GP4: F1 2024 mod v1.7 Christmas update - 2024 cars by fongu

I've got a special release this Christmas, and it comes in the form of the 2024 F1 mod update. 

I know, the last update was only yesterday and it seemed pretty complete, and it is. But this is Christmas, and I'm in a generous mood!

At the beginning of the season, I released the Red Bull RB20, but I've only released a handful of other 2024 cars since then, the McLaren and then the Sauber. 

For this festive season, I want to share with you every car I've made for 2024... and that is every car on the 2024 grid, with a heap of special liveries and track specific logo updates. I couldn't have done it alone, my thanks to GM25, Excalibur (Ferrari) and Paulo Derpich (updates to McLaren and Red Bull) for helping along in this process. 

I'm very appreciative of all the GP4 authors, and in no way do I want to replace any of the existing works already in the mod. But you can run none of my cars, you can run only my cars, or you can mix and match; this mod enables you to select each car author in the CSM menu, giving you hundreds of variations you can try, much like in my 2011 mod. 

Here's a quick preview of what you will get in this update:

Alpine A524

2024 Alpine A524 by fongu for GP4

Alpine ran a number of liveries over the course of the season, tweaking it as the season progressed. The team ran either the pink variant or the blue variant for most Grand Prix. At the final three races of the season, Alpine went 'all pink' with a plain livery. The team also ran two special liveries at the Belgian GP and the USA GP. Both were promotions for the Deadpool vs Wolverine film and the Indiana Jones game. As the livery and logo placements were tweaked through the year, I've attempted to create as many variants as I can. 

Aston Martin AMR24

2024 Aston Martin AMR24 by fongu for GP4

Aston Martin largely ran the same livery and sponsor combinations for most the season, with different partners being featured on the halo at each race (I've not captured all of these minor changes). The team ran additional Aramco colours on their wings at the USA GP, and the last couple of races saw the team run a white rollover hoop. 

2024 Ferrari SF24

2024 Ferrari SF24 by fongu & Excalibur for GP4

Ferrari reintroduced yellow into the main livery to match the endurance racing team, which was a really nice touch. The team gained HP sponsorship from the Miami GP onwards, with a special 'blue' livery ran at the US race. Both Carlos and Leclerc ran slightly different colour halos and car number outlines. The Peroni logo being replaced by Tifosi or Italia in the Middle East races, a nice reminder when the teams in the 1990s were creative with their non-tobacco sponsorship. The Italian GP saw the team celebrate carbon-fibre, and the driver numbers were made black to reflect it. 

This car was created by Excalibur, it's actually his RSCT template car, and I've simply painted on his template and releasing  it now with his blessing. 

Haas VF-24

2024 Haas VF-24 by fongu for GP4

Haas were one of the teams running minimal livery, the car being almost entirely unpainted carbon fibre. For the race in Austin, the team ran a special eagle inspired livery, whilst at the Las Vegas GP, there were more subtle changes made to the car. The team struck a partnership with Toyota Gazoo Racing towards the later half of the year and those liveries have been created for this mod. 

Mercedes F1 W15 E Performance

2024 Mercedes F1 W15 E Performance by fongu for GP4

The Mercedes have flicked between all silver or all black in recent years, and this year saw them run both. The red from the Ineos branding remains a constant, with the blue from Petronas becoming more prominent as the season progressed. The only proper special livery was at the Singapore GP where the silver and blue parts of the livery swapped to celebrate Petronas.

Red Bull RB20

2024 Red Bull RB20 by fongu for GP4

Whilst the opening rounds suggested the season may be a foregone conclusion, the team struggled to make the car competitive at every race. It meant that planned special liveries were cancelled except for the British GP where they ran a 'red camo' livery. Thanks again goes to Paulo Derpich for creating some of the other race variants. 

Sauber C44

2024 Sauber C44 by fongu for GP4

I already released the Sauber in the previous mod update. In this update, I've made the Stake logos a little larger and closer to real life. I've also created the flaming Las Vegas GP livery. As it was a night race, I've decided to emphasise how bright the green looks on occasion. 

RB VCARB 01

2024 VCARB by fongu for GP4

VCARB returned to the brighter blue as seen on the later Toro Rosso cars before they were briefly known as Alpha Tauri. The team ran three special liveries during the season, the first at the Miami GP known as the 'bubblegum' livery. At the Singapore GP, they celebrated denim, with ripped jeans look and a massive zip, (reminding some of the 1999 BAR). Having done a number of denim helmets in recent years, getting the effect and stitching wasn't too difficult. And at the Las Vegas GP, the team went all 'glitter' with another bright design. At the Saudi Arabian GP, the team honoured the female team-members with their names featured on the side of the car. 

Williams FW46

2024 Williams FW46 by fongu for GP4

The 2024 Williams continued to run a couple of shades of blue, but with an added touch of heritage with the red and white stripes for their main livery. The team featured the Duracell bunny on the rollover hoop at the Monaco GP, whilst for the British GP they ran a massive Union Flag (technically it's only called the Union Jack when it's on the seas) with team member names written on it. After Logan Sargeant was dropped, the team were bold to call up Franco Colapinto as his replacement and that brought a number of South American backers to the car. This lead to the return of the yellow engine cover, a nod to the late 1980's/early 1990s liveries. 

McLaren MCL38

2024 McLaren MCL38 by fongu for GP4

There's nothing new from me on the McLaren in this update, but Paulo Derpich has complated the late season sponsor merry-go-round and the Mastercard logos becoming more and more prominent with every race. Thanks to him for his hard work making sure every race is accurately represented. Thankfully for me, there's no new special liveries since my release of this car, but for completeness, I wanted to show them off again here. Congratulations to the McLaren team for securing the Constructors' Championship for the first time since 1998. 

Phew, that concludes one of my most ambitious projects I've ever taken on for a current F1 season, along with the entire grid of helmets and a selection of special lids already released, I'm glad to share the complete pack with you on this special day, I hope you enjoy racing these cars with their various liveries through the season. 

Installation Notes

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

• Download both the 2024 CSM mod updates below

CSM update - 2024 CMU24 update 8 v1.7
CSM update - 2024 CMU24 update 9 v1.7
CSM update - 2024 CMU24 update 10 v1.7b

• Open CSM
• File | Install new carset template | select F1_2024_CMU24_update8_v1.7.cmu
• File | Install new carset template | select F1_2024_CMU24_update9_v1.7.cmu
• File | Install new carset template | select F1_2024_CMU24_update10_v1.7b.cmu

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Below are some screenshots of the cars in GP4 at the Singapore GP, which featured a number of special liveries. 

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: More special helmets & Aston Martin AMR21 updated

I have another batch of helmets for you, as we head towards the closing stages of the 2021 season.

US GP

Valterri Bottas

2021 Valterri Bottas US GP Helmet

Valterri Bottas has run a few one-off designs this year designed by his girlfriend. This one is based on a mural in Austin, so thankfully there were lots of good photos of the original mural that I could use for this helmet. There's a F1 car behind the visor that I didn't know what it was, so there is a lovely artist impression of one of Botta's former Mercedes chargers. 

I quite like this helmet, and I'm quite pleased with how this has turned out on the Stilo helmet shape by Jvinu. I had hoped to have his Brazilian GP lid done for this update, but I need a bit more time to finish it off, but you'll get it soon. 

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Mexican GP

Yuki Tsunoda

2021 Yuki Tsunoda Mexican GP Helmet

Yuki Tsunoda has an amended helmet design which he'll be using until the end of the year. It comes in two versions, the brighter yellow on an orange background, and the flip reverse of that. I personally prefer this yellower version as the other one is pretty indistinguishable from Gasly's helmet, particularly from a distance. It's a shame Tsunoda's race ended so early on what was a promising weekend for him. Instead, he racked up another costly repair bill for the team. 

The link is below...

Brazilian GP

Yuki Tsunoda

2021 Yuki Tsunoda Brazilian GP Helmet

Here is the said helmet from Brazil with reversed colours. He used this again in Qatar, but at least there, he was running at the opposite end of the grid to Pierre. Both of Tsunoda's helmets are painted on the Arai helmet shape. 

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Qatar GP

There were three new sparkly helmets in this night race. 

For the sake of not putting any publicity towards political issues, the Mercedes driver's helmet has been updated and is included in the season pack. 

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Pierre Gasly

2021 Pierre Gasly Qatar GP Helmet

Pierre Gasly has gold stickers on his standard helmet, with shiny stickers of his logo and number and a an extra sparkly number 10 on top of his helmet. Gasly uses the Bell helmet, as do the majority of drivers on the grid. 

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Daniel Ricciardo

2021 Daniel Ricciardo Qatar GP Helmet

Daniel Ricciardo used a chrome version of his helmet. It basically meant I had to design his helmet from scratch, but make the base colours darker, to make the chrome effect work best in-game. There are minor, very subtle changes from his usual helmet, but I'm quite pleased with how this turned out in game. 

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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: Russian GP Updates - Mazepin, Williams, Aston Martin & Mercedes

Helmets: Nikita Mazepin

Just the one helmet to update from the Russian GP (Vettel used his Styrian GP lid again), and it's the first home race for Nikita Mazepin.

Nikita Mazepin 2021 Russian GP Helmet

His helmet is now turned from dayglo red to the colours of the Russian flag, with gold trim. It features names of all the medalists who competed under ROC from the Olympics and the Paralympics. There's also a gold Haas medal at the front. Mazepin uses a Bell helmet, and  I'm ever grateful for Jvinu's Bell helmet and template which is a pleasure to paint on.

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GP4: 2021 Mercedes-AMG F1 W12 E-Performance - Download

 
This is a mouthful, the Mercedes-AMG F1 W12 E Performance, or the 2021 Merc for GP4 by me. I know Isaint has already released his version, which is the 2021 livery painted on a lightly amended 2020 car, but with the similarities to the Aston Martin car, this car was developed. This is again the early season specification of the car shape, and they have run the same livery all year, probably frightened to do any special liveries at all after Germany 2019. 

Ironically, this is my least favourite Mercedes livery from the past decade, there's nothing particularly striking about it, whereas in the past, there was at least some interest, but the silver 'shark fin' just isn't my cup of tea. But on the livery side, I employed the same metallic effect on the silver as I did on the Aston.

I tried to put some nice details in there, like the front wheel hub, around the diffuser area and rear suspension/brake ducts. As is typical for me, the detail I put in is all hidden away by dark carbon textures. 

GP4: Valterri Bottas Helmet - 2021 Monaco GP

Phew, this was not an easy helmet to create, and unlike Latifi's helmet which had loads of high resolution photos to go off, I had to recreate it from not many sources. But considering I only really started using Photoshop late last year, I've gotten better at using more and more tools as I create these helmets, this pushed me to use all those techniques and tricks more than any other so far. 

Designed by Valterri's girlfriend, Tiffany Cromwell, this helmet features blue quite prominently with a pop art style representation of Monaco. It took me a while, but most of the pop art quotes I could track down to two authors, but I did have to create some of them myself. Final touches with splatters of paint around the helmet just add to the final effect. It's a shame most pictures I could find were from quite dull shots indoors, so there's probably more detail in there that I might have missed, but overall, I'm happy with the result. 

I'm glad to paint on a different helmet shape after all the Bell helmets, this on the Stilo helmet and template by Jvinu. 

Download | (mirror link)

Well, from what I can see, there's one more Monaco helmet to go. Here's hoping there's not many at Baku. I notice that Leclerc has been using his Portuguese GP helmet regularly now, which I personally prefer. 

GP4: Lewis Hamilton Helmet - 2021 Bahrain GP

 Here's another race specific helmet, it's Lewis Hamilton's race winning Bahrain GP helmet.

The helmet is once again painted on Jvinu's Bell helmet, using his template. I also loosely based the contours off Jsoria's 2021 helmet too, so thanks to both of these great artists. 

The motivation for this was the sparkling white/silver parts, once again playing with alpha channels to maximise that effect in GP4. Also the helmet Lewis used had a more bluish purple than his regular helmet, and that also has some sparkle effect in. 

Download | (mirror link)

I will get back to car modding soon. 

1/43 2019 Bburago Models

Bburago continue to produce their low-budget models/toys, a strange blend of detail and the ability to play with it without hurting yourself or your child eating any bits off it. Adding to the Ferrari cars, comes the Mercedes and the Red Bull versions. As much as I critique models on this blog, I'm glad there's a variety of detail, and more importantly budget. It's not like Bburago have the monopoly to make models of these cars, so I'm all for that. 

2019 Mercedes W11

Bburago BU38036-BOT

First up, we have the Mercedes. Ignoring that the front wing is drooping down at the front edge, they've done a great job in capturing the essence of the W11 shape, from the rounded nose tip, the cape, the high front suspension, the bargeboards and sidepod opening, a great halo and rear wing. There are dimples all over it, on the rear wing endplates, bargeboards, and floor owing to some of the detail on the real cars.

The nose horns have been trimmed and the mirrors point in a slightly random upward position. On this particular model, the engine cover doesn't seem to be on properly, but that's just this particular Bottas model rather than a common issue, as you can see on the Hamilton version below, it fits much better.

I like what they've done with the rear end. They play to their strengths, in that the detailed areas are in dark carbon, so you can't really see the detail on the real car as it's zooming by on your screens, but the general shape is excellently done on the bargeboards and the floor. 

Bburago BU38036-HAM

What impresses me most is the livery, I really like it and it elevates the whole model for me. Thinking back to the mid-90s when I was buying budget Onyx models, with their decals peeling off, the comparatively simple liveries applied wonkily, these liveries have a precision about them that impresses me. My slight nit-pick is that they could have painted the inside of the airbox black. 

Score: 6/10 

2019 Red Bull RB15

Bburago BU38139-VERS

The Red Bulls have tended to start the year with relatively simple and uncomplicated aerodynamics, but compare that to the end of the season, it's usually very highly developed. And that trend is true in its performance, in general, they are more competitive at the end of the year, sneaking a few victories along the way, and 2019 was no exception. And so this model looks a lot more basic than the Ferrari and Mercedes models. Couple that with the dark matte finish, this looks the most toy-like of the three.  

Bburago BU38050

That's not to say that the car doesn't share some of the things I like about the Ferrari and Mercedes. The car has a good front wing, its unique nose, the little S duct outlet at the top of the monocoque, the boomerang on the bargeboards, and a nice rear end. Again the decals look great, nicely detailed, accurate, well applied. 

Score: 6/10