GP4: 2009 Track Pack released & Rouen updated by Viking75

Thank you all for visiting my site and making the most of it. Since I've been sharing mods at the beginning of this year, there's been over 10,000 downloads, meaning there's still quite a lot of you still enjoying GP4. 

2009 Track pack

Continuing my project to upload track packs from my collection to you I can now share with you the 2009 track pack. 

A lot of the tracks are graphical updates on the 2008 trackpack from Schueyfan. However we have new F1Virtual tracks included, the excellent Silverstone track update by Willb and the 2009 release of KTC, ToJepo and Tumyeto's Yas Marina track. KTC had worked on a 2009 version of Suzuka which was never completed, but his 2006 track that was picked up by Jcaranti and drt01 for their 2011 version. Jcaranti released the 2010 version and it's this track with 2009 garages, muppets and pitstands updated. 

Circuit	Authors
Australia, Melbourne	Guillermo Capriz, Schueyfan, TTM
Malaysia, Sepang International Circuit	F1Virtual
China, Shanghai International Circuit	32bobo32, Ruboy, Schueyfan
Bahrain, Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir	Guillermo Capriz, F1Virtual
Spain, Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona	F1Virtual
Monaco, Circuit de Monaco, Monte Carlo	Guillermo Capriz, Schueyfan, gp4free, Caelen, Ricardo Lampert
Turkey, Istanbul Park	Guillermo Capriz, SchueyFan, Schaller, Ruboy
United Kingdom, Silverstone Circuit	willb
Germany, Nürburgring	Guillermo Capriz, Schueyfan, b-tone, marioB
Hungary, Hungaroring	Guillermo Capriz, F1Virtual
Europe, Valencia Street Circuit	Guillermo Capriz, F1Virtual
Belgium, Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps	F1Virtual
Italy, Autodromo Nazionale di Monza	Guillermo Capriz, Schueyfan, TTM
Singapore, Marina Bay Street Circuit	drt01, Jcaranti, SchueyFan
Japan, Suzuka Circuit	drt01, Jcaranti, SchueyFan, KTC
Brazil, Autódromo José Carlos Pace, São Paulo	Guillermo Capriz, SchueyFan, Ricardo Lampert, MarioB, erwin_78, Ruboy
United Arab Emirates, Yas Marina Circuit	ToJepo/Tumyeto/KTC

Thanks to all the authors, who were involved in these huge projects, I only compiled them together. 

This trackpack is designed to be used with TSM, which you will need to extract the pack, and can be downloaded as part of Zaz Tools. 

Rouen-les-Essarts Update

I want to thank Viking75 for getting in touch recently and allowing me to share his update on the 1972 Rouen track.  

You can check out his Twitter feed here where he produces videos of GP4 tracks, well worth a watch: https://twitter.com/Viking75309

1/43 Model Review: 2009 Brawn GP BGP01 Mercedes

Background

Honda left the sport in 2008, but Ross Brawn and Nick Fry knew having spent much of 2008 designing the 2009 car under new rules, that it could be competitive. So they put together a plan to rescue the team, buying it for £1 from Honda and renamed Brawn GP with Mercedes Engines. The car was immediately quick in testing, with thanks to the effective use of a loophole creating a double diffuser, but also to their outwash front wing. Button converted 6 victories in the first 7 races.

Despite his team-mate, Barrichello, and Red Bull's Vettel's late challenge, Button was able to hold on with a battling drive in Brazil to clinch the title with one race to spare. Brawn also won the Constructors' title before being bought out by Mercedes GP.

Minichamps

There are a host of Brawns created by Minichamps, so I'll cover the ones that I did own first.

Minichamps 400090123

In the first parts of qualifying, Barrichello was the quicker of the two Brawns, but Button snatched pole position. Running into the first corner, he had contact with Kovalainen and Webber which damaged his diffuser and front wing, but managed to finish 2nd after Vettel and Kubica's late race collision.

I picked up this car fairly cheaply in a bundle, and it's the Australian GP version with Barrichello in the car. The early season Brawn livery was beautifully plain and simple, applied to the nicest looking car on the grid. I like how the fluorescent yellow also recoloured the driver's usual helmet colour schemes. Minichamps have done a really nice job on this car, partly because of its simplicity. I will give one score at the end rather than grading them individually. 

Minichamps 400090622

My first Brawn purchase, and the one that remains in my collection, is the Brazilian GP version where Button clinched the title with a race to spare. The car had a few more appendages around the sidepod region as well as a few more sponsors on the car, including have a different colour yellow on the front wing, which clashed with the Brawn's fluorescent yellow.

Minichamps 436090022

In early 2018, we received the World Champions edition which has the car from the final race in Abu Dhabi GP livery. Perhaps with so many versions of the Brawns available already, this perhaps didn't sell out quite as quickly as the other versions.

Well, onto the cars that I haven't owned, and they are basically the early season versions of Button's wins, where he dominated the first half of the year.

Minichamps 400090022

This is the standard model for the year, which is basically the Australian GP version, but with a hard tyres (no green stripe on the outside wall).

Minichamps 400090122

The Australian GP was the first race on the calendar, where Brawn's speed in testing was confirmed as Button dominated the weekend. Here, this model comes with a standing figure and soft tyres (and their relevant markings).

Minichamps 400090222

This is the Malaysian GP version, which did not make it to full distance due to the monsoon conditions. This car comes with wet tyres, but the rest of the car is pretty much the Australia spec car. 

Minichamps 400090322

The Bahrain car features Virgin galactic logos, being the only major (it's not really major at all) difference between this and the other early season cars.

Minichamps 400090422

The Spanish GP was the scene of Jenson's fourth victory. You do not get many factory produced models where film promotions are created, like the Red Bulls with Star Wars and Superman, Marussia promoting Cars, or Lotus promoting the Batman Dark Knight movies, or Jaguar's Ocean's movie and Terminator. There are probably more but back to Brawn, there is a much smaller promotion on the rear fin for the Terminator Salvation movie.


Suddenly, the Brawn cars stop there, I'm not sure why we didn't get the Monaco and the Turkey win editions, nor any special editions of Barrichellos victory later that year. But perhaps there's enough of them already, and judging by the fact I owned three versions and that's less than half of them, it probably indicates that a) I'm not that avid a collector, or rather b) there's just too many to collect. Having said that, these models were reasonably priced back then and the race specific versions were snapped up and their values rose quite quickly. Anyway, for a diecast model, this is a lovely model to have in the collection.

Score: 8/10

Tameo

Tameo TB026

Tameo's car is beautiful, based on the Brazilian GP. The quality comes from the detail you can attain with a resin model, it's nice to have the slits in the rear wing endplate, and the detail on the front wing endplate and bargeboard/mirror regions are better defined than the Minichamps diecast versions. This is factory made, only 199 of them exist in this form, and it gets top marks from me.
Score: 10/10

Ixo / Formula 1 Car Collection / Altaya

The Ixo car comes in the Formula 1 Car Collection in the Brazilian GP livery, whilst you can get a Barrichello car from the Australian GP with a driver figure. The general shape of the car is not bad, but when you get to the details it's not particularly great. The sidepod turning vanes for example are at completely the wrong angle, and for the Brazilian GP the didn't change the rear wing endplates. If you could get the Minichamps Brawns for 2009 prices, I'd say go for that, but these days, the price has more than doubled for the World Champion collection version, but you can pick up a second hand version of the Minichamps car for a similar price to getting this Ixo car brand new.
Score: 6/10

Where are they now?

Ross Brawn was ousted from Mercedes as team principal before the team saw their success in the turbo-hybrid era, thanks in no small part to Bernie Ecclestone. However, many will admit that it was Brawn who laid the foundations for their success. Brawn is now a key member of Liberty who own the sport, leading primarily the technical direction which should see large scale rule changes for 2021.

Nick Fry is now involved with esports company Fnatic. Brawn and Fry still held shares in the Mercedes team until 2011. Fry was replaced by Toto Wolff in 2013.

Jenson Button raced until 2016, and having made a one-off appearance in 2017, retired from F1 and is now racing in Super GT in Japan as well as LMP1 in WEC.

Rubens Barrichello holds the records for the most Grand Prix's entered and competed. Since retiring from F1, he took part in a season of Indycar, but mostly races in Brazilian Stock cars, as well as taking part in 24 Hours of Daytona.

1/43 Model Review: 2009 Red Bull RB5 Renault

Background

Vettel was promoted to the senior Red Bull team having driven for Toro Rosso and embarrassed the senior team by scoring either teams first victory, regularly out-performing the Red Bulls and finishing ahead in the Constructors' Championship. 2009 saw new rules and regulations and Red Bull had a promising pre-season. But it was Brawn who dominated the first half of the year, helped by their double diffuser design. But a rain-soaked Chinese Grand Prix brought Red Bulls first victory and 1-2 finish with Vettel winning, which this model commemorates. As Red Bull introduced the double diffuser, the potential in the car was finally displayed as the balance of power shifted to the Red Bulls, with three further victories for Vettel and two for Webber. Red Bull with Adrian Newey designed cars, and Sebastian Vettel would dominate the next four seasons with the foundations based on the RB5.

Minichamps

Minichamps 400090115

There aren't too many special race-specific editions by Minichamps for the 2009 season, but you can get this variant of the early season RB5 with a model of Vettel standing in his cockpit, the scene of Red Bull's first victory in China. The conditions were very wet, so you get a nice set of wet tyres with it. This is a nice model, I liked the thin nose they started the season off with, though I wish they didn't pioneer the somewhat excessive shark fin. The driver model isn't bad either.
Score: 8/10

Pantegana/Tameo

Pantegana PK001

I've not heard of Pantegana, but some have labelled it as a Tameo kit from the British GP where by then, the car had a wider nose and added a double diffuser. Minichamps have nice decals (the Red Bull looks way too stretched on the sidepod on this one) and a better blue. The resin model (as opposed to Minichamps' diecast) allows for nicer detail on the shape, and they are recreated nicely on this model.

Score: 9/10

Where are they now?

Red Bull went on to dominate F1 until 2013 when the hybrid era began and the Renault engine had held them back. They still compete for victories, but not enough to challenge for championships. 2019 is the start of their relationship with Honda, and so far there is promise of progress, but still not quite enough for a championship yet, but it is not far away.

Sebastian Vettel won four World Championships in a row at Red Bull, but a poor 2014 season saw him depart for Ferrari. Having a quick car in 2017, and a better contender in 2018, Vettel looked to challenge for the title, only for mistakes and bad luck to strike. 2019 so far looks like their best opportunity to win the Championship yet.

Mark Webber nearly won the 2010 championship, but a bad strategy call at the final race meant his team-mate gained the title. He never really recovered from that, and despite some great performances, was not consistent enough to challenge Vettel for titles. He went on to win in WEC for Porsche and is now a pundit on TV.

1/43 Model Review: 2009 McLaren MP4/24 Mercedes

Background

With the new 2009 rules and very different looking cars to the rest of the decade, McLaren and Ferrari were caught out having thrown lots of development into their 2008 contenders whilst fighting for the championships. Both teams could do little better than race in the midfield for the first half of the season. By the mid-point of the season, the team had only scored 13 points. But rapid development saw the MP4/24 gain in competitiveness and Hamilton won convincingly at Hungary. He won again from pole at Singapore and a pair of podium finishes at the end of the year saw McLaren finish the year in third place, just one point ahead of rivals Ferrari.

Minichamps

Minichamps 530094301

As usual, the McLaren cars are released as part of the McLaren collection. I also bought myself the Mercedes boxed edition as well, but it's the same car. There is also a McLaren team edition as well, and again, you receive the same car.

Minichamps B66960038

Minichamps continue to create a nice finish on the chrome texture and apply it onto an accurate shape. I like how they have gone for the mid-season version with a part of the floor cut out. The car has some nice details too, like the wheel rim cover.
Score: 8/10

Where are they now?

McLaren have yet to win a championship since 2008. They competed near the front up until 2012, but have fallen back, and have competed at the rear of the grid for the last few seasons. A works deal with Honda led to an expensive fall out, and McLaren are looking to rebuild their reputation once more.

Lewis Hamilton left McLaren at the end of 2012, not being convinced he could add to his tally of Championships, and boy did he get it right. A move to Mercedes has added four World titles to date and is looking to compete for his sixth World Championship title in 2019.

Heikki Kovalainen's reputation was simply destroyed in the two seasons he had next to Hamilton and only competed at the back of the grid for the next few seasons. He still competes in Super GT, having won the Championship in 2016.

1/43 Model Review: 2009 Ferrari F60

Background

The car was called the F60 to celebrate the 60th year of competing in Formula One. Having expended much resources contending for the 2008 championship which went down to the last corner of the last lap, Ferrari won the Constructors' Championship whilst Massa lost out on the Drivers' crown. That would work against them as other teams were much more prepared for the new rules for 2009. By mid-season, the car was regularly in the points and challenging for podiums, but Massa suffered a head injury during qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix that ruled him out for the rest of the year. Long-time test driver Luca Badoer, last raced in 1999 for Minardi, took the second seat, but was off the pace, and Ferrari hired Fisichella from Force India for the rest of the season. Raikkonen took the team's only win of the year at Belgium, having started from 6th on the grid, being chased all the way by Fisichella, then driving a Force India.

Hot Wheels / Mattel

Hot Wheels P9963

The simpler shaped cars for 2009 should work in favour for Hot Wheels in creating the F60 in 1/43. The car still feels like a toy rather than a model, but the overall shape is not bad. The lack of effort on the driver helmets is bad. However there are growing levels of details on the aerials and the cameras. The suspension is not too bad either and they have put on the wheel rim covers too. So judging from some of the previous offerings from Hot Wheels, their standard is improving, but overall, it still feels too much like a toy.
Score: 6/10

Ixo / Altaya

When I first saw this car, I naturally assumed it was from the same mould as the Hot Wheels car, but on closer inspection this is a model from later on in the season. It has a different exhaust, rear wing endplates and includes the vents on rear of the engine cover. In terms of overall shape, it's of a similar standard to the Hot Wheels car, but when you get to the details and suspension, Hot Wheels has moved on a bit in this department. For me, the biggest let down are the textures. The T-cam is red, the front wing end plates do not have the silver highlights, and there's no Bridgestone logo on the floor near the rear wheels. Overall, it's not that bad a model, still toy like, but its let down by being a bit lazy.
Score: 5/10

BBR

BBR BBRC24

Available from BBR are various versions of the F60 including a Belgian GP edition where Kimi Raikkonen took the team's only victory of the year and this one (pictured above) from the Italian GP (driven by Fisichella).

BBR BBRC25A

As you'd expect, this is of a much higher standard from the previous offerings. The F60 is not a particularly nice looking car, so perhaps this captures it accurately. The finish on the paint, the decals to the shape itself and the details they have added is what you'd come to expect from BBR. This is a very nice model.
Score: 9/10

Where are they now?

Ferrari remains just as involved and just as prestigious and important as it always have been. 2019 should see them compete for the World Championship which they last won in 2007 with Kimi Raikkonen. After being dropped in 2010, Raikkonen was rehired for Ferrari and drove for them between 2014 and 2018 and is about to commence the 2019 season with Alfa Romeo (Sauber). 

Luca Badoer remained Ferrari's test driver until the end of 2010, making the odd appearance at Ferrari demos. To read a bit more about his torrid time with the F60 you can read this fun article here:

https://wtf1.com/post/remembering-luca-badoers-disastrous-ferrari-comeback/

Felipe Massa thankfully returned to Formula 1 in 2010. Some say he wasn't quite as quick as before, whilst the team maintained that was not the case. After nearly retiring in 2016, he actually did retire from F1 at the end of 2017. He's back in racing for Formula E in the 2018/19 championship. 

1/43 Model Review: 2009 Toyota TF109

Background

This would be the final Toyota F1 car, having been competing in F1 since 2002, the team threw a massive amount of money into it and saw little fruit for their labours. As the recession hit and a lack of sustained competitiveness, the manufacturer decided to pull out of the sport at the end of 2009. The season began quite strongly, with new rules being an opportunity to catch up with its rivals. The opening race saw Trulli end up in third and Glock in fourth after a penalty to Hamilton and a crash between Kubica and Vettel before the pair crashed out in tandem in the following corner. The first four races saw three podium places, thanks in large to its double diffuser. However the competitiveness dropped dramatically, and they only regained enough speed at Singapore and Japan to claim two more podiums. As Glock crashed out and injured himself at the Japanese GP, it allowed young Kobayashi a couple of races with the team, which impressed enough to keep him in F1 for a number of years following.

Minichamps

Minichamps 400090009

Toyota came into the sport with a huge budget, but never created a particularly competitive car. Second hand prices for Toyota models have always been readily available and cheap. That's not to say that the models are bad, this Australian GP version being another nice model from Minichamps.

Minichamps 400090110

There is quite a rare Kamui Kobayashi version of the Toyota from the season finale at the Abu Dhabi GP, Toyota's last race. Out of all the Toyota models, this is the only one to gain some value.

There are a couple of special editions around, but I've chosen to just feature two of them, the first, a Kyosho edition from the Brazilian GP and the second from the Suzuka Circuit series from Free Practice at the Japanese GP with wet tyres. The Kyosho edition has an updated rear wing endplate whilst the other late-season offerings do not.

1/43 Model Review: 2009 BMW Sauber F1.09

Background

The 2009 season is the last season we see of the BMW works team, with Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld entering their third full season together. With a successful 2008 season behind them, the expectations were high, and Kubica was running in second in the season opener in Australia, before a tangle with Vettel near the end of the race brought both cars race to an end. A Malaysian downpour meant the race did not run full distance, and Heidfeld earned a second place. But the car was a handful and often struggled to make it to Q2 and development was slow. Things improved with a double points finish in Belgium, and Kubica scored a second place in Brazil. In BMW's final season in F1, they finished 6th in the Constructors' Championship.

Minichamps

Minichamps BMW Dealer Edition

I opted to buy the BMW dealer edition with a high box and special inlay, but it's basically the same as the standard Minichamps model from the Australian GP. But I like the white box and the simplicity of the livery. As is standard with Minichamps in 2009, this is a nice offering, albeit the only offering.
Score: 7/10

Where are they now?

BMW left Formula 1 at the end of 2009 and have only returned to single-seater racing in Formula E in 2018/19 season. 

The team itself was bought back by Peter Sauber competing in 2010 under the odd name of BMW Sauber Ferrari. Though it is still technically a Sauber today, Alfa Romeo dropped the Sauber name in its entry name for 2019. This is just a commercial deal however, and it may be that the Sauber name may return in the future. 

Robert Kubica raced for Renault in 2010 before a near fatal accident in a 2011 rally meant he has not raced in F1 since. However, he returned to test a Renault and Williams F1 car in 2017, earning a reserve driver role in 2018 with Williams, before being promoted to race driver for 2019. A remarkable return story, but it remains to be seen if he can impress in a uncompetitive Williams and next to GP2 Champion, George Russell. 

Nick Heidfeld made a few part-time seasons for Sauber and Renault before bowing out of the sport, competing in endurance racing and Formula E. 

1/43 Model Review: 2009 Williams FW31 Toyota

Background

The 2009 season saw new rules and new looking F1 cars and offered a chance for smaller teams to get the jump on others. Williams was one of three teams to have exploited the double diffuser, although not as effectively as Brawn GP. The team would run in the midfield, with Rosberg showing some very good speed and consistent points finishing. At Singapore, he was in contention for a podium finish and possible victory, but ran wide exiting the pitlane and received a penalty. He often ran well in practice sessions, but it never materialised in qualifying. However Rosberg scored all of Williams' 34.5 points that year, before being snapped up by the Mercedes team.

Minichamps

Minichamps 400090016

This is another nice version of the Williams FW31 in race-trim. As well as the double-diffuser, the car also sported the first iteration of the 'cape' under the nose, a concept which reappeared on the Mercedes cars in mid-2017 to date.
Score: 7/10

My unfinished GP4 Car

I briefly joined the CTDP modding group, having been friends with them for a number of years, following their work. The aim at the time was to make a 2009 mod, and shortly after the car launch, I started work on the Williams FW31. Work on the main shape of the car didn't take me long to do, and I was pleased with the outcome. However my car was not developed past this, as it quickly became clear that the modders in CTDP were too busy and mod never materialised. I, too, became too busy to come back to this car, as the car had quite a few changes from the launch car when it started racing, and as other authors started releasing their work, this car remained unfinished on my hard drive.

devblog.ctdp.net

Where are they now?

Williams are perhaps the only true independent left in F1, perhaps with the exception of Racing Point. Whilst other teams are making use of their links to the top teams and some of their parts, Williams has remained staunchly independent throughout. Sadly their model is hurting their chances of remaining competitive, having only won one race since 2004, and in 2019 looking like another year propping up the field. 

Nico Rosberg won his first World Championship at Mercedes in 2016 before sensationally retiring days afterwards, claiming he had achieved his goal. He has since invested in Formula E and in other forward thinking technologies as well as taking up podcasting and vlogging. 

Kazuki Nakajima still races in WEC, where he won Le Mans in 2018 and leads the current 2018-2019 championship  alongside Fernando Alonso and Sebastien Buemi. As well as appearing in Japanese series Super GT, he has also found success in Formula Nippon/Super Formula, winning the championship twice. 

1/43 Model Review: 2009 Renault R29

Background

With the new 2009 rules and very different looking cars to the rest of the decade, Renault produced one of the ugliest cars of this era. Alonso was once again joined by Nelson Piquet Jnr, with Alonso being the most competitive during the season, scoring all the teams' 26 points including a podium at Singapore. Piquet struggled with pace all year, and was eventually dropped by the team in favour of Romain Grosjean, who faired little better. Piquet, annoyed by the situation, revealed the story of crashgate at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, having been asked to bring out a safety car by deliberately crashing and helping team-mate Alonso to victory, on the proviso that he would retain his seat for 2009 - which he thought was the whole season. Various sponsors, including title sponsor ING, pulled their support and removed their logos immediately.

Minichamps

Minichamps 400090008

Neither Minichamps car had the drivers name on the cardboard overlay, but thankfully the driver helmets were present and correct. Correction, Romain Grosjean got a limited run of models and his name is presented. Minichamps have created a nice diecast car, the proportions are nicely done, and the lack of complexity on the real car makes for an easier model to create.
Score: 7/10

Norev

Norev 518952

I've seen that Norev have made a couple of Renault F1 cars, and here is their R29. The model is based on the launch car which didn't have the sidepod vanes and the rear of the sidepods the bulbous shape. It was used during pre-season testing, but I don't think it made it to a race, I could be wrong. The main shape is of similar quality and proportions to the Minichamps models, but where it gets to some of the detail, it's a little blocky and thick. The driver body is not too bad. It's not a bad alternative to the Minichamps, it's a little cheaper, so you don't get quite as good detail.

Score: 6/10

Provence Moulage

Provence Moulage PM0044

I'd never come across this brand before, but they make some F1 model kits. Again, this car is based on the launch car. I'd say it's lacking a bit of detail, but there were no real details to get excited about on the launch car, so it's pretty accurate then! Actually, this is a resin car, so the details on this are pretty nice, the aerial and pitot tube for example is the best one I've seen. The mirrors are nicely defined too. No driver figure for this car. It's just a shame they didn't base this on the race car.

Score: 8/10

Where are they now?

Renault and Romain Grosjean are about to enter the 2019, though Grosjean will be driving for Haas. Fernando Alonso has only just retired from F1, seeking to win the triple crown as well as other prestigious racing categories. 

Nelson Piquet Jnr has burned his bridges with F1, and has competed in a host of other series, including endurance, Brazilian stock car, NASCAR and rallycross, but perhaps most famously winning the first Formula E Championship, where he still competes. 

1/43 Model Review: 2009 Force India VJM02 Mercedes

Background

Vijay Mallya released Mike Gascoyne and Colin Kolles from the team and made a late switch from Ferrari to Mercedes engines for the 2009 season. Major upgrades, first at Bahrain and then again at the European Grand Prix made the car more competitive, particularly on low downforce tracks at Belgium, where Fisichella scored pole position and chased Raikkonen home in second, and in Italy Sutil qualified second and finished fourth with the fastest lap. The team ended up 9th in the Constructors' Championship.

Minichamps

Minichamps 400090020

Similarly to the Toro Rosso, the team had 3 drivers during the year, but it's only the two drivers that started the year who get a model, so there's no Tonio Liuzzi's version of the car. It's another solid model from Minichamps, no real complaints, just a good representation of the VJM02.

Where are they now?

Force India

Force India brought stability to the former Jordan team having been sold and bought out three times in about as many seasons. From being tail enders, the team made steady progress finishing fourth in the Constructors (best of the rest) in 2016 and 2017. The team became known as the best 'pound for pound' team on the grid. Vijay Mallya's businesses had been struggling for some time before driver Sergio Perez instigated a scene of events that led the team into administration and a buyout by Racing Point. 

Adrian Sutil

Sutil raced for Force India for many years up until the end of 2011 and rejoined the team in 2013 before joining Sauber for a disappointing season in 2014. After a year as reserve driver at Williams, he has not been seen racing since. 

Giancarlo Fisichella

Fisichella finished off the 2009 season at Ferrari, but bowed out of the sport at the end of the season and has pretty much been racing Ferrari's ever since mostly in endurance racing. 

Vintantonio Liuzzi

Tonio Liuzzi enjoyed a reasonably good 2010 in the Force India, but was ultimately dropped at the end of the season. He joined upstarts Hispania Racing (HRT) where he trundled along at the rear of the grid for two seasons. Liuzzi has raced in endurance and stock car, as well as a few Formula E races since bowing out of F1

1/43 Model Review: 2009 Toro Rosso STR4 Ferrari

Background

The Toro Rosso was essentially the Red Bull RB5 with a Ferrari engine, with Bourdais retained for a second season and joined by another Sebastien to replace the outgoing Vettel, Buemi. Whilst Red Bull began to dominate the final half of the year with their development at full speed, Toro Rosso were cash-strapped and unable to keep up with the rate of development. Both drivers scored points in the first half of the year, but Bourdais performances were not deemed good enough and was replaced half way through the year by Jaime Alguersuari. However the team finished last in the championship.

Minichamps

Minichamps 400090011

Only the one car to review for the 2009 Toro Rosso, and you can only get the Minichamps car with Buemi or Bourdais, not Alguersuari. I had great hopes for Bourdais from his time in CART, but sadly his Formula 1 career had few highlights.

Where are they now?

Toro Rosso

Toro Rosso continues to be the driver feeder team to the Red Bull lead team. There was a little bit of a bottle-neck when Vettel won four titles with Red Bull, but in recent years, they have struggled to bring as many drivers through, giving 2nd chances to Brendon Hartley and I've lost count of how many chances Kvyat has had. The rules put an end to the technical help Toro Rosso could receive from Red Bull, and running different engines from the sister team put them further apart. In 2019, running the same Honda engines, they teams are able to share more parts once again. 

Sebastien Buemi

Buemi lasted three seasons with the Toro Rosso team before becoming reserve Red Bull driver for a couple of seasons after that. I believe he is still officially the reserve Red Bull driver, but should a situation come up, it remains to be seen whether he does actually deputise. These days, you can find him driving in Formula E and WEC, having won the Formula E title in 2015-16, WEC champion in 2018-19 as well as LMP1 class champion in 2014. He also won at Le Mans in 2018. 

Sebastien Bourdais

As aluded to earlier, Bourdais had won four consecutive CART titles prior to joining Formula 1. Today, Bourdais is mostly found racing in Indycar and whilst occasionally competitive, he has not been in a position to challenge for titles there. 

Jaime Alguesuari

The one time youngest Formula 1 driver to compete at a Grand Prix, spent two and a half seasons with Toro Rosso before being dropped. After doing some Pirelli testing and other sporadic races, he competed in a season of Formula E before retired from motorsports altogether in 2015 to concentrate on being a DJ. 

2019 Preview: 10 years ago... bigger wings, new rules and outwash front wings

With less than a week to go before the first race of the 2019 season, I'm sure I'm not the only one excited to see the cars racing together for the first time. We expect Ferrari to be the favourites, but Hamilton and Mercedes will be up for a fight, particularly if Leclerc lives up to his hype and can challenege for the title. Driver moves, new regulations, new power unit combinations and a very tight midfield all adds to the intrigue and expectation and excitement leading into the first race.

Some of you may have spotted that I have a 2009 season model review page https://fongugp4.blogspot.com/p/2009-model-review.html. I aim to go through my 2009 F1 models in the coming weeks. But I was left wondering was it really 10 years ago when we had the fairy-tale story of the underdogs taking both Championships? That idea is inconceivable today, and it was no less inconceivable back then. But in this post, I wanted to focus a little on the similarities between the 2009 season and the 2019 season.

Minichamps 436090022

10 years ago, one of the biggest rule changes for a decade were introduced. We were subjected to huge front wings and higher rear wings, sound familiar? The 2008 cars had so many aerodynamic appendages, the FIA felt it was time to tighten down the aero on the cars, and so the cars looked much simpler. In 2019, we are again subjected to very wide front wings and taller (and wider) rear wings, with an attempt to curb the aero appendages around the barge-boards.

Some teams were much more prepared than others. McLaren and Ferrari were locked in a tight title fight in 2008, and their focus was on beating the other for glory. The beginning of their seasons were particularly bad, relegated to being midfield teams. Red Bull saw their opportunity to utilise Adrian Newey's talents and they created a great car, but it was the Honda who would be the best prepared, but they nearly didn't compete at all.

Honda had decided to pull out of the sport, but Ross Brawn, fresh from a sabbatical from the dominating Ferrari years, and Nick Fry knew the potential they had in their car. Faced with massive redundancies, Fry and Brawn managed to buy the team for £1 and their entry fee waived considering the circumstances.

The beautiful Brawn BGP01 (albeit with ugly large wings)

Brawn, as well as Williams and Toyota had stumbled upon a loophole in the regulations, the double-diffuser. Brawn's car was better built around the concept and their car were a league apart from the competition. It took a few races for the FIA to deem the concept legal, before other teams started fitting their own solutions. Jenson Button, who had only won a single Grand Prix up to this season, took six victories in seven races. At the Chinese Grand Prix, Red Bull took their first victory as a team with Sebastian Vettel leading a one-two finish ahead of Mark Webber.

Toyota were one of the first teams to run a double diffuser

However, whilst the double diffuser was the major news worthy concept that people thought made the difference, actually the bigger difference was the front wing (and endplate) outwash (a big talking point in the change for the 2019 regulation changes). The front wing is the first thing the air hits on the car, and managing the wake from the front tyre is also a key battleground for aero. So what you do with the air at the front wing endplates is all important. So whilst teams spent weeks trying to introduce a double diffuser concept, a new front wing could have been made in a few weeks. All the front running teams in 2009 were teams who had cracked that outwash front wings were the way to go. Frank Dernie, who had indycar experience, identified this early on and was a key reason to Toyota's competitive start of the season. McLaren only introduced the outwash concept at the Hungarian GP, where unsurprisingly, they began being competitive.

McLaren running their in-wash front wing

By mid-season, it was Red Bull who were in the ascendancy, and Barrichello was performing better than Button. Even Ferrari won a race, as did a resurgent McLaren towards the end of the season. But it was all too little too late, and Button and Brawn were crowned champions, a true fairy-tale story.

Brawn, formerly Honda, formerly BAR and formerly Tyrrell, were to be bought out by Mercedes who are dominating the sport today.

Sadly, it was time when manufacturers were leaving the sport at a high rate, with Toyota and BMW leaving the sport at the end of the season, with Honda having left the season before, and their B team, Super Aguri not even completing the 2008 season.

2009 was a fascinating year and it's so rare for an underdog story to come good. It's almost unthinkable these days to find the top teams being caught out and fighting near the back of the field. It was the last year when there were a number of true manufacturer teams. It was a year where the development race was such that the competitive order was not too predictable from race to race.

In 2019, teams have tried various solutions of front wing and it remains to be seen which solution they will eventually converge upon. I suspect the more effective DRS will be more of a talking point this season and will make overtaking way too easy, whilst following other cars will remain a problem until 2021 (we hope). I hope I'm wrong, but 2009 wasn't exactly remembered for exhilerating wheel-to-wheel battling.