GP4: F1 2024 v1.5 update

The 2024 mod was only released in August, and two months later, we're already on the fifth update pack. That's in large part due to real life driver changes, but also thanks the great community pumping out quality updates to add to this mod. 

Thanks to Excalibur for his most recent update to the VCARB car, with Liam Lawson's number 30 skin now added to the mod. 

2024 VCARB by Excalibur

I've now completed the 2024 version of Liam Lawson's helmet, designed by MDM Designs and painted by BS helmets onto the Bell helmet with a solid wing. I've also added the team-art for Liam. 

2024 Liam Lawson helmet by fongu

I've also taken the liberty to add this special helmet of Franco Colapinto from the Mexican GP (and used at the Brazilian GP too). He's racing with a tribute to Carlos Reutemann's classic helmet design. I don't know about you, but it took me a while to realise the FC on the front of his helmet stands for Franco Colapinto, not some other franchise.

2024 Franco Colapinto Mexican GP helmet by fongu

Ollie Bearman once again stood in for Kevin Magnussen (this time through illness) and he wore his alternative Haas helmet. This is basically red instead of yellow, a different colour visor and slight detail changes. 

2024 Oliver Bearman Brazilian GP helmet

Lewis Hamilton had the privelege of running in a 1990 McLaren at the Brazilian GP, and ran a special Senna inspired helmet for the whole weekend. I couldn't help but add this to the collection. 

2024 Lewis Hamilton Brazilian GP helmet

As promised, my McLaren MCL38 has now been added to the mod. In the mod, there is a new selection for which McLaren you want to use, mine or Isaint's. Below is a screenshot of my version of the Monaco GP livery, the Senna tribute. 

2024 McLaren MCL38 Monaco GP by fongu

... and the Legends livery used at the Singapore GP,

2024 McLaren MCL38 Singapore GP by fongu

... and the shiny Chrome livery used at the US GP at the Circuit of the Americas (no off-track overtaking happened in the creation of this screenshot).

2024 McLaren MCL38 US GP by fongu

Thanks to Paulo Derpich and his epic work to complete all the sponsor changes on my McLaren. There's also more track specific liveries, including the Singapore GP Mercedes, VCARB liveries and the latest Williams liveries, including the yellow engine cover. There's also some cockpit updates to the Mercedes, VCARB and McLaren.
Super job! 

There was a request to add a new weather option, 33% chance of rain, so that's been added to this 2024 mod. 

Other than a missing CSM preview picture, some performance file updates and fixes, fixed alpha channels on the Red Bull, that's all for this update. 

Oh wait you want more?

I'm sharing with you my all new version of the Sauber. It's a bit less toxic green than Isaint's version, and comes with Stake and Kick livery variants. 

It's a shame the livery is so vile because I quite like the shape. Well, at least the car is pretty much confined to the rear of the grid and mostly out of sight. Anyway, the car gets its exclusive release as part of this mod update, but I do plan on releasing the car separately soon. 

2024 Sauber C44 by fongu for GP4

Well that's really it for this update. The file size suggests there's more in this mod update than there are in some mods. 

Installation Notes

This update requires 2024 F1 mod previously released on this blog here: 
https://fongugp4.blogspot.com/2024/08/gp4-f1-2024-mod-v10.html

• Download both the 2024 CSM mod updates below

CSM update - 2024 CMU24 update 4 v1.5
CSM update - 2024 CMU24 update 5 v1.5
CSM update - 2024 CMU24 update 6 v1.5

• Open CSM
• File | Install new carset template | select F1_2024_CMU24_update4_v1.5.cmu
• File | Install new carset template | select F1_2024_CMU24_update5_v1.5.cmu
• File | Install new carset template | select F1_2024_CMU24_update6_v1.5.cmu

As ever, happy racing. 

GP4: 2024 Helmets v1.01 by fongu

From today, you can download my 2024 special helmets in this updated pack. Most of these helmets have been included in the 2024 mod, but a few of you wanted them seperately, so this ones for you.

It was always going to be difficult to keep up with the pace at which I created helmets in the previous years, so I did take a concious decision to cut back for the 2024 season, and devote more time to other projects. However, I have done a batch of them, and I've surprised myself with just how many I ended up creating. I'm sorry if I havent' created your favourite from this season, my criteria was based around how quickly I could get it done, whether the helmet had a good story behind it, or whether it marked a memorable moment in the race. Also some helmets were used for more than one race. 

Albon - Chinese GP
	Inspired by the giant panda that is so important to Chinese culture, Albon has this cute and brilliantly designed helmet by MDM Designs and painted by Mad56.

Bearman - Saudi Arabian GP
	In the first of two stand in performances, Ollie ran a version of one of his 2023 helmet specials. Ollie stood in for an ill Carlos Sainz in the Ferrari and did a great job, scoring points on his debut. Designed by Brandon Seaber, this helmet has an O on one side and a B on the other, his initials of course.

Bearman - Azerbaijan GP
	Bearman's second stand in appearance was in place of Kevin Magnussen in the Haas, who was banned for amassing too many penalty points on his license. His second race in F1, for a second team, produced a second points scoring finish. His Haas helmet has the O on both sides to incorporate the Haas logo on each side.

Colapinto - Standard helmet
	Colapinto replaced Logan Sargeant in the Williams from the Italian GP and has done an impressive job, despite knowing his seat will go to Carlos Sainz next season. His helmet has a great mix of colours and proudly representing his home nation of Argentina.

Colapinto - Mexican GP
	Colapinto ran this tribute to fellow countryman, Carlos Reutemann for the two South American races, a reminder of the simpler, yet more striking helmets of old compared to the various designs of today. Franco's done a great job since replacing Logan Sargeant and has generated some additional sponsors to the Williams team.

Gasly - Emilia Romagna GP
	One of several Senna tribute helmets, Gasly chose to run it at the track that claimed the Brazilian's life 30 years ago. This simple design merges well with his own design, and I love the nod to the Rothmans sponsor that he sported on the Williams back in 1994.

Gasly - Belgian GP
	Alpine ran a promotion for the Deadpool vs Wolvering film at the Belgian GP, and it was a nice touch to have each driver run helmets inspired by the two heroes. Designed by Adrian Paviot, this is clearly the Wolverine helmet along with the trademark claw marks on the side.

Lawson - Standard helmet
	Liam's design is an evolution of his previous helmets, with more Maori inspired art and a new comic style personal logo. Designed, once again, by MDM helmets, Lawson has a chance in the RB to stake his claim on the second Red Bull seat for 2025... or earlier.

Leclerc - Miami GP
	Here's a batch of Charles Leclerc helmets, designed by Adrian Paviot. They're all based around his design for 2024, mostly with changes in colour and slight details. For the Miami GP, both drivers ran blue helmets in recognition of their new partnership with HP and a convenient nod to the historic blue Ferrari that once raced on US soil.

Leclerc - Emilia Romagna GP
	For the Emilia Romagna GP, his helmet is clearly inspired with the red, white and green of the Italian tricolour flag.

Leclerc - Monaco GP
	Leclerc took his first victory of the year at his home race in Monaco. This helmet is unique from his other designs in the year, but I wanted to celebrate Charles finally achieving his child-hood dream with this special helmet design.

Leclerc - Spanish GP
	Charles celebrated having 16 million TikTok followers on Instagram with this gold glitter encrusted number.

Leclerc - Italian GP
	At the Italian GP at Monza, Ferrari wanted to celebrate carbon fibre for some reason. Nevertheless, you know already if it's black and yellow, I'm in.  It's always special when a Ferrari takes the chequered flag at Monza, Leclerc couldn't have won in two better places in the 2024 season than at Monaco and Monza.

Leclerc - Singapore GP
	This helmet was made to look good under the floodlit Singapore track, with a shiny dark red with geometric shapes.

Norris - Monaco GP
	Lando's Quadrant group have taken ownership over his helmet designs for 2024, and this one mixes Senna's helmet with chrome, fused together by his 2024 helmet design. As Piastri also ran a Senna inspired helmet, both in a Senna helmet liveried car, it at least made the two drivers distinguisable.

Ocon - Belgian GP
	As mentioned earlier, Alpine were running their Deadpool movie promo at the Belgian GP and Ocon ran this Deadpool helmet. He ran a similar design in 2023 in Las Vegas, and whilst that had more of a comic, animation style, this one is a bit more live-action super hero inspired. Ocon's helmet are designed by MDM Designs this season.

Perez - British GP

Sergio wanted to mark 20 years of Red Bull in F1 with this classic Red Bull can inspired lid. Once upon a time, all Red Bull drivers had helmets like this, and the first Red Bull test car also looked like this. Vettel ran a similar design when Dietrich Mateschitz passed away. Anyway, I liked this design and couldn't resist giving it a go. At times I wish I hadn't with the chequered design causing me a lot of pain to get right over the seam.

Piastri - Monaco GP
	Oscar's helmets are designed by MDM Designs and merges Senna's helmet design and colours with Oscar's current design. The helmet looks great with the special liveried McLaren and race suits for the Senna tribute weekend in Monaco. How has it been 30 years since that fateful day already.

Ricciardo - Singapore GP

Whilst Daniel has run more striking designs in 2024, this helmet stands out because this was his final helmet before, what is likely to be, his retirement from F1. Sadly his last three seasons have simply not delivered the drives we had grown accustomed to seeing. We have all probably been spared the heartache of what would have likely turned out badly had he replaced Perez at Red Bull. We'll miss the honey badger for sure.

Sainz - Miami GP
	As mentioned earlier, the Miami GP for Ferrari was all about blue, so Dave Designs and Carlos appeared with this patched denim number. When I started, I thought it was similar enough to his 2024 design, but in the end I this helmet had more new parts than anticipated, but I'm happy I persevered with this.

Sainz - Italian GP
	This helmet was to celebrate carbon fibre with the rest of the Ferrari team, not that they pioneered it, nor did they introduced it to F1. Still, the material has been a mainstay in F1 since the 1980's, owing to it's strong yet light properties. I appreciate the simplicity of this design, but having said that it wasn't that straight forward of a design to recreate.

Verstappen - Italian GP

Verstappen wore this shiny orange helmet at three races this season in support of the Dutch Mens National football team at the European Championships. KV Designs has been doing Max's helmets for the last few seasons, with clear inspiration from his father's helmet.  The early races saw Max run a slightly different helmet to the launch version, it's in the pack, but so subtle is the change it's not worth adding it to this post.

I hope you've enjoyed this update post, and running these helmets in your favourite game. 

I'm indebted to Jvinu for his helmet shapes and templates, and these helmets are compatible with ACSPRH version 1 where other games support it. 

Thanks for your on-going support. I'm off to carry on prepping for the next 2024 mod update. Stay tuned.