GP4: 2021 Alpine A521 - download

Previously, Hega had painted the 2021 Alpine livery onto the 2020 Renault car by Excalibur.
I then added a couple of race specific liveries last month. 

This was the last 2021 car to receive any shape updates from the rule changes, which changed the floors and diffusers mainly. 

Now, I have replaced the floor, diffuser and the bargeboard areas, and with very minor changes to the textures, I can present to you the full 2021 car.  

This is my final contribution to 2021 in GP4, and I'm quite proud of the final product, as found in the 2021 mod, which has been tremendously put together by Carl_gpgames. 

The highlight of the mods ought to be the cars, and I think the quality has picked up in accuracy and scaling. That's in no small part thanks to Excalibur and Hega and Isaint. 

Then there's the supporting wheels and rims (Hega) and helmets (Jvinu, Jsoria and others), that were further enhanced this season for the first time thanks to Oggo, that allowed us to run team specific rims and driver specific helmet shapes, all that adds to the realism. 

Carl_gpgames has done great work throughout the year to put the mod together (both CSM and non CSM options), some new tracks from prblanco and co, some new tweaks like non-refuelling by prblanco and 32bobo32, new physics from carl_gpgames and prblanco, new pitcrews and marshalls from 32bobo32, collision editor by Oggo and, not to forget rracunis and petrus for their contributions. We also had an update to CSM by Zaz and a developing tool in Wad Controller by Duffer, as well as a yet unexplored area of pitcrew model editing by Oggo. 

I'm just grateful to work with such talent and contribute towards one of the best mods in years for this 20 year old game. 

So to all who have contributed to GP4 in this past year, THANK YOU!

And finally, thank you for downloading and playing, enjoying GP4 and keeping it alive. 

GP4: 2021 Alfa Romeo liveries updated

This is Hega's 2021 Alfa Romeo C41. I helped with the Styrian GP livery earlier in the year, so I'm fairly familiar with the template. With a number of special liveries and a driver change, I thought I would come back and add a few liveries to the pack which has now been released. 

Dutch GP

Raikkonen was forced to miss the race because of isolation, so reserve driver Robert Kubica made a welcome return to the grid. He didn't do too badly at all. He raced at two events, firstly the Dutch GP, where I've updated some of the logos that kept moving around the car, and obviously Kubica's name, flag and the number 88. 

Italian GP

Kubica's second race was at the Italian GP, which coincided with Alfa's celebratory livery which featured more green. I really like how the special logo fits nicely on the nose. Giovinazzi had a great qualifying performance, but it was ruined by a bit of chaos in the second chicane that sent him to the back of the grid with a damaged car. 

Abu Dhabi GP

Sadly, Alfa Romeo are not going to retain either of their drivers. Popular veteran, Kimi Raikkonen will retire having made his debut way back in 2001. Even in his final year, he produced memorable moments on the radio, was in contention for the most overtakes, and had some stunning first laps that shows he's not lost any of his desire or skill. The message on the side of the car harks back to a radio message back in his Lotus days. 

Ferrari junior, Giovinazzi will also depart the grid. The popular Italian proved he was quick, but failed to have the stand out performances that ultimately made him a bit forgetable in the races. His car ran a different message of thanks on the side. 

Both cars ran #PanTorpeda raising awareness and help for this a six-year old Polish kid awaiting surgery. A fan of F1, his endearing picture of a rocket featured on the side of the car. 

I hope you enjoy this little update from Hega and me. 

GP4: 2021 Car Livery updates

Having completed the helmets for 2021, I have turned my attention back to the cars and updated some of the liveries to the end of the season. 

2021 Mercedes-AMG F1 W12 E-Performance

I've updated the car driven by Bottas at the final race, emblazoned with Kiitos logos, the team saying thanks to Valterri for his contributions over the past couple of seasons. His number has returned to a blue outline, and I amended his race suit (not that you can really tell). 

2021 Williams FW43B

Just one livery added to the final full season pack for the Williams team. They were promoting the new King's Man film and those logos have been added to the various places on the car, including the halo. 

2021 Aston Martin AMR21

Two liveries have been added to this pack, in Saudi Arabia they could not run alcoholic advertisements. In Abu Dhabi, they added Juniper Networks logo to the halo which is also included in this pack. 

Thanks for the support throughout the year, 2021 has seen some great breakthroughs and lots of great content released that has in part revitalised the GP4 community and I'm glad to have played a small part to that. We all do this for the love of the sport and the game and to enjoy ourselves and have a good time, so I hope my contributions bring some joy to this ancient game. 

GP4: Final batch of 2021 helmets

A Happy New Year to all of you.

I never envisioned at the beginning of 2021 that I would end up doing as many helmets as I did. I'm grateful that there are other authors who have released fantastic content to supplement it. Having been a mere novice at Photoshop before, I'm growing in confidence in what I can do, and that's in part pushing myself to produce more and more complicated helmets. Some have come off better than others, I must admit, but this final batch are amongst my best work this season, that's the way that it should be I guess. I've added 9 new helmets for you in this batch of releases.

Valterri Bottas

2021 Valterri Bottas Abu Dhabi Helmet

First up, we have Valterri Botta's helmet for his final race at Mercedes. I've actually enjoyed recreating all of his designs this year, all done by his girlfriend. This one features a messages of thanks in different languages, some career highlights, a number of photos from his achievements with the team, as well as a fitting tribute to Niki Lauda on the back, and a nod to teammate Lewis Hamilton. The top is full of stock art, which I was able to track down was by Anastasia Vintovkina. I even had to mix two fonts together to make up the Danke Mercedes text. 

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Charles Leclerc

2021 Charles Leclerc Abu Dhabi GP helmet

This is another busy helmet. I started off by creating a glittery background, and there was just about enough photos for me to recreate the design, with messages of love, the prancing horse of Ferrari and his own name repeated on the top. It was a pleasant enough helmet to make and I think it looks really nice in game. 

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Lando Norris

2021 Lando Norris US GP helmet

Two Lando Norris helmets for you. This one is back from the US GP. It looks simple, but with the moon and rust backgrounds, I struggled at the time at the seams. It's not perfect still, but close enough not to notice it. I'm quite pleased with the final result and to get it done, as this was plaguing me sitting in my to do list for a while. 

2021 Lando Norris Abu Dhabi GP Helmet

I was expecting this helmet, which shines and reflects in different ways and in different colours, to be near impossible. But I found a close match to the pattern that Norris used, and I managed to quite quickly put his design together again, I managed to use some of the techniques I've learned this year to put this together. It looks great in GP4, working well with the alpha channels that adds another element to this helmet. In the end, it didn't take as long as I feared, and I'm pleased with the result. 

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George Russell

2021 George Russell Abu Dhabi GP Helmet

George Russell, in his final race with Williams, had a plain helmet, along with a new visor strip promoting the new King's Man film, where the team members were able to sign messages directly onto it. Because I did a similar task with Norris's British GP helmet earlier this year, I knew just how to go about this one. All the messages are true to the real lid, although there's a few I had to get creative on placement. The blue also twinkles a bit in the lights. Again, not as bad as I feared, again I'm pleased with the result. 

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Mick Schumacher

2021 Mick Schumacher US GP helmet

Two helmets for Mick Schumacher. Like Lando's US helmet, it was hanging over me for the last few races. I attempted to recreate it directly from photos, but there was no good picture of the right side. In the end, after much searching, I found the correct wood stained Texan flag. I also found a close match to the floral embossing. It was just then finding a good match to the rust background, there's three different layers going on there, and I managed to recreate the helmet entirely. From fearing I couldn't do it, I'm really glad I can tick this off, as it was a challenge, but I'm glad it's done and representative of the real thing. 

2021 Mick Schumacher Abu Dhabi GP helmet

Mick went all blue for the final race, with each star representing one member of the Haas staff. The placing of the stars was probably the most complicated thing about this helmet, a fairly easy recreation compared to some of the others in this batch of releases. 
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Max Verstappen

I wanted to commemorate Max's first World Championship by making up his helmet. He's driven absolutely brilliantly all year, and he's made less obvious mistakes to Lewis, and though I felt he was over aggressive at times, it doesn't take away from the achievement of beating a 7-times World Champion in probably the marginally better car, to his first World Championship. 

2021 Max Verstappen US GP Helmet

I had his template for his helmet mocked up from his previous liveries, so it wasn't too much trouble to recolour it to his regular design, and add one a few parts. In the US GP, the team ran with Acura branding instead of Honda, so that's all that's different with this helmet really. 

2021 Max Verstappen Abu Dhabi GP Helmet

Max had a thank you Honda logo put onto the back of his helmet for this weekend. He ran it in practice and qualifying, but ran his regular lid in the race. Anyway, I felt it justified it's own helmet, and as I say it's my tribute to his Championship success. 

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GP4: 5 car liveries and 14 special helmets released

Wow it's been a long season and 22 races later and we've completed the season. Christmas is now around the corner, and I've got lots of goodies for you, all free as usual. Although, if you appreciate the work and you're feeling generous, there is a donate button.There's still more to do, but this is likely the last chance I'll get to do any modding before Christmas. 

Car Liveries

Williams FW43B

Williams FW43B 2021 Saudi Arabian GP livery

Williams FW43B 2021 Saudi Arabian GP livery

First up is the Williams livery from the Turkish GP and the Saudi Arabian GP. They ran the Turkish GP livery for most of the tail end of the season. Sadly, Frank Williams passed away on the week leading up to the inaugural race in Jeddah and all teams ran with Frank Williams tributes, a logo from the original team. The halo also includes a quote from the film Top Gun, a favourite of Frank's. 

I will update the Abu Dhabi livery soon, but until then, enjoy the Saudi Arabian GP livery. 

Alpine Liveries

Alpine Qatar 2021 GP livery

Alpine ran with a green rear end at the Saudi Arabian GP, which was to commemorate 100 races with Castrol as the fuel supplier, formerly known as Renault. This dates back to the 1997 season where Jacques Villeneuve won the title in a Williams powered by Renault at the time. 

This livery is included, as well as the US GP livery where they changed the main logos to Mandiant. 

It also includes the Abu Dhabi livery, where they retained the green, but put the Alpine logo back on it. It also includes 'El Plan' on the rear wing. 

The original work was done by Excalibur and Hega from RSCT, all I've done is amend the livery slightly. 

Special Helmets

I feel like there's a mountain of helmets yet to do, but there's quite a few completed so far. I'm not doing them in any particular order, generally I'm picking off the easier ones first. As always, I'm indebted to Jvinu for the shapes and templates available on his blog. It means these helmets are compatible with ACSPRH helmets in other games. 

Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian Vettel 2021 Mexican GP helmet

Here's Seb's Mexican GP helmet. Because of the nature of the helmet, the majority of this helmet is created from photos rather than painted, it was the only way for me to be happy with how the helmet looked in the end.

Sebastian Vettel 2021 Saudi Arabian GP helmet

In Saudi Arabia, Vettel was promoting his own political message, supporting equal treatment of women, particularly in motorsports. The world map is now reminiscent of a train map, which has glow in the dark sections in. That's not exactly possible in GP4, but I have given them as shiny alpha channels as I could to try and replicate the effect. 

Sebastian Vettel 2021 Abu Dhabi GP helmet

Also included in this pack is the Abu Dhabi helmet, which features various phrases that is close to Vettel's heart.

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Valterri Bottas

Valterri Bottas 2021 Brazilian GP helmet

Here is Valterri's coffee inspired helmet, designed once more by his girlfriend. This helmet went through various iterations during its creation, in the end I found most of the source pictures, which I had to carefully place on a sparkly base. I'm quite pleased with the alpha channel and reflections on this helmet too. 

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Charles Leclerc

Charles Leclerc 2021 Saudi Arabian GP helmet

Charles ran an amended version of his white helmet in Saudi Arabia, adding several red triangular lines and other subtle changes. 

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George Russell

George Russell 2021 Saudi Arabian GP helmet

In addition to the car running tributes to Frank Williams, Russell ran this rather simple yet striking helmet design that looks great with the car. 
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Daniel Ricciardo

Daniel Ricciardo 2021 Qatar GP helmet

It was almost not worth doing a preview of this helmet, but it's the same as the Qatar GP only with updated logos on the visor strip. Other than that, the helmet is the same. 

Daniel Ricciardo 2021 Abu Dhabi GP helmet

In Abu Dhabi, the shiny helmet became glittery. Quite a lot of the helmet has been re-coloured and the alpha layer is completely different. Both helmets are included in the pack. 
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Carlos Sainz

Carlos Sainz Jnr 2021 Abu Dhabi GP Helmet

Carlos began the season with a glittery version of his standard helmet, and he's done the same again at the season finale, except the sparkly bits are on the opposite parts of his helmet to the Bahrain version. Also the base colour of the helmet shines between purple, blue and even yellow in some shots. Out of all the sparkly helmets so far, this one is my personal favourite that I've created so far. 
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Lance Stroll

Lance Stroll 2021 Abu Dhabi GP 100th Race helmet

This was Lance Stroll's 100th GP and he ran with an amended helmet livery with a special 100 Races logo added. It's also a glittery helmet with the Maple Leaf and the Wings now a very reflective green. 
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Yuki Tsunoda

Yuki Tsunda 2021 Abu Dhabi GP helmet 'Thank you Honda'

I thought Yuki had finished updating his helmet for the year, but he rocked up at the final race with this helmet, with colours amended to reflect more of the Japanese red and white in tribute to Honda's final race in F1. All of Honda's era's in F1 are marked on the top strip. There's shots of two of his helmets painted side by side, and the grafitti is different on both of them. Anyway, out of all the grafitti designs he's worn all year, I'm happiest with how this one turned out in particular. 
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Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton 2021 Abu Dhabi GP helmet

I quietly released the first iteration of this helmet that Sir Lewis has worn at all the Middle-Eastern rounds, but the season finale saw him wear a sparkly version of it. Generally speaking, it's not gone well with drivers who have worn special helmet designs going into title deciders (Max's lid carried a small thank you to Honda on it, so that doesn't really count), so I guess that trend continues.  

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Antonio Giovinazzi

Antonio Giovinazzi 2021 Abu Dhabi GP helmet

In the final race of the popular Italian, Antonio ran a tribute livery for his team-mate, Kimi Raikonnen, who is also leaving the team, in a design inspired by Kimi's 2007 Championship winning helmet. Nice, simple, effective and I certainly think it's Kimi's helmet before remembering it's actually Antonio's lid. 

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Kimi Raikkonen

Kimi Raikkonen 2021 Abu Dhabi GP helmet

Kimi ran his first proper special helmet of the year, this one inspired by his first helmet some 20 years ago when he drove for Sauber. The helmet also carries a message of thanks on the rear. 

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I hope you enjoy this bumper release edition. Until the next post, I want to wish you all a very happy Christmas. 

GP4: Assorted Helmets from USA, Mexico and Brazil

It's been a little while since I last posted some helmets, but there's been a lot of helmets in the last three races and I'm slowly catching up with them. Today I can present you with seven new helmets and one slight update on a previously released lid. 

US GP

Lance Stroll

Lance Stroll 2021 US GP Helmet

One of Lance's sponsors held a competition via their app to vote for a helmet design to be used. Designed by Mark Anwar, there were three space themed designs and this Solar System version got the vote. 

Download | (mirror link)

GP4: 2021 US GP Updates Part 1

The US Grand Prix saw no less than 10 special helmets deployed by various drivers, by far the most of any race so far this season (that's if you don't count the first race!). I've been chipping away at recreating them quietly in the background over the past week and I can present to you some of the fruits of my labours. Hopefully the rest of them will be done before the next GP, no promises, but we'll see. 

In no particular order...

George Russell

George Russell  2021 US GP Helmet

First off we have Mercedes bound George Russell, with a new helmet harking back to the Wild West days in America. Designed  by MDM Designs, he said, "Wood and chrome effect thoughtout his standard layout, complete with the Sheriff star now we are in Texas ✍🏻💪🏻" 

It's an interesting choice of pallette, with a slightly orangey brown look.

With this one, I followed the same method I used for Lando's Turkish GP helmet, which saved me a lot of time. Ironically, it's not going to work for me on Lando's US GP helmet, but that's another story. Once I was happy with the layout, I had to create the alpha channel to make all the silver parts shiny.  

Download Link | (mirror)

Daniel Ricciardo

Daniel Ricciardo  2021 US GP Helmet

Ricciardo got to honour his hero Dale Earnhardt Sr, the helmet is heavily based on the original lid worn by 'The Intimidator'. Designed by Jens Munser Designs, he says, "The silver/red line on the bottom of Daniel’s helmet is based on the livery of Dale’s No.3 Goodwrench Chevy."

It's the first Danny Ric helmet I've done this year (I didn't do the McLaren Monaco GP specials), but thankfully, as you can see, there's nothing too complicated with this one. The only real challenge was the lightning at the rear of the helmet. With all the matte helmets this year, it's nice this one has a bit of a shine to it. 

Download Link | (mirror)

Nikita Mazepin

Nikita Mazepin  2021 US GP Helmet

Nikita Mazepin sports a US inspired version of his helmet, with a rattlesnake texture in red, the long cattle horns on the Haas logo on the front, a lucky horseshoe on the top and rear, and a cowboy hat on the side Haas logos. Nikita explains, "it's the same orange but with more flouro on a white base this time". 

Having not really departed from his style, I had a good starting point from the previous special helmet I did of his. I was quite happy to find the source clip art of the horseshoe, as there were no good angles of that part of the helmet.  

Download Link | (mirror)

Charles Leclerc

Charles Leclerc  2021 US GP Helmet

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc is marking the 20th anniversary of his sponsor, Richard Mille a watch manufacturer, with his helmet.

This helmet follows the style of his early season helmet with subtle changes, so I was able to quickly get the main template done. It was just then a case of adding the clockwork patterns and the top of the helmet after that. I do like the clockwork blueprint effect. 

Download link | (mirror)

Fernando Alonso

Fernando Alonso  2021 US GP Helmet

Following the volcanic eruptions on the island of La Palma in the Canary Islands, Fernando Alonso has had a special design produced which will be auctioned to raise money for those affected. He says, “So I will wear the helmet this weekend. I will launch a platform where people can donate some money and the helmet will be also in an auction on November 4th to raise more money, so each of us can help.”

Another first helmet of the season for me, and the first Fernando Alonso helmet I've painted since 2005 I think. I love this helmet it's simple yet effective, completely different yet still the same usual design especially from a far off. Simple details like the lava forming a heart shape on the rear is a nice touch. It was a little tricky with some of the joins, but I'm really quite happy with how this one turned out. 

Download Link | (mirror)

GP4: 2021 Turkish GP Helmets

Two new helmets at the Turkish GP. 

Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian Vettel used his helmet to highlight ocean pollution, raising awareness to protect our blue planet. 

Sebastian Vettel  2021 Turkish GP Helmet

His helmet is a vibrant pink with various clip art style sea life animals. His German flag is now different shades of blue and it was fun to recreate this one. Vettel's helmet is painted on Jvinu's Arai shape and template. 

Download | (mirror link)

Lando Norris

The other driver to use a new helmet is Lando Norris. 

Lando Norris  2021 Turkish GP Helmet

Norris brought together a group of youtubers and esports racers together to form Quadrant back in 2020, and whilst he's not really allowed to promote it very much at McLaren, he is allowed one race a year to promote it via a special helmet. In a video on Quadrant's Youtube channel, you can hear Lando talk about the design, using the black and yellow design featuring on a white helmet. 

For this helmet, I mostly took it off the blueprints by MDM Designs who designed it and wrapped it around the Bell helmet by Jvinu. 

Download link | (mirror)