Fongu's blog and GP4 downloads: Model Updates - first 2020 preseason cars by Spark

Hey model fans,

I hope you're keeping safe and healthy during this very strange year.

I was so glad that we do have a 2020 season, and I've been so grateful for a shuffled calendar.

No doubt the global pandemic has affected the model makers, but I'm glad to see that Spark have started releasing some 2020 F1 models, based on pre-season testing. So I've started a 2020 model summary page. I've been keeping the 2019 model summary page up to date too.

With the new rules on the horizon, most teams have simply updated their 2019 cars for the 2020 season, with Racing Point being the only team to try a new concept, and it seems to be paying off for them. Now that the same chassis needs to be retained for the 2021 season, we'll be looking at these shapes for a while. With the global pandemic affecting revenues, some teams like Haas will not bring any upgrades to the car in 2020, only specific race setups.

First up we have the Alfa Romeo in its pre-season shakedown livery. For me this livery isn't as exciting a livery as the previous year's Valentines' Day livery. Love to see some wet tyres, here's hoping we have an actual wet race this year.

Spark Alfa Romeo C39 S6455

Next up, another Alpha from Spark, the former Toro Rosso team rebranded as Alpha Tauri. What a great livery, with Honda white being prominent too. I think this model looks great.

Spark Alpha Tauri AT01 S6461

Finally for this post, we have the two Mercedes cars in the original silver livery. I really liked the updated livery from 2019, and that was initially going to be carried over into the 2020 season with the addition of the INEOS logos. I personally don't think it goes very well on the silver livery, but it looks great on the black race livery. It's nice to see the silver livery remembered in 1/43 form.