As we begin the final weekend of the 2022 season today, I'm delighted to be able to have finished another 2022 car and share it with you GP4 fans. This is the Alfa Romeo C42.
2022 Alfa Romeo C42 by Fongu
The car is built from the Hinwil based of the team formerly known as Sauber and is powered by the Ferrari power train. The competitiveness dropped of by mid-season, with Zhou suffering a massive crash in Silverstone, landing sideways between two barriers. Thankfully he was extracted and not seriously injured. Going into the final race of the season, they lead the battle for 6th in the Constructors’ Championship.
There are so many great sources around today to help me model the cars accurately compared to when I first started making cars for GP4, and I've tried to keep these cars as simple as I can so that it runs well on lower end machines. On that, I'm grateful once more to Carl_gpgames for making lods for this car. Even things like tiny logos are much easier to find nowadays, which all helds speed up production of these cars.
This car comes with two special liveries as seen in Baku and Monza.
2022 Alfa Romeo C42 Azerbaijan GP livery by Fongu
This livery, run at the Azerbaijan GP was to celebrate the launch of the Tonale road car, an electic SUV. The added green is to make the car into a giant Italian flag with the hue of colours the colours tweak to match the green in the Montreal Tonale launch as well as a nod to it's green initiatives going forward and the deeper Alfa red. The Tonale has distinctive headlights, forming a 'UUU' shape and that's the reason that's on the livery in white on the engine cover and darker green on the sidepods.
2022 Alfa Romeo C42 Italian GP livery by Fongu
Alfa Romeo, since it linked up with Sauber, has been using various old Alfa Romeo logos in it's time in F1. Just search for Alfa Romeo logo history and you'll see how the emblem has evolved over the years. The nose and engine cover logo on the standard livery is based on the 1922 font. In the Italian GP at Monza, the nose logo was replaced with the logo used in the 1940s and 50s.
On the right side engine cover only, they have replaced the text with their emblem. Alfa Romeo, originally founded in Milan, has many nods to its history. The cross is St. George's cross, associated with medieval Milanese soldiers during the time of the crusades, clearly backing the 'Christian' side. What I didn't know until I did a bit of research was that the serpent, Biscione, is eating a guy, the emblem being associated with the Visconti family of the 11th Century and linked with Milan. The guy getting eaten is in relation once more to the crusades, presumably a muslim, but it's still a bit open for debate. The crown relates to the family becoming Dukes in the 15th Century. The serpent itself is new, but clearly inspired from the past, so I had to paint it from scratch. It's a fascinating history if you wanted to read more into it.
Thanks once more to Carl_gpgames for the screenshots and all that's left to do is share the pack with you, enjoy.
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.
I've finally caught up with some of the helmets from the past races, here's Giovinazzi's Italian GP helmet. It features the colours of his previous special helmets, but now in the form of rounded squares dotted around the helmet. I'm not the biggest fan of vomitting shapes onto a blank canvas type art, not unless there's a purpose and to me I can't see it in this one. Nevertheless, I do like the ITA on the sides. Although Antonio impressed in qualifying, it was all undone on the first lap when he cut across Carlos Sainz and spun and damaged his car.
This is the second special helmet Giovinazzi has run, saving them for races in his home country. This pack includes both helmets. Antonio wears the Bell helmet and as always, this is painted on Jvinu's template for his shapes, grazie mille!
Sorry there's not much from me lately, I've been having some issues with various wireless mice dying on me lately on my laptop so I've not been able to do much modding as I had hoped. But I did manage to throw this together, it's Antonio Giovinazzi's helmet he wore for the 2021 Emilia Romagna (Made in Italy) GP.
I didn't realise until I started painting the top of the lid that I realised it's got three cars racing along, so the second version was very much making them look like cars when viewed from the top. Thankfully most the stripes are the same on both sides of the helmet, albeit different colours.
I also realised I haven't been using the templates created by Jvinu which went along with his shapes, this painted on the Bell helmet, so my thanks goes out to this enduring work.
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.
Apologies I have not been posting much of late, I have been quite busy with life, but hoping the new year will bring some more content.
I almost think that Brazilian GP was a fitting way to end this season, one that started off with so much hype but ended up so drab and dull, to finish with a Grand Prix which you didn't know who was going to win, lots mistakes, midfield teams on the podium, wheel-to-wheel racing and team-mate crashes. There's not really been an exciting Abu Dhabi GP that I can remember, even though I actually quite enjoy driving the track.
Max Verstappen took a brilliant victory, as many said it was redemption from last year's mishap, whilst Hamilton made the rarest of mistakes in wheel-to-wheel battle with Albon, kudos from the champion to hold his hands up immediately after. But Gasly on the podium, and Sainz joining the podium after Hamilton's penalty after starting from the back of the grid were mighty achievements. Although it didn't mean anything in the end, that drag race between Gasly and Hamilton to the line was great viewing.
Vettel has been strong the last few races, we have to acknowledge it hasn't been the Leclerc show that it was at points this season. Both drivers have been incredibly close, which is a good thing for the team, and a good thing going into next year when, we all hope, there will actually be a three team battle for the championship. Vettel got the team-leader and favourable decisions early in the year, and both will be looking to be the 'favoured' driver in those 50-50 decisions next year when it might mean something. Firstly, Leclerc's move on Vettel was brilliant! A late lunge, but decisive, got his car firmly alongside into the corner entry and it was just a sweet move - perhaps Sainz's move on Perez being the slightly better and riskier one. Vettel would have been surprised by that, and would not have wanted to let that decide who was going to finish ahead. He got a good run out of turns 1, 2 and 3, and had a good slipstream and was going to get back ahead of Charles - the pass was inevitable.
What happened on that straight was all posturing. Leclerc only gave Vettel one car's width and no more - fair and hard, that's what we want. Vettel was a bit on the grass, but he made it through with his momentum. But then, something akin to Turkey 2010, Vettel moves to the middle of the track. He was ahead, but he had not cleared the car behind. He wanted to assert his authority by pushing his opponent into a compromised line into turn 4. I get their motivations, I get the subtleties of what the drivers were saying to each other. But I've said this in a previous post, I don't like how Vettel moves across, Leclerc had every right to keep going in a straight line. I think everyone understands that. But Leclerc did it to Norris on lap 1, he kind of did it to Bottas in Hungary, whilst Perez got a drive-through penalty for hitting Sirotkin in the 2018 Singapore GP. I get the posturing side, but I don't like it personally.
But back in 2010, Red Bull firmly stood by Vettel, their up and coming superstar, who at that time was behind Webber who was the more credible title challenger. This season, Ferrari have been more outwardly critical of Leclerc and his mistakes and when he has not followed team-orders, whereas again, they have been more defensive of Vettel on his obvious errors this season. Battle lines will be drawn now by the team, but it remains to be seen if either driver will do their own thing anyway, both have evidence that they are not easily contained. This is a fascinating inter-team battle that we can enjoy, hopefully for a while to come. I've been very critical of Vettel, but he's still a deserving multiple World Champion, and is still an incredibly good driver. We knew Leclerc would give him a hard time this season, but Vettel hasn't been blown away as some predicted, neither has he switched off as he did in 2014.
Stars
This was a great fight between Verstappen and Hamilton, with Vettel having an outside chance on an alternative strategy before the safety cars ended his challenge. But you felt that Max was always on top of the situation, even when he was behind, and even nearly being wiped out by a Williams unsafe pit release, you were confident he was going to find his way back to the front. He passed Leclerc and Hamilton in straight succession, great race craft there, and his second pass on Hamilton around the outside of turn 1 was sublime. The Red Bull has been mighty in recent races, and Max delivered pole position, and arguably had a marginally better race car, and he delivered a drive of a champion.
Albon was a little behind the pace in qualifying, but he was also having a good race and in the running for his first podium position. It's somewhat ironic that the favoured Red Bull driver to take the second seat in that team next year is the only one without a podium finish this season. He's deserved it, but now he needs to start getting closer to Max's performance. A solid showing from Alex this weekend. He also put in a great pass on Vettel. I don't buy the 'he left the space on the inside' on that corner, it's rare for an overtake to happen there, and Alex took a normal line into that corner. It was for Hamilton to make a decisive move, which he didn't, so for me, there's no fault on Alex's part there, perhaps if he had seen Hamilton make the lunge he could have given a bit more room, but again I would not fault Alex here.
Gasly got a podium, and he deserves it after some of the performances he's been putting in at Toro Rosso this year. He was the best of the rest comfortably, in qualifying and the race, and on a day when five of the top six cars ran into various issues, which is so so rare, he was there to pick up the plaudits. Now Toro Rosso have an outside chance to snatch fifth place from Renault in the Constructors' Championship at Abu Dhabi. That would be mighty for the small Italian team - and a great humiliation for Renault if that were to happen.
Carlos Sainz, for me, has been great this season, and for the performance he put in to rise up the field, yes the safety car played into that, but he made the most of all of it and ended up on the podium, although he was present at the presentation. You've got to wonder how does it take longer to get the classification get confirmed than it does to actually run a race is somewhat beyond me, but the stewards were busy boys to be fair. Anyway, McLaren end their drought of podiums and continue their ascendancy by confirming their 4th placed finish in the Constructors' Championship, but poor old Norris struggled on his hard tyres that hampered his progress. And on a day when two of the podium finishers were midfield runners, Hulkenberg (who hasn't had a podium finish in F1) finished well outside the points.
George Russell finished in 12th position, 1.6 seconds away from the points. It's hard to judge his performance when compared to Kubica who hasn't really been that close to the Brit, and in a car that's not the easiest to drive and not quick at all. Williams could have done better than release Kubica into Verstappen, who not only had to avoid the blue and white car, but braked so hard he nearly went into anti-stall.
Despite a clash with Magnussen and a penalty as a consequence, I have to say Daniel Ricciardo put in a good performance. The Haas were so slow at some points particularly after a safety car, where they were bunching up the field and cars were driving clean around the outside of the train behind. Anyway, you could forgive Ricciardo going for the lunge when Magnussen gave him little room, but Ricciardo doesn't have the confidence or braking ability the Red Bull used to have. But a great recovery, some fantastic late race passes means he redeems himself for me and was rewarded with an excellent 6th - where did Hulkenberg finish again?!
Finally, a nod to the Alfa team who got a great double points finish after a solid weekend.
Need to improve
Where was Bottas again? There's Hamilton harrying for race victory, whilst Bottas is just an also ran and he retired triggering the safety car that made the race so much fun.
Stroll was a unlucky to be caught out by debris from the Ferrari's but as Perez has excelled in recent races, Stroll is just invisible and a fair few steps behind. He is still good at starts, but if his father wasn't running the team, I'd rather see Hulkenberg return than give Stroll another year to be honest.
Haas could have got some points in this race, had their strategy and ability to manage their tyres were not ruined by the safety cars. Magnussen just couldn't hold off Kvyat on the final dash to the flag. We do hope that they will progress next year, as they are battling with Williams on race days, when their car is quick enough for Q3 and points.
We just hope for better in Kubica's final race with the struggling Williams team.
I love Team Radio
This was a rollercoster of emotions on team-radio highlights from this race, from Gasly's release of joy, to Norris bemoaning his bad day, to the gut renching way in which Albon tried to come to terms with what could have been. What makes sport great is the people, and when there's emotions bursting out from their passion and hard work, it's what makes F1 so enthralling and memorable to watch at times.
Sauber were rebranded as Alfa Romeo, still can't get used to that, and were building on their momentum from last season when Charles Leclerc in particular scored strong results. New drivers in the form of former Ferrari champion Kimi Raikkonen as the experienced hand and benchmark for his teammate, Ferrari young driver, Antonio Giovinazzi. Though this was not the Italian's debut, it was his first full season as a full time driver for the team. Raikkonen was a consistent points scorer, nothing spectacular but he was always in the mix near the top of the midfield. But a run of poor races in the second half of the year has seen the team slide towards the rear of the midfield. Giovinazzi took a while to get going, made a few howlers, including binning the car on the last lap in Belgium. But he bounced back with a good points finish at the Italian Grand Prix and has been a match for Raikkonen for much of the second half of the season.
Both Spark and Minichamps released their cars within a week of each other, though Minichamps have only released Raikkonen's car, but we'll review and compare both in this post.
Spark S6073
Minichamps 417190007
As we've come to expect from both model manufacturers now, the quality is high, particularly as Minichamps have made this model from resin. Comparing both models, they both look very similar from front to back, the shapes looking on point with its dimensions and also squeezing in some of the intricate detail. The bargeboard areas are as complicated as they have ever been in F1, and both manufacturers have done a good job in recreating the detail on this Alfa. One thing I have noticed on the Spark cars is that the endplates are a little smaller than the Minichamps, and the rear wing a little bit smaller. I wouldn't have really noticed unless I'd put them side by side, but the Minichamps version does seem better proportioned from this angle. In terms of the paint and decals, there's not too much difference, owing to the simplicity of the Alfa livery.
Spark
Minichamps
As noted above, from this angle it's a little clearer that the Minichamps front wing is a little larger, or rather, the Spark version is a bit too small. Both have good detail on the nose and it's unique double inlets. Again the Minichamps suspension and vanes are a little fuller in size than the Spark, and again I think I prefer the Minichamps scaling. Nice detail on both sets of aerials and on the halo - masking the helmets that have Kimi's traditionally more complicated patterns. The sidepod opening and general shape of the sidepods are almost identical on these models, and Alfa continue with the segregated airbox arrangement we first saw on a Mercedes back in 2010. Again, both are well recreated. The t-wing on the Spark is tiny, and probably reflects the flimsiness of the real thing - if you ever see a real life onboard, these things are dancing around, it's a wonder they make any positive difference like that. With the fewer vanes on the rear wing endplates, it's nice that Minichamps have modelled real holes, whilst Spark's are just molded nicely, but is one solid structure.
Spark
Minichamps
I do prefer the Minichamps tyres generally as well, but that's a very minor thing. It's good to see the detail of the lights on the rear wing endplates on both models. Overall, I think I do prefer the Minichamps model, but again, I wouldn't be particularly disappointed with the Spark model.
Spark score: 7/10 Minichamps score: 8/10
Special Editions
Minichamps 447190007
Minichamps have also done a limited edition of the Bahrain GP car.
Minichamps 417199007
Spark S6083
And the lovely Valentines day shakedown livery is produced by Spark and Minichamps
Spark S6097
Spark S6098
Spark have released an Italian GP version of the Alfa, which features an Italian flag stripe along the top of the engine cover and rear wing end plates. Giovinazzi's car also comes with a pitboard wishing Juan Manuel Correa a speedy recovery after breaking his legs in the crash where Antoine Hubert was lost.
It's with great sadness that today we find out that Charlie Whiting lost his life in the build up to the Australian GP. He will be sorely missed, not only due to the breadth of his work at a Formula 1 weekend, but also with his quiet, firm, logical and sometimes humourous character. Watching him at race driver briefings as they became available last year showed how he calmly and intelligently dealt with bigger characters irate about some issue after another, seeing how he would be the voice of reason, dictating the interpretation of the rules that teams are so eager to find loopholes in, whilst still gaining respect.
Kevin Magnussen put it like this, “I don’t want to speak for everyone but I think I had the feeling that Charlie was someone that all the drivers kind of trusted, and could come to. He’s also very fair. You knew he was professional, and he was just very good at what he did. And most of all just a very nice and pleasant person. He’ll be missed by everyone.”
I will remember his contribution to F1 with great fondness.
**********
The topic of this post is Formula 1 debuts of the current grid in 1/43 model form. We have three drivers making their debuts this weekend, so there are no model shots from them, but here's a reminder of where the drivers started out.
Lewis Hamilton came into Formula 1 in a competitive McLaren. All eyes were focussed on reigning double World Champion, Alonso in the sister car, but Lewis quickly made an impression and was favourite to win the title going into the final race. There is an Australia GP model by Minichamps, but I bought his first win model from the Canadian GP.
Valterri Bottas was promoted from test driver to race driver in 2013 at Williams. Bottas showed flashes of his potential where he qualified 3rd at the Canadian GP and scored points at the USA GP in a car that simply didn't belong in the points. This Spark model is from the Australian GP where Valterri debuted.
Sebastian Vettel had been driving the car in Friday free practices regularly in the BMW Sauber, but when Kubica had his huge accident at the Canadian GP, Vettel impressed in his debut in the US. Now a four-time World Champion, Vettel is seeking his fifth Championship with Ferrari.
It's been a generation (at least) since Ferrari hired a driver who had only completed one full Formula 1 Season. Leclerc came into F1 as the reigning F2 champion, with plenty of hype. After a shaky start, Leclerc and Sauber started to move up the grid, putting in some fantastic displays that earned him his place at Ferrari. We will watch his progress at the Scuderia with great interest.
Max's rise from karting into single seater racing, being signed by the Red Bull young driver programme and securing a F1 seat all happened in 2014. He scored points on his second Formula 1 race, and won his first race in a Red Bull. If Honda can produce a reliable and competitive enough engine, we would love to see Red Bull in the mix for the Championship, rather than a handful of wins here and there.
Pierre Gasly made his debut a the end of the 2017 season at the Malaysian Grand Prix. Toro Rosso had lost Sainz to Renault and Kvyat was dropped, meaning the team finished the year without its original drivers. Gasly missed the USA GP to finish his season in Super Formula in Japan where he was in contention for the Championship, but it was rained off and he ended the season second. After a full season in Toro Rosso in 2018 with some impressive performances, we see Gasly racing for the Red Bull senior team. Unfortunately testing saw some big accidents, but at least it was only testing. We'll see how he will match up against Max Verstappen.
Nico Hulkenberg debutted for Williams in 2010, the highlight of which came in Brazil where he stuck the car on pole position. Strangely, he was not signed for a race seat in 2011, becoming the Force India test and reserve driver. A Le Mans winner in 2015, it's amazing to think how he still has not stood on the podium in F1 - please don't crash into the wall in Baku this year.
This is such a rare model, they come up 2nd hand so rarely and at very high prices. Ricciardo debutted for HRT half way through the 2011 season before being promoted to Toro Rosso. The wealth of drivers in their young driver programme back then compared to now is interesting. It was hard for anyone to impress in a HRT, but you could tell there was potential there. The Toro Rosso years were inconclusive next to an impressive Vergne, but his promotion to Red Bull saw him burst onto the scene beating Vettel and earning spectacular wins. It's a shame he won't be competing near the front, let's hope his faith in a progressing Renault pays off.
Talking about Renault, does anyone remember Grosjean's first half season back in 2009? It's probably best forgotten by everyone. After nearly retiring from motorsport altogether off the back of it, Romain returned to the team (then known as Lotus, or was it Renault, or Lotus Renault? you know the black one, not the green one that was Lotus for a while!) Flashes of speed were marred by a number of first corner incidents. Podiums followed in 2013, but since then, Grosjean has been buried in the midfield with varying degrees of success. Haas will be looking to achieve the potential in their car and finish 4th in the Constructors which they could have done last season. Grosjean needs a more consistent season - not being remembered for causing a smoke screen in front of the pack or stuffing it into the barriers under the safety car.
Oh how I miss chrome McLarens. It's a shame they painted the sidepods black, but that livery was gorgeous. I saw this car last year in Donington and it stands out, beautiful! Anyway, Magnussen made his debut and scored a podium on his debut. And that's just about the best thing he's done all his career to date. A fiesty competitor with consistent speed should help Haas score important points this year.
Carlos Sainz was quite capable of matching Verstappen when they both debuted for the Toro Rosso team. A move to Renault did not pan out particularly well as most of the attention was already focussed on Hulkenberg. A move to McLaren should help him settle down and be properly supported and we hope he will help McLaren move up the grid.
Lando Norris will be making his debut for McLaren in 2019. An impressive lower category campaigns means much is expected from the young Briton, but that's been said about previous McLaren debutants - here's the next Lewis... oh, oh dear.
Sergio Perez debuted for Sauber in 2011 and impressed with his Pirelli tyre management. In 2012, he scored 3 podiums and could have won the Malaysian GP had he not run wide near the end of the race. An ill-timed move to McLaren, who inexplicably started to decline, nearly destroyed Checo's career, but impressive podium finishes at Force India remind us that in a chaotic races, Perez seems to crop up on the podium more often than not (sorry Nico Hulkenberg!)
Lance was thrusted into a Williams in the most part thanks to his father's wealth, but he was the reigning F3 champion, so he was no Jean-Denis Delatraz. There were races where he really struggled, but there were a few occasions where he shone. Good at picking his way through at starts, this season should be the first indicator in a good midfield car as to what Stroll can produce, after a couple of years of experience with Williams. I predict he may turn out to surprise a few people this year.
By far the oldest model in my collection, Kimi Raikkonen remains in F1 in 2019 after years of talk about him retiring, yet he has a two year contract with Saub... Alfa Romeo, the team that promoted a young 20 year old, who had only done 23 car races at the time and some doubted he should be in F1. He finished 6th in his first race in the points. Well he did well enough to earn a McLaren drive in 2002, challenging for the 2005 championship. He took an somewhat unlikely and fortuitous championship win with Ferrari in 2007. Paid to leave Ferrari after 2009, Raikkonen took up rallying for a few years before returning with Lotus (it was called Lotus by then) in 2012 next to Grosjean. 2018 showed signs he still had it, sometimes beating Vettel at weekends, earning one pole position and one win at the USA GP. Now he will lead the Alfa Romeo charge (if he is motivated), and I wouldn't be surprised if we saw him back on the podium at some stage this year.
Giovinazzi's debut was at the 2017 Australian GP when Wehrlein was sidelined with an injury. He impressed at that race, but two crashes at the following Chinese GP weekend took the shine off his reputation a little. We should be able to see how the Ferrari young driver improves as the season goes on next to a steady Raikkonen.
This is Kvyat's third debut for Toro Rosso, not counting his one-off performances for the team. Thrusted into the Red Bull seat before he was ready was damaging, and a shadow of his potential was present in his second run at Toro Rosso. After a year behind the scenes at Ferrari, Kvyat deservedly gets another crack at F1, and I feel confident we will see a much more mature and better performing Russian this time around.
Alex will make his debut this weekend after some impressive performances in F2 last season. Signs in testing shows he has some speed provided the Toro Rosso gets developed this year.
Reigning F2 champion, Russell is a Mercedes Young Driver who is a genuinely exciting prospect. Let's hope the Williams is not so poor that it damages his reputation.
Kubica replaced 1997 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve at BMW Sauber at the Hungarian GP back in 2006. He was scored his only victory to date at the 2008 Canadian GP and was at the time within contention for the Championship, but BMW decided to stop development of the car very early. A move to Renault saw flashes of brilliance. He was lucky to get away with a huge crash at the 2007 Canadian GP, and arguably was lucky to still be alive following a rally crash in 2010. Whilst many would have given up with motorsport, somehow, Kubica has worked his way back into F1 through sheer hard work and determination. A true feel good story, but one that could be marred by a bad Williams car. Let's hope not.
It was announced last week that the Sauber name will depart from the sport for the first time since 1993. It's sad to see the heritage of the name be completely replaced by Alfa Romeo, as welcome as they were was when it was introduced for the 2018 season. Even through the BMW days when the team was entirely owned by the manufacturer, they were still called BMW Sauber. So I for one will be sad to see the name go. But here is a reminder of one of the more eventful seasons of their history.
Background
Following an impressive debut season, the 1994 season would again see Sauber challenge for the lower points scoring positions. After a huge accident at Monaco to Karl Wendlinger, the race after that weekend at Imola, the team developed higher cockpit sides to protect their driver. This development would be mandatory from the 1996 season. Andrea De Cesaris would fill his seat from the Canadian GP onwards, his 200th GP, but Wendlinger was due to come back for the final two GP's but that did not go ahead. The team tried to contact De Cesaris, but were unable to get a hold of him on holiday, so JJ Lehto who drove for them in 1993, freshly dropped by Benetton, filled the seat and De Cesaris retired. The team finished 8th in the Constructors' title.
Heinz-Harold Frentzen drove the entire season for the team, his debut year. He had a fan in Frank Williams early on, with reports he was going to be called up to Williams after Senna's tragic death, but the German decided to stay with Sauber, earning a Williams seat in 1997.
1994 saw the team run Mercedes-Benz engines, though they were rebadged Ilmor engines, but they received full manufacturer backing, harking back to their successful sports car partnership earlier that decade. However it only lasted for one season, with McLaren snatching the deal from 1995 through to 2009 when Mercedes became a full constructor once more, and I'd say they're doing pretty well.
The car started the season with Broker sponsorship, and ran a black livery very similar to their 1993, except for silver endplates front and rear. The shape itself is a bit basic, it's recognizable enough, but at the same time it's not particularly accurate either. Score 4/10
Onyx 193B
When De Cesaris arrived from Jordan to run for the team at the Canadian Grand Prix, his 200th race, Sauber celebrated with this one off livery. The nice livery bumps up the score from the early season version. Score 5/10
Onyx 194B
By the French Grand Prix, the Broker logos were replaced by Tissot ones and at the German Grand Prix, this lovely livery with white spots and a large watch in front of the driver ran till the end of the season. The only thing to note is the lack of change in the shape from Onyx, as was common at that time. Score 4/10
Minichamps released their own version of the three liveries seen that year. The shape of the car is an improvement on the Onyx shape, much closer to the real thing. Score 6/10
Minichamps 430940129
At the Canadian Grand Prix, Sauber introduced their raised cockpit sides solution - still in bare carbon fibre at that time. Minichamps at least made an effort to add this to their model. Score 7/10
Minichamps 430940229
Minichamps also released their updated cockpit sides with the late season livery, specifically from the German GP. However there are no further changes to the shape inline with the regulations from that part of the season. The late season Sauber also had barge boards and rounded sidepods along the top edge, rather than the indent they ran on the early season car - but again this is not reflected in this model. We also don't have a release with Lehto in the car. Score 6/10
BBR released both versions of the Sauber, with correct shapes for both parts of the season. There's a nicely built version of the late season car in this link: https://www.racingdioramics.us/1994_Sauber.html
The BBR version, is in my opinion, the nicest of the lot. Score 9/10
Tameo have also released their version of the late season shape, pictured here in the De Cesaris Canadian GP livery. The Tameo kits are always of the highest standard, but I think the BBR car just edges it for me in its resemblance to the real car. Score 8/10
