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: 2024 Red Bull RB20 Launch Car Released

It's the day before pre-season testing for the 2024 F1 Season and I have a little gift for you.  

I proudly share with you the first 2024 car to be released in GP4...

Nope, this is no joke, I really do have a brand new 2024 car for you to download and enjoy in GP4. 

Whilst the car was only launched a few days ago, there was, albeit briefly, an augmented reality version of the car available on the team's website. I was able to use this car as a base for my own work. It wouldn't have been possible to create this so quickly without it and with so much mystery still behind what Red Bull have created for 2024. 

I have a hunch that this version of the car will change, perhaps quite dramatically, through the season, so I'm sharing this as the launch specification, whilst it is still relevant. Whilst it seems like most cars on the grid converged upon the dominant 2023 Red Bull RB19, Adrian Newey had other ideas and moved the goalposts once again. If rumours are to be believed, this car will adopt a Mercedes (now abandoned) zero-pod concept, along with the engine cover 'cannons'. As impressive as this car looks out of the box, our hope must be for a closer championship than we've seen in the last two seasons. 

If the car does change, then at least I have a good base to start making some changes to the shape. Because of that, I've not created any lower lods for this car yet. You'll notice that the preview shots below reveal Max Verstappen's 2024 helmet, which is little changed from his 2023 Italian GP lid. Work has begun on the 2024 helmet set, but drivers have been known to change designs before the first race, so I'm not in too much of a rush just in case my efforts turn out to be in vain. 

As I said above, I'm only able to share this car quickly with you because I had a very good base to begin with, so don't expect any other 2024 cars by me until later this year. Anyway, here's the download link for the 2024 Red Bull RB20. Happy racing!

GP4: 2022/23 Red Bull RB18 download

As the new 2023 season rolls in, I'm happy to share with you a new car, it's the Red Bull RB18. 

2022 Red Bull RB18 by Fongu

 

This car was the class of the field for 2022, earning the team's first Constructors Championship since 2013, and with Max earning his second successive Drivers title. This of course was the first year of the new rules with ground effect aerodynamics returning to the cars. Whilst many teams struggled with bouncing and porpoising, Red Bull's car didn't suffer as much as its rivals did. Whilst Ferrari seemed to be the car to beat in the early rounds, it was Newey's Red Bull that would prove to be a better all round solution, and by mid-season was well ahead. This was no more evident than at the Belgian GP, where Max started the race in 14th place and still came home to a comfortable victory. 

This is quite a basic car compared to my other releases, but still looks great ingame to me. 

For the 2023 season, Red Bull tried to pass off the RB18 as their new car as they launched their new livery. Most people saw through that but hte RB19 that showed up in testing was a clear evolution from its successful predecessor. So with this release, you get the option to run the 2023 livery on this car as well.

2023 Red Bull livery by Fongu

At the launch, Red Bull announced a new partnership with Ford for the 2026 season, as it's own Red Bull Power Trains operation comes online, after much help from Honda in setting it all up. Until then, we see the return of the Honda name on the car, who can't help but put their name with all the success the team are achieving right now, and rightly so. 

You'll notice I have 2023 helmets for the Red Bull drivers completed in these screenshots, I am making good progress on that front and expect some releases on that front soon. 

Until then, I hope you enjoy this car. Happy racing. 

GP4: Verstappen's Dutch GP helmet added

 Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen 2022 Dutch GP helmet

Max is going to run a helmet based on his father's (Joss the Boss) design. Max wanted to honour all the hard work Jos put in when he was a kid that culminated in him becoming World Champion last season. The colours are much brighter compared to his dad's helmet and it looks great with Max's lion on the top. 

Thankfully it was quite a quick design to recreate, and I couldn't wait to share it with you. Knowing my luck, he'll not run it in the race. 

Thanks as ever to Jvinu's Schuberth helmet shape and template, without which my work would not be possible.  

Download Link | (mirror)

Over on Race Department, Vullracer has now fully converted my helmets to Assetto Corsa, now with proper map files, and you can download them now https://www.racedepartment.com

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. 

(mirror)

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. 

(mirror)

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. 

(mirror)

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. 

(mirror)

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. 
(mirror)

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. 

(mirror)

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: Max Verstappen 2021 Dutch GP Helmet added

 Max Verstappen 2021 Dutch GP Helmet

Sorry this one took a while to complete, I had the base colours done for a while, but it was the brush strokes and paint splatters that took the time, I didn't want it to be random but as close to the original as I could get it. 

On the design, Max said: 'I went for the traditional Dutch colours, a lot more red white and blue, a lot more details to it... it looks like somoene was actually painting my helmet rather than just spraying it'

Almost every layer has been touched up for this version from previous versions of his helmet, and all in all it took a fair few hours to get it just right. But finally it's complete and available for you to download and play with. 

Max wears helmets by Schuberth, and it's on Jvinu's shape and template this is painted on. 

Download Link | (mirror)

GP4: Max Verstappen 2021 Belgian GP Helmet

 

Max Versttapen 2021 Belgian GP Helmet

Max is running his second special helmet of the year, this one for his maternal home country, running various shades of orange. It looks really distinctive in the car, and it looks great with all the reflections in game. According to Max, this is the 'coolest one' of all his home gp lids so far. 

Hope you like it. Thanks to Jvinu for his Schuberth helmet shape and template on which this is based.

The Max Verstappen special helmets pack now includes this helmet and his Styrian/Austrian GP helmet too. 

Download Link | (mirror)

I did see an alternative version created for AC by ispano6, which is compatible with this GP4 version if you convert the textures. It offers a different treatment of the alpha channels, and the underlying pattern has a different approach too. The links below if you're interested.

RaceDepartment

GP4: Sergio Perez 2021 Styrian GP Helmet

I present the second Red Bull driver's special helmet for the Styrian GP. It seems like the drivers have done a colour swap for this race, with Max taking on Checo's usual day glo yellow, and Sergio taking on the red and white of Max's usual colours. 

Max's insight was dreadful, so let's see if Checo's video is any better. 

"We wanted to make it a bit Austrian, with the leather effect, in the colours. We maintain the Mexican flag on top, the Aztec colours/signals on the side... I really like it"

Much better! 

I learnt some new techniques along the way, getting a good leather and stitching effect as you can see below. It's one of those where you need to zoom in to really appreciate it.

Sometimes I do a bit of work on the alpha channels, but again you never really see them unless you deliberately look. Here's what Checo's looks like, the mix of leather stitching and the glowing Aztec/Mayan patterns. 

Once again I'm indebted to Jvinu for his fabulous Schuberth helmet and template, and a mention to Jsoria who created all the standard helmets very early on in the season, which certainly helped speed things up in lining things up.

Download | (mirror link)