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GP4
Saturday, 30 September 2023
GP4: 2023 Williams FW45 v1.1 released - Gulf livery
Friday, 29 September 2023
GP4: 2023 helmets September Update
Italian GP
2023 Liam Lawson helmet |
2023 Tsunoda Italian GP helmet |
Team-mate Yuki Tsunoda has his regular design, by Adrien Paviot, changed to the colours of the Italian flag in much the same was as he did earlier in the year at Miami. I did have to change the arrangement in leaves a little.
2023 Sainz Italian GP helmet |
Carlos' helmet, by Dave Designs, is predominantly black, using the red and yellow of Ferrari in the style of the Spanish flag. The busy dash style remains at the bottom of the helmet to keep a bit of continuity with his regular helmet design.
2023 Zhou Italian GP helmet |
Alfa Romeo also ran a special livery, this time to promote a new road car release, the Alfa 33 Stradale. Zhou's helmet, by KV Designs, has the colours of the Italian flag worked into his regular design, with various homages to Alfa Romeo, including pictures of race winning Alfa Romeos on each side.
2023 Bottas Italian GP helmet |
Another design by Tiffany Cromwell that is simple and fun and is a cartoon version of an original F1 helmet, with tributes to previously successful Alfa Romeo drivers written on the straps. It was nice to recreate this one with varying leathers and stitching effects.
2023 Verstappen late season helmet |
Singapore GP
2023 Tsunoda Singapore GP helmet |
Yuki's helmet for the Singapore GP is designed by Wood Eye designs, and features a cat's face on the front and top. A nice, simple and elegant design.
2023 Norris Singapore GP helmet |
Lando continues his trend of running one helmet with heavy Quadrant branding each year. For this year, Quadrant ran a competition for people to design something for each segment of the Q. The helmet is sparkly all over, and all the sponsors are super reflective. The galaxy like swirls took a bit of time to recreate, especially trying to get everything lined up along the seams, but I'm really please with how this looks, particulaly in-game.
2023 Magnussen Singapore GP helmet |
I really like Kevin's helmets this year, and KV Designs has created this beauty for KMag to run at the Singapore GP. With this being a white helmet with flashes of red, you'd think this is a Japanese version, but then again it would get lost in all the white and red helmets. Anyway, this one really pops in the Haas.
2023 Zhou Singapore GP helmet |
Japanese GP
2023 Tsunoda Japanese GP helmet |
For his home race, Tsunoda is wearing another Wood Eye designed helmet. This is quite a plain helmet really, which suits me nicely. I'm grateful for translation tools these days to help me with some of the Japanese text. The 22 on the back was a bit of a pain, it's the most stretched part of the helmet and has three seams to line up. It took a lot of trial and error but I'm happy with the result.
2023 Zhou Japanese GP helmet |
2023 Ocon Japanese GP helmet |
Estie Bestie has a Japanese inspired helmet with the Suzuka track map and corners worked into the design. This is a nicely done helmet by KV Designs, and I really enjoyed making this one.
2023 Hamilton Japanese GP helmet |
Hamilton's promotion pictures for his helmet were quite striking, with this helmet designed by Hajime Sorayama, however when it hit the track, it was quite a simple chrome design. Even in the garage, the visor seem to have a covering with the yellow beam from the visor and the chromed silver and gold knobs on the side. This fits Hijime's artwork with a futuristic looking robotic humanoid, and Hamilton has a line of merch featuring Sorayama's designs.
2023 Verstappen Japanese GP |
Max's debut F1 session was at Suzuka, and last year he clinched the Driver's Championship, amid some confusion, also at this track. Like many drivers, his helmet is inspired by the Japanese flag and it's simplicity.
2023 Stroll Japanese GP helmet |
Mark Antar has designed another nice helmet for Stroll to wear for the Japanese GP, with a hand drawn style that accentuates the contours of the Stilo helmet. The rear features a Japanese artistic style with the waves and the rising sun.
2023 Alonso Japanese GP helmet |
Wednesday, 20 September 2023
GP4: 2023 Haas VF-23 by fongu & Excalibur download
I'm delighted to release another 2023 car, this time in collaboration with Excalibur https://gp4racing.jimdofree.com/. Much like back in 2020, I provided the shape and Excalibur has produced some excellent textures and additional tweaks.
The VF-23 clearly takes after the 2022 Ferrari F1-75, which was a very competitive car. Whilst this iteration of the Haas has shown flashes of pace in qualifying, sadly it struggles with managing its tyres in the race and often finishes much further down the grid. Still, the team does boast a number of points finishes and at the time of writing is sitting in eighth position in the Constructors' Championship.
The car, as with all Haas chassis in F1, features a hare, which is simply because the Dutch for hare is Haas. This year it's got the text 'Gene's Machine' written around the hare.
By my count, this is the last remaining car to be released to complete the 2023 season in GP4. It is also my final contribution to the 2023 season in terms of new cars.
GP4: 2023 Ferrari SF-23 by fongu download
I'm pleased to share with you the only car other than a Red Bull which has won a Grand Prix in 2023 to date, the Ferrari SF-23. This is my version for Grand Prix 4 of the 2023 challenger from the Scuderia which Carlos Sainz earned pole position and won the Singapore GP.
The car comes in early season specification when it was still pursuing the concept that had been so successful in 2022. Sadly, the improvements to the car did not produce the competitiveness that was hoped for, and the team's tactical acumen seemed little improved as the team endured a largely difficult 2023 campaign.
Still the car has 4 pole positions and 5 podium finishes to date and Carlos Sainz is the man on form as I write this article. At the Italian Grand Prix, the team ran a special livery, taking inspiration from the Le Mans winning 499P's livery with the yellow stripes. That livery is included in this release, which look great with the special helmets which are also available here.
GP4: 2023 AlphaTauri AT04 by fongu download v1.1
Hello, me again! Following the initial release of my Alpha Tauri, it was pointed out to me that the driver number on the halo was missing. There was another small texture error that I've also corrected in there too. That's now been fixed and a new package has been assembled. You can download the updated car here:
Friday, 15 September 2023
GP4: 2023 AlphaTauri AT04 by fongu download
I'm proud to present to you my latest offering for the 2023 season, the Red Bull junior team's Scuderia AlphaTauri AT04.
Powered by the Honda power unit, this car has not been particularly competitive in 2023. Honda protege, Yuki Tsunoda leads the team in his third season and has been solid and quietly impressive at points. But it still remains to be seen how good a talent he is. The Red Bull family were quick to snap up Dutch driver, Nyck de Vries after his impressive stand-in performance for Williams the previous year. The former Formula E champion struggled in the car and was dropped from the team after only competing 10 Grand Prix.
This lead the way to a return for Daniel Ricciardo, however he broke his wrist avoiding a t-bone situation with Oscar Piastri's crashed McLaren. With no room to avoid the accident, he had no choice but to crash into the wall himself.
Rather than call Nyck back for his home race, long-term Red Bull junior, Liam Lawson fills the seat until Ricciardo is fit to return. He has performed well given the circumstances, unlucky to miss out on a points finish in his second race at Monza.
The team have had some striking liveries since being rebranded from Toro Rosso, with no two seasons showing any continuity other than the white and blue colour scheme and the AlphaTauri logo largely plastered onto the engine cover. This year's livery features the biggest Alpha Tauri logo yet, and it's designed to be perfect from a side angle. That means I had to manually paint the logo from scratch to get it to fit the shape properly. Similarly for the front wing, I found it easier to draw it from scratch than chop up the logo as it's split over three seperate wing elements.
I'm pleased with how this car has turned out. I know that Isaint has released his own version of this car already, but I was already quite advanced in my own version by then and decided to finish and release it for you guys. This car comes with liveries for all four drivers.
Here's the download link, and some screenshots on F1Virtual's beautiful Sochi race track.