on the nose, and they had various one-off sponsors for that race too. The sidepods were the same for both races, but at Silverstone they ran with Bitten & Hisses written instead of Benson & Hedges. In Germany, they ran with the nicknames of the drivers with a large number of 'S's for the hissing of a snake. Score: 7/10
This is a model of Fisichella's Jordan from the Monaco GP. The Monaco GP that year was a wash-out so this car comes with rain tyres. This model is another beauty from Tameo, for me replicated perfectly.
The 2019 Mexican Grand Prix was won by Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes in an unlikely win, but with Bottas finishing in third place, Hamilton hasn't quite sealed the Championship yet. The race itself was not too bad, building to an exciting finish, which was a bit of a damp squib, an anti-climax.
The drama started in qualifying, where Bottas crashed on the outside of the final corner. Verstappen, who was already fastest at the time, did not slow down past the wreckage and was awarded a three place grid drop for the race. Had he been able to start from pole position, he probably would have been set to seal a hat-trick of wins at the Mexican race. Verstappen got a good start, but Hamilton was unwilling to yield and threw his car around the outside of turn 1, with Verstappen ahead at the turn. Both cars nearly lost it, with Hamilton nearly taking out Vettel with his slide. Thankfully no contact was made, but it forced Hamilton and Verstappen off wide and dropped places. No fault with Verstappen there, and Hamilton could well have just settled for fourth. It meant that Verstappen, with a quick car, had to fight back and attempted and made a cheeky move in the hairpin in the stadium section on Bottas. Bottas, clearly shocked by the Red Bull, clipped Max's rear tyre, resulting in a puncture. Unfortunately for Max, the tyre stayed together for the length of the pit straight as he defended his position, only for the tyre to fail at the first chicane. From there, Verstappen did well to fight his way back through, even banging wheels with Kevin Magnussen on the way - and sneakily overtaking him off track, but shh nobody saw that. Incredibly, he did 65 laps on that hard tyre. That's been the kind of luck Verstappen's had the second half of this season. Driver of the first half of the year, he's just been plagued with bad luck, and it shows that Albon, who is still getting to grips with the car to be fair, has outscored him since they have been paired together. Red Bull should have more points and trophies to their name since the summer break.
Albon had a reasonable weekend, wasn't particularly on the pace in qualifying, benefited from the turn 1/2/3 situation and was running comfortably third early on. In an attempt to undercut the Ferrari's on a two stop strategy (which turned out to be the wrong strategy), the team pitted him early, but into traffic, where any advantage to be gained was instantly lost. From there, he just had to bring the car home.
It was a weekend that saw a number of pitstop mistakes, the biggest victim being Lando Norris whose wheel was not secured as he left his pitbox - having to stop at the end of the pitlane and his mechanics wheeling the McLaren back. He dropped to last and ended up retiring. It ruined Sainz's race as well as he was forced to stay out on hard tyres that simply did not work on the car. After successfully picking his way through the first few corners, he was on for another best of the rest finish, but it was not to be.
To that end, Perez had the honour of finishing best of the rest, with a solid race weekend and being cheered all the way by his home crowd. You can't ask for any more from him and the team.
Back to the front of the grid, Ferrari started one-two and it would be interesting whether they would orchestrate their start as they did in Russia (successful and unsuccessfully at the same time). Vettel moved over into the slipstream straight away, but it crowded Hamilton off the track. I'm really not a fan of doing that at the start of the race, weaving recklessly from one lane to another, you don't see it in Indycar where they have spotters for that kind of thing to stop having huge accidents. Has Vettel not learned from Singapore 2017 where he took his team-mate and Verstappen out? Perhaps Ferrari could have orchestrated it better and planned for Leclerc to move in front of Vettel and give him a tow to turn 1, but after Russia, would you ask Charles to do that? Anyway, for me, that swerve was not on for me.
Another botched pitstop meant that Leclerc lost too much time to be in the mix at the end. Vettel was left out for ages, presuming Hamilton's tyres would degrade, but they didn't and Vettel did not get anywhere near the back of Hamilton's victorious Mercedes. Whilst Ferrari have been on pole for the last five races, Mercedes have won the last three races on the trot. A large part of that has to come down to their strategy decisions. Why did they pit Leclerc first on a two-stop strategy. I know he gets first choice, but he was under no threat from Albon who was trying the undercut and was caught in traffic. If anything, they should have pitted Vettel to block Albon off, but perhaps they feared Vettel would undercut Charles if they had remained on the two-stop strategy. Anyway, one stop was the right way to go and they tried to leave Vettel out as long as they could to try and give him the most advantage for the second stint, but again that failed too.
Mercedes did well to repair Botta's car without taking any penalties, incredible really. Bottas ran a good race to finish on the podium, thanks largely down to Verstappen's horrid race luck, Albon's rubbish strategy and Leclerc's botched pitstop.
Hamilton was balked at the start which meant he was fourth into the first corner, only for his ambitious move on Verstappen into turn 1. He was lucky to not lost out too much ground after rejoining after turn 3, and the team masterfully put him on the optimal strategy. His car was damaged, which would have not helped his tyre management, but he did really well to maintain the pace and the tyre life to not even let Vettel anywhere near the back of his car at the end of the race.
Ricciardo's strategy propelled him up the grid, doing a mega 51 lap stint on the hard tyres. His ambitious lunge on Perez could have been better managed, the Renault clearly not as good on the brakes as the Red Bull he had previously. Hulkenberg was going a solid job behind too, but with the tyres well off the cliff at the end, he was punted into the wall by Kvyat.
I've moaned about this before, but the tyres have got to change to allow for better racing. I understand you want drivers to manage their tyres to get them to perform at the optimum, but the fact they overheat so easily behind another car is just stopping them from racing. It's really good that we're getting variations on strategy, and that we usually get to see degradation being a factor in some races, but there's still room for improvement.
The podium was cool, I really loved how Hamilton was raised with his car, but Hamilton is the right showman for that kind of thing, I can't really see it being quite as cool if it was say Bottas. Nevertheless, I'm a fan that it represents the team and the car as well as the driver as the victors. Selfie Stig guy on the podium on the other hand was ridiculously cringe worthy, taking the spotlight off the drivers, but the highlight of the weekend for me was Vettel's shoving him gently out the way in a disgusted way, TV gold!
The other highlight for me was the battle of the Williams drivers, brilliant battling out on track, firm but fair.
It was not the first time that the driver who won the World Championship left the Williams team the following year, Mansell and Prost had also left earlier that decade, as did Piquet after 1987. He had apparently had offers from McLaren, Benetton and Ferrari, Hill surprisingly went for the TWR ran Arrows team, who finished 9th with one point to their name in 1996. However they were the main test team for Bridgestone on their debut season, which would bring an advantage against the Goodyear rubber ran by most the other teams.
Team-mate Pedro Diniz brought substantial backing with him, along with new Yamaha engines and later in the year a new techincal director, John Barnard from Ferrari. The car struggled to qualify at the first race in Melbourne and retired on the parade lap, and the car retired more often than it finished. It was uncompetitive, but by mid-season it began to fight for points. At Silverstone, Hill's home race, he ran well and scored a point for sixth place. Hill qualified third at Hungary, ran second behind Schumacher and then passed him when the German's tyres were shod. Hill lead for much of the race until a throttle linkage problem cost him considerable pace with a few laps to go. Villeneuve caught him and passed him on the grass on the last lap. Hill still finished an incredible second for the team.
Though Hill was the team-leader, Diniz out-qualified the champion at the French, Belgian and Japanese tracks, the later two both known as challenging drivers tracks and managed a fifth place at the Luxembourg GP at the Nurburgring.
Minichamps produced the Arrows car. It's nice to have the red nose and rear wing end plates on Hill's car and yellow on Diniz's car. The shape of the model is pretty decent representation of the real car. The most disappointing thing for me is how low the driver sits in the car. That and the slightly wonky front wing, I still quite like the model.
Minichamps 433970101
In the UK, they released four special versions of various Damon Hill's cars. The Arrows one is based on the British GP, where after a difficult year so far, he scored points at his home race. Score: 7/10
I've not heard of JPS models before, and again there's not many good photos of this, but this is a pretty reasonable model kit. The model is based on the Hungarian GP, with the amended airbox inlet. However, that looks quite a skinny rear wing for the high downforce track. The wheels look like they sit a bit too wide. I think the model is of similar standard to the Minichamps model. Score: 7/10
IXO
Released in 2022, Ixo brings this nice budget version of the TWR Arrows.
After losing the Mercedes Engine to McLaren for the 1996 season, Sauber were able to negotiate Ferrari customer engines, a start of a nine year relationship, that was rekindled following BMW's departure in 2010. They took on long time Ferrari Test Driver, Nicola Larini, but he left the team after five races. Morbidelli replaced him, but broke his arm on two separate occasions, meaning Norberto Fontana was also used by the team. Herbert, in his second year for the team, was able to lead the team to 7th in the Constructors' Championship with an impressive podium finish at Hungary.
Onyx released their budget version of the Sauber back in 1997. It's really not too bad for a budget model, yes the front wing droops a bit, there could be more definition on the airbox, and the rear wing looks like it's going to fall off the back of the car, but the general shape is reasonable, the colour scheme acceptable, the rims are correct, as are the helmets, so it's not too bad all things considered, particularly for the price you pay. Score: 6/10
Minichamps finally released their version in 2019, available with Herbert and Larini in limited edition runs. The car is based on the end of season with the sculpted front wing endplates, and sculpted sidepod flaps and a much smaller rear wing endplate. This is a fantastic resin model from Minichamps, with lovely proportions and fantastic added detail as well.
Minichamps 517974399
The real reason this model was made was to add to the Schumacher 25th anniversary collection, which comes in a few different inlays from what I can tell. Peter Sauber had a close working relationship with Ferrari and after the Italian GP, was able to borrow Schumacher for a secret test at Fiorano, with photos being leaked years later. Sauber wanted an experienced driver to help with imbalance issues, with Herberts teammates all struggling with the car. Schumacher completed 84 laps and lapping around a second slower than his time in a Ferrari. Schumacher ran the car without sponsors on.
Based on the Hungarian GP, this is the Tameo version of the Sauber. I love all the upper rear wing elements, the extra fin inside the sidepod opening, the detail on this model is lovely. The cockpit detail is exquisite and there's nothing missed on this model. I think I personally prefer the Minichamps model overall, but the fine details on this car just about makes up for it. Score: 8/10
Alain Prost returned to F1 as team owner taking over from the Ligier team. The team was in transition for 1997 as Prost looked to build an all French team. The team retained the Mugen-Honda engines and Olivier Panis who was partnered by Shinji Nakano at Mugen's request. The team was amazingly competitive for the first six races, Panis offering a true title challenge, but a crash at Canada broke both of his legs, and he would not return until the end of the year. Prost quickly hired impressive Trulli from Minardi and they continued to show good speed. He finished 4th in Germany and lead much of the Austrian Grand Prix.
This model was one of the earliest models I owned, with reasonably good midfield runner, Panis making an unlikely title challenge. Truth was he was in the best position to make the most of the new Bridgestone tyres that were particularly strong during the race. It's a shame Panis had his accident, I doubt he would have maintained the points scoring rate for the rest of the season, but I certainly think he would have added to his two podiums he had already secured. I remember the particularly long nose on this car, and compared to other cars, the rear wing endplates were as small as they could be. Other than that, the shape of the car is a development of their 1996 car, but I did like the simple all blue livery. The Minichamps model was reasonably well done, no real problems with the dimensions, and they've done a reasonably nice job at the rear of the car where the detail is. Score: 7/10
This Tameo model is based on Trulli's Italian GP car, with low downforce wings, and it also comes with a removable engine cover. The detail underneath is fantastic and a plus for me is the asymmetric detailing, and you can see more it opens up more than on the Stewart car. I have to say, I'm a little disappointed by the rest of the model, the nose and monocoque section looks too square. The front top edge of the sidepod should be more rounded. The rear wing endplate looks like the normal season one, but the Italian GP version was even more cut down and minimalistic than this model. Score: 7/10
The Monaco GP will be most remembered for the weekend that paid tribute to three-time World ChampionNiki Lauda after his passing away. Many cars carried a fitting tribute, with Haas running a red strip on their shark fin.
The Monaco GP itself never really puts on an entertaining race, and there wasn't much racing to talk about at that stage of the season. Both cars finished, with Grosjean finishing in 10th place for a single point, which are hard to come by for the team in 2019.
Minichamps 417190608
Minichamps 417190620
I believe there are a couple of Monaco GP versions of the 2019 grid due to be released by model makers, so I suspect there will be more to feature soon. On this Minichamps model, I can't see much difference in terms of the shape to make it track specific and it's interesting that these cars are not limited edition with a set number of models made.
Because there's barely any difference from the base model, I'm not going to score it here, but you can read my review here.
Sauber were rebranded as Alfa Romeo, still can't get used to that, and were building on their momentum from last season when Charles Leclerc in particular scored strong results. New drivers in the form of former Ferrari champion Kimi Raikkonen as the experienced hand and benchmark for his teammate, Ferrari young driver, Antonio Giovinazzi. Though this was not the Italian's debut, it was his first full season as a full time driver for the team. Raikkonen was a consistent points scorer, nothing spectacular but he was always in the mix near the top of the midfield. But a run of poor races in the second half of the year has seen the team slide towards the rear of the midfield. Giovinazzi took a while to get going, made a few howlers, including binning the car on the last lap in Belgium. But he bounced back with a good points finish at the Italian Grand Prix and has been a match for Raikkonen for much of the second half of the season.
Both Spark and Minichamps released their cars within a week of each other, though Minichamps have only released Raikkonen's car, but we'll review and compare both in this post.
Spark S6073
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As we've come to expect from both model manufacturers now, the quality is high, particularly as Minichamps have made this model from resin. Comparing both models, they both look very similar from front to back, the shapes looking on point with its dimensions and also squeezing in some of the intricate detail. The bargeboard areas are as complicated as they have ever been in F1, and both manufacturers have done a good job in recreating the detail on this Alfa. One thing I have noticed on the Spark cars is that the endplates are a little smaller than the Minichamps, and the rear wing a little bit smaller. I wouldn't have really noticed unless I'd put them side by side, but the Minichamps version does seem better proportioned from this angle. In terms of the paint and decals, there's not too much difference, owing to the simplicity of the Alfa livery.
Spark
Minichamps
As noted above, from this angle it's a little clearer that the Minichamps front wing is a little larger, or rather, the Spark version is a bit too small. Both have good detail on the nose and it's unique double inlets. Again the Minichamps suspension and vanes are a little fuller in size than the Spark, and again I think I prefer the Minichamps scaling. Nice detail on both sets of aerials and on the halo - masking the helmets that have Kimi's traditionally more complicated patterns. The sidepod opening and general shape of the sidepods are almost identical on these models, and Alfa continue with the segregated airbox arrangement we first saw on a Mercedes back in 2010. Again, both are well recreated. The t-wing on the Spark is tiny, and probably reflects the flimsiness of the real thing - if you ever see a real life onboard, these things are dancing around, it's a wonder they make any positive difference like that. With the fewer vanes on the rear wing endplates, it's nice that Minichamps have modelled real holes, whilst Spark's are just molded nicely, but is one solid structure.
Spark
Minichamps
I do prefer the Minichamps tyres generally as well, but that's a very minor thing. It's good to see the detail of the lights on the rear wing endplates on both models. Overall, I think I do prefer the Minichamps model, but again, I wouldn't be particularly disappointed with the Spark model.
Spark score: 7/10 Minichamps score: 8/10
Special Editions
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Minichamps have also done a limited edition of the Bahrain GP car.
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Spark S6083
And the lovely Valentines day shakedown livery is produced by Spark and Minichamps
Spark S6097
Spark S6098
Spark have released an Italian GP version of the Alfa, which features an Italian flag stripe along the top of the engine cover and rear wing end plates. Giovinazzi's car also comes with a pitboard wishing Juan Manuel Correa a speedy recovery after breaking his legs in the crash where Antoine Hubert was lost.
Three Time World Champion, Jackie Stewart would be funded by Ford to start up a Formula One team on their behalf, running the team with his son, Paul Stewart, and hiring current Autosport analyst, Gary Anderson as designer with Alan Jenkins. The team, through its various incarnations is the current Red Bull Team who are double World Constructors' Champions. Rubens Barrichello drove all three years for the team, and finished second in the Monaco GP in its debut year. The car was able to battle for points positions, but poor reliability hindered the team from scoring more points.
I remember in the UK when the F1 broadcast moved from the BBC over to ITV and I wasn't looking forward to the race being interrupted by adverts, but they did some special features in the build up for the first race, one being a documentary on the new Stewart team. I remember enjoying watching that quite a few times when I was younger.
I do miss the days when there were more differences between teammates so from a longshot you could identify which car was which, Magnussen running with a blue headrest and blue on the nose cone. The model itself is quite nice, but it could do with more defined shapes, like the airbox and hte sidepod openings, it's just a little simplified. The tartan looks good and the chrome wheel rims are nicely done. A solid budget model for the time. Score: 7/10
Tameo
Tameo TMK250
The Tameo kit model is based on the Monaco GP with removable engine cover and wet tyres. A fabulous model, with fantastic detail, even underneath the engine cover is nicely reproduced. I can't find many pictures of this model, so I can't review the model in any detail, but knowing the quality of models that Tameo produce, it looks like a great model. Score: 9/10
