GP4: 1995 Benetton B195 by David Marques & Fongu

I'm really excited to share with you this new car package, created in partnership with David Marques, for the 1995 season. It's a brand new Benetton B195 Renault that took Michael Schumacher to his second World Championship, in dominant fashion, and brought home the Constructors' Championship to Enstone for the first time. 

After a tumultuous 1994 season, Benetton proved they were a Championship winning team, without the cloud of scandal and cheating hanging over them. For a number of years, Schumacher had shown signs of his generational talent, and it was on full display during a 1995 season when he did not always have the best car. In a genius move, Briatore had bought the Ligier team in 1994, which secured him the lucrative Renault engine contracts, which he duly put in the Benetton. 

Johnny Herbert  had a less happy time, as he and Flavio simply did not get on. However, the season still produced two wins for the Brit, but neither he, nor Alesi or Berger when they tested the car post season, were able to exploit the pace out of the Benetton that Schumacher was. 

1995 Benetton B195 by David Marques and fongu

Similar to the 1994 Benetton that I created a year prior, I was able to use the Codemasters F1 2020 as a template to make this car, ensuring I had good accuracy and detail to emulate. I was able to create this car using my own skills and modelling preferences that I have acquired over the years. Having such a good reference really does help speed things up when modelling, but be sure to know that no parts of the Codemasters car is on this car, this is 100% my car shape. Similar to the 1995 Ferrari which I made a few years back (also with David Marques), I've tried to keep this car simple rather than spending too much time on the finer details, as I would do for the 1994 cars, however it still holds up in terms of quality. 

Included are a number of shape changes as you progress through the season. The early season car started with a bendy edges to the front wing, the additional part of the rear of the airbox, and rectangular barge boards. The front wing became a more conventional flat shape for the later part of the season, along with a conventional smooth engine cover, whilst the bargeboards developed in shape, something they would keep for 1996 and 1997. There are also low downforce configurations for both the front and rear wings and hopefully all of these changes are captured in the release poster for the car above. 

Whilst I did a very early draft of the livery, the main credits for the textures goes to David Marques in providing the textures and logos for the whole season. He was able to fix my terrible attempt at mapping and has done a great job in making the car look as great as it does. 

1995 Benetton B195 by David Marques and fongu

Now before you get too excited about the rate at which I've been releasing cars of late, it's worth saying that the car took over a month to build, and I did about a year ago. The development of the car lay dormant for a long time until David Marques helped me to progress this project. It's probably of no surprise to you that the next car is not too far away, that being the 1995 Ligier, which on the outside, really resembles the B195. There are subtle differences and they did go in some different development paths, but more on that when that car is released. But to try and temper your expectations, after that release, don't expect the same rate of releases of more 1990s cars. 

As with the 1997 Jordan released recently, this is a joint F1C '99-02 community and GP4 release. You can see how this car looks in that game, as well as downloading this car for F1C's 1995 mod here: https://wookey.forumotion.com/t1265-f1-1995-season

Whilst I admire and envy the editability that F1 Challenge game, I do think, albeit I am quite biased, that the cars do look better in GP4 overall. In parts, I wish GP4 had a similarly deep repository of mods. But I'm glad, as always, that my work benefits not just the one game, but is being ported and used in other games.

1995 Benetton B195 by David Marques and fongu

Back in the world of Grand Prix 4, at the moment, you will receive the car as a stand-alone package, but I do intend to include it as a 1995 mod update in the near future. I want to at least use a more up to date helmet shape for this Benetton and upgrade the helmet textures for Schumi and Johnny. Anyway, until then, enjoy this car. 

Happy racing!

GP4: 1997 Jordan Peugeot by David Marques & fongu available for download

I proudly share with you a collaborative work by David Marques from the F1 Challenge 99/02 community and myself. 

This car is available for Grand Prix 4 (below), and it is also released for F1C 99/02 available here: https://wookey.forumotion.com/t1267-f1-1997-season. Check out page 3 of that thread on the forum for some nice screenshots to compare it with GP4's version. 

The original F1C car has been tinkered with over the years by various people, and David Marques had started adding parts of my 1996 Jordan 196 car to it. In the end I created a new chassis to go with the wings, suspension and cockpit from David's update and this is the final result. 

The car comes in three main configurations centred around the sidepods: 

1. the launch car with the shorter sidepod inlets and rear fin/sidepod winglets.
2. the mid season car with amended rear sidepods and updated rear fin/sidepod winglets. 
3. the end of season car with the front of the sidepods elongated with more square inlets. 

There are more front and rear wing configurations, the nose winglets on the low downforce car as well.

1997 Jordan 197 for GP4 by David Marques & fongu

You may remember that this is not the first time I've attempted this livery, you may remember the tribute livery I tried for the Time Trial League a few years back: https://fongugp4.blogspot.com/2022/02/2022-time-trial-league-car-team-fongu.html. So for this project I was keen to be on Sid the snake painting duties, the rest of the paint work was done by David Marques, including all the shadows and fine tuning parts of the 3D model, like adding 3D bolts. All 17 liveries have been faithfully created and you can track the livery updates as the season progresses, with the many sponsors coming and going, the change in sidepod to the scales and the various changes to Sid the snake. 

1997 Jordan 197 for GP4 by David Marques & fongu

It was a pleasure to work with David Marques on the 1995 Ferrari 412 T2, and it's proved a delight to be able to work with him on this project too. There's one more planned collaboration with him that we hope to share with you soon, but until then, I hope you enjoy this new addition to the 1997 grid. 

GP4: 2022 Helmets pack complete!

Here it is, the final update to the 2022 pack. 

As is now customary, over half of the grid raced with special helmet designs in Abu Dhabi, especially those who are not returning to the grid next season. I've created 13 more helmets. For one last time this season, let's get into it.

Alex Albon  2022 Abu Dhabi GP helmet

Alex Albon has replaced the white regions of his standard helmet with a chrome effect. The helmet itself is a simplified version of his standard helmet. In most pictures, there was a slight red tinge to the chromed reflections, so I've added a bit of red hint to some areas. The helmet also features Latifi's name, in honour of his last race. 

Fernando Alonso 2022 Abu Dhabi GP helmet

It was a bit of a surprise that old rival Fernando Alonso was so sentinmental at Vettel's last race. He decided against fighting him in the first few laps of the race whilst also running this tribute helmet. He will replace the German at Aston Martin next year. The helmet is still largely title sponsor BWT influenced, but the German flag strip across the front is simple and iconic. 

Pierre Gasly  2022 Abu Dhabi GP helmet

Pierre Gasly is not only ending his time with Alpha Tauri but also the Red Bull family, and so this helmet is half his old Red Bull helmet and this season's Alpha Tauri helmet. There are messages of thanks in various languages. 

Lewis Hamilton 2022 Abu Dhabi GP helmet

Lewis Hamilton ran another variation of his helmet with the rainbow flag at the Abu Dhabi GP. 

Nicholas Latifi 2022 Abu Dhabi GP helmet

It's not really a new helmet for Latifi, but with a message to Seb, and the new Williams visor since Interlagos made this a quick job. 

Charles Leclerc 2022 Abu Dhabi GP helmet

Charles Leclerc has also gone chrome, with silver and red chrome. But this helmet is a tribute to all those working at Gestione Sportiva and trackside, with all their names printed on the Italian flag across the front, top and rear of his helmet. There were some angles where the names weren't clear in the pictures and blueprints I had, so there may be some alternative names on there. 

Kevin Magnussen  2022 Abu Dhabi GP helmet

Kevin Magnussen has a lightly altered helmet from the one that he ran since the Monaco GP, but for the Abu Dhabi GP, he's also gone with a full on chrome effect, and the K on the side of his helmet is now white instead of red. 

Lando Norris 2022 Abu Dhabi GP helmet

Lando also ran a new lid with a glittery green/purplish tones. Not much was made of the helmet online that I could see, but it looks nice anyway. 

Daniel Ricciardo 2022 Abu Dhabi GP helmet

Daniel Ricciardo was another driver who would not have a full time drive on the 2023 grid. His final helmet with McLaren is given to sponsor OKX and has been cyberpunked. The livery is based on his standard livery by Ornamental Conifer, and MDM Designs has done a lovely job putting all that together in this shiny number. 

Carlos Sainz 2022 Abu Dhabi GP helmet

As last year, Carlos ran a glittery version of his standard helmet at the Yas Marina circuit. 

Mick Schumacher 2022 Abu Dhabi GP helmet

Mick Schumacher doesn't currently have another F1 drive lined up for 2023, but instead of running his own helmet design, he dedicate his final helmet to Seb's design, which Seb stole off Mick's dad to be fair. Mick's regular design is embossed into the helmet, similar to his Japanese helmet. He'll be missed.

Sebastian Vettel  2022 Abu Dhabi GP helmet

Seb Vettel went from pantomine villian at Red Bull, to a bit of an embarressing flop at Ferrari towards the end, to being the most likeable, kind and mature driver on the grid in his Aston Martin days. Everyone was overflowing with their tributes to his last drive and his helmet was about giving back. Dubbed 'the Final Lap', he let fans buy places on his helmet, with the proceeds going to environmental projects. A great driver leaves the grid. 

Zhou Guanyu 2022 Abu Dhabi GP helmet

Whilst it was probably fitting to leave Seb's helmet last, I've decided to mostly stick to alphabetical order for this post, so that leaves Zhou's helmet, which is actually the final helmet I painted for the 2022 season and so it's fitting it belongs here. Inspired by vintage Chinese ornamental floral patterns, the patterns already exist on his standard helmet at the top and around the bottom, but this helmet extends that design all the way around the helmet. Very nice design from KV Designs. The pattern was painted from scratch, so it took a bit of time, but I like the result.

GP4: 2022 Mexican and Sao Paulo helmets

Hey there race fans. Today I present to you various helmets from the last two races in Mexico and Sao Paulo (I still can't stop calling it the Brazilian GP). There are 10 new designs to show you and one variant added to the 2022 helmet pack. 

Sebastian Vettel - Mexican GP

Sebastian Vettel 2022 Mexican GP helmet

It was a real loss to that the world now that we are without Dietrich Mateschitz. He has done so much good without flaunting it or seeking business wealth, and that is no more evident than his contributions to F1. He did it for the love of it, and for sure F1 would be in much more dire circumstances without him. Seb dedicated this whole helmet to his memory, and based the design on his first helmet when he was signed as a Red Bull junior back in 1998, complete with Red Bull logos and the text replaced with 'Danke Didi'. As most juniors had essentially the same design back in the day, this helmet in a green Aston did bring back memories of Klien in a green Jaguar. 

Max Verstappen - Mexican & Sao Paulo GP

Max Verstappen 2022 World Champion helmet

Having clinched his second Championship early, Max has decided to wear a gold based helmet for the rest of the season. In Mexico, the helmet was gold-plated, whilst in Brazil it was chrome gold. Basically the Brazilian version was super shiny and both versions of the helmet are included in this pack, with the differences in the alpha channel.The Mexico edition features real 22-karat gold leaf, the real one not mine! 

Lando Norris - Mexican GP

Lando Norris 2022 Mexican GP helmet

Norris basically got someone to vandalise his helmet with spray paint. That person was artist Jimmy Pierce.

Sergio Perez - Mexican GP

Sergio Perez 2022 Mexican GP helmet

Checo says this is the most Mexican helmet he's ever done with this luchador-style helmet with el Día de los Muertos inspired skull at the front, and various Papel Picado designs. A lovely livery from MDM Designs. 

GP4: 2022 US GP Helmets (part 2)

It was really no surprise that there were so many speical helmets at the US GP in Austin, Texas, with 10 drivers that I could find running a different lid. I've already released two, and now I'm pleased to show you the rest of them that I have recreated.

Charles Leclerc

Charles Leclerc 2022 US GP helmet

Leclerc has a barbeque themed helmet, that's similar to his Monaco GP helmet with the red top and white bottom. 

Daniel Ricciardo

Daniel Ricciardo 2022 US GP helmet

Ricciardo's helmet is inspired by Will Ferrell's film, 'Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby'. A nice special design, by JMD helmets. 

Esteban Ocon

Esteban Ocon 2022 US GP helmet

Esteban Ocon came with this simple yet instantly recognisable Spiderman design. According to Esteban, the US is the land of superheroes. It got better when Alpine recreated the Spiderman meme with the helmet.

Lance Stroll

Lance Stroll 2022 US GP helmet

Lance Stroll wore this leather saddle based design, with the Aston Martin wings having the appearance of leather stitched onto a camel leather base. I like how the colour of the stitching highlights the strip along the top. A nice fun helmet. 

Sebastian Vettel

Sebastian Vettel 2022 US GP helmet

Well, this helmet by MDM Designs wins the busiest helmet of the year, with a hippy based vibe to it, and peace and love worked in seamlessly in glittery gold. As you can imagine, this took a while to make, but I'm pleased with how it turned out. 

Nicholas Latifi

Nicholas Latifi 2022 US GP helmet

Most blogs and helmet spotters missed Goatifi's special helmet, and to be fair, I only spotted it by accident. It's an amalgamation of his previous two special helmets, the maple syrup one he ran in Montreal and the red version of his helmet he's run since Hungary. 

Zhou Guanyu

Zhou Guanyu 2022 US GP helmet

Zhou's helmet is denim jeans inspired, complete with leather belt and buckle. I really enjoyed making this one, doing the stitching and leather effects to go on top of the denim base. A nice design from KV helmet designs.

Mick Schumacher

Mick Schumacher 2022 US GP helmet

Mick Schumacher created this helmet inspired by his family's ranch with images of his sister, Gina-Marie as a surprise for her. She's an accomplished reining horse rider with several international accomplishments to her name. The images were put onto a sunset backdrop, with the front and top showing a clear night sky, like the ones you see in parts of Texas that are awe inspiring. 

Special thanks to 32bobo32 for helping me find the pictures of Gina-Marie. It's a shame the wing shape has changed and that's exactly where Gina's picture is, but I've tried to make it seamless enough.

As ever, these helmets are painted on Jvinu's templates and shapes, and are ACSPRH compatible.

(mirror)

GP4: 2022 Japanese GP helmets (part 2)

Today, the 2022 season helmet pack has been brough up to date with three new helmets from the Japanese GP. After all the various helmets, I don't think I want to see another Sakura blossom for a long time! Anyway, I'm pleased to present you these three beauties, each with its own charm. It's a good opportunity to talk a little about how I create my helmets, as I use three main techniques. Let's get into it. 

Mick Schumacher

Mick Schumacher 2022 Japanese GP helmet

Agnieszka Wienand is no stranger to hand painting helmets, having done a couple of Vettel specials for the Japanese GP in the past, but it's Mick's turn to have this Sakura blossom themed masterpiece. The helmet was first embossed with Mick's design from this season on top of which the tree and flowers were painted. I hope to have managed to capture both elements in this recreation. Creating the right blue/grey gradient wasn't easy, especially if the gradient has to go over various seams. Then it was a case of drawing the tree trunk and branches, and then I managed to take a few samples of the sakuras painted by Agnieszka and carefully placed them around the helmet. 

Alex Albon

Alex Albon 2022 Japanese GP helmet

Alex has gone pink with this design, this one designed by MDM Designs. The helmet design is essentially the same as his other helmets worn this year, so the contours are already in place. The sakuras were largely taken from the blueprints, but they needed a lot of correction which I have managed to complete seamlessly onto this helmet texture. Having good source material does help reduce the amount of time to produce the helmets, but it takes a bit more care than simply copy and pasting it on. 

Valterri Bottas

Valterri Bottas 2022 Japanese GP helmet

This is another Tiffany Cromwell design, and I really like it. It's inspired by neon lights and signs in front of a blue brick wall. The wall blends in and out of a black base and actually that helped with the seams, it would have been difficult to match the brick definition if it did cross the seams. Then it was creating a neon light effect for the lights, which was fun to do with various stroke and glow effects. Then it was a case of finding the source vector files, and with a bit of searching, they weren't took hard to find. The most difficult was the Japanese writing on the right side of the helmet, which I eventually found to say 'Thank You' and again a stock image was available. Adding a bit of glow behind the neon signs and the helmet is complete. 

These helmets are painted on Jvinu's templates and shapes, and are ACSPRH compatible as usual. 

(mirror)

If you want to see most of the previews of the 100+ helmets I've done for the 2022 season, you can see them here: https://fongugp4.blogspot.com/p/gp4-2022-helmets.html

I see some US helmet specials have already been posted, so I'll be back soon with some more updates.

GP4: Assorted 2022 Italian GP helmets

Here's a bumper helmet release with all bar one of the special new Italian GP helmets available for GP4. It's been hard work trying to get such a large number of helmets together in a relatively short amount of time, but I your appreciate tokens and messages of support.

Valterri Bottas 2022 Italian GP helmet

Valterri Bottas came to Italy with a helmet inspired by the legacy of Alfa Romeo, with the Italian flag visible in every angle, the darker red of the Alfa Romeo brand, and an early version of the badge used from around 1915. There's also nice art work at the back with Farina's championship winning 159 and a more modern, entirely fictious F1 car on the other side. The gold trim is a nice touch from Tiffany Cromwell. 

Zhou Guanyu 2022 Italian GP helmet

The other Alfa Romeo driver, Zhou Guanyu, went for a pizza inspired helmet, with a very subtle cardboard texture with the lines of his usual helmet design with various drips, both sides of the helmet being different. The Monza pizza at the back is a nice touch from KV Designs. 

Charles Leclerc 2022 Italian GP helmet

Ferrari turned yellow for the Italian GP, which is in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Monza Circuit. Other than red, yellow is the secondary colour of Ferrari, which is taken from the flag of Modena. Adrien Paviot adapted the yellow into the design with various black lines, along with the large 75 years of Ferrari's first production car being produced. Simple, but effective. 

Carlos Sainz Jnr 2022 Italian GP helmet

Carlos' helmets are designed by Dave Designs, and they merge the Modena yellow with the Spanish flag and some metallic greys. A very unique design, with the Italian flags having a slight crumpled foil effect. 

Mick Schumacher 2022 Italian GP helmet

Mick Schumacher felt like a change, having run his Miami GP colours every since the fifth race of the year. He intends to run this design as his regular helmet for the next couple of races. Designed with Jens Munser, the helmet design remains the largely same, but with a different pallette, now a less luminous yellow merged with pink. 

Esteban Ocon 2022 Italian GP helmet

Yes, it's another Schumacher helmet, but this is Esteban Ocon's helmet. There are pictures of him karting with Schumacher's red helmet, clearly a long time fan. This helmet is clearly inspired by the Ferrari version of the German driver's helmet, with MS logos exchanged for his own EO logos. I like the way the EO logo is merged into the top design where the MS logo would have been under the 7 stars. The logos are nicely worked into this retro design, with Schumacher senior's Italian GP victories commemorated on the rear. 

Sebastian Vettel 2022 Italian GP helmet

Sebastian Vettel, the ex-Ferrari driver, raced his final Italian GP and has fond memories of his first victory at the track, not in the Italian Ferrari team, but at the Italian based Scuderia Toro Rosso team back in 2008. Simple, yet effective celebration of many happy years of the Monza circuit. 

Nyck De Vries 2022 helmet

Nyck De Vries, the outgoing Formula E champion, has the benefit of having driven three different 2022 F1 cars. His third was in FP1 for the Aston Martin team, which he did a great job at on the Friday. But on Saturday, Albon was taken ill (get well soon Alex) and Nyck, who is the official reserve shared by Mercedes powered teams, was called back to Williams. And what a weekend he had, qualifying well ahead of his team-mate, and equalling Alex's best finish in the same car in 2022 so far. I started off by following the blueprints of the helmet, designed by NJ designs, who designs helmets for a number of junior category drivers, but this is his first design to feature in a Formula 1 race. However I noticed the actual helmet had some quite big changes, so I had to amend certain parts of this helmet to fit. Also no other driver runs the Stilo helmet with the solid wing, Stroll and Bottas running clear wings. So I had to put together the shape, which is included in the helmet pack. 

Pierre Gasly 2022 Italian GP helmet

Former Italian GP winner continues to run variations of the same helmet, designed by Adrien Paviot, this time with Italian flag coloured trim. The PG and 10 logos now have a rainbow swirlly reflective effect, and it's even more busy with Italy, Monza text and the Monza track map added to the mix. 

Yuki Tsunoda also ran a special helmet, but this is the same helmet he wore at Imola earlier in the season, so that's in the pack already. 

That leaves Daniel Ricciardo's helmet on my to do list. I look forward to creating the Valentino Rossi inspired helmet, but until then, you can enjoy all 10 special helmets above in the usual link below. 

My thanks again goes to Jvinu for all the shapes and templates, and allowing me to amend his shapes for GP4. 

Download Link | (mirror)

GP4: 1994 Benetton B194 Ford Cosworth - Australian GP version released

I proudly present to you the 1994 Benetton B194, created from scratch by me. I had previously written about the car and some insights into creating this car on another post, which you can read here:

more info

This car is the sixth car created for the 1994 season in GP4, based on how the car appeared at the Australian GP, with Michael Schumacher and Johnny Herbert at the wheel. Stay tuned for a 1994 mod update with more variations. I also include in this pack an external steering wheel, based on the internal wheel already included in the mod. I've also included a CSM update package for ease of install, obviously you'll need the 1994 Mod v4 installed first. 

So without further ado, here's the links. 

Enjoy!

GP4: 1994 Benetton B194 Ford Cosworth - coming soon

Coming soon to the 1994 mod is a new Benetton B194 made by me. This is presented as it appeared at the Australian GP, with Schumacher and Herbert at the wheel. 

1994 Benetton B194 by Fongu

Since Codemasters released their version of the B194 in the F1 2020 game, I was grateful to have that resource to be able to check my dimensions and proportions to it, taking nothing from that car at all. Indeed that car is based off one of the current show cars, which Mick Schumacher drove at Spa a few years back, and Damon Hill at Goodwood, but that configuration never actually raced, but is an amalgamation of parts from various races. 

1994 Benetton B194 by Fongu

This championship winning car is a cause of much debate and controversy, with many maintaining that it cheated to gain an advantage, whilst everyone involved with the team at the time, even nearly 30 years later, maintain they did not. I'm not going to solve any arguements with this blogpost, but my leaning is towards them not cheating. 

Martin Brundle drove his old 1992 Benetton B192 recently at the 2022 Austrian GP weekend, saying he and the team were taking an analogue car to race against the technologically-advanced and well-funded teams in Williams and McLaren. I believe when 'driver-aids' were banned from the 1994 season, the Benetton team were in the best position to adapt to the new regulations. Indeed they spent much of 1993 preparing for this. 

The team and Schumacher were working on a very basic and early iteration of a blown diffuser, and whilst Vettel and Red Bull in the 2010 era got Renault to continue to pump out hot exhaust gasses when the driver was off throttle, Schumacher had to learn to do this manually with his foot, and I think it's this odd usage of the throttle that Senna mistakenly confused for traction control, and also why Schumacher had such a large advantage over all three of his team-mates that season. 

On that amazing French GP start, Steve Matchett reveals in his book, 'The Mechanic's Tale', reveals that Michael had spent a test day that very week on perfecting his starts, knowing it was a weakness earlier that year. In terms of Option 13, I can understand having working in Software development, that sometimes its easier to not mess with code by deleting huge amounts of it, because it may break the whole thing, so it was easier to just hide it and not use it. In fact Larini admitted Ferrari had used traction control, albeit during practice only, in 1994 and McLaren were fined for using an automated upshift on their car, however they never fined Benetton for traction control deeming that the mechanism was there, but never used. 

*** Edit Jan 2023 -  A fantastic article, taking input from William Toet ***

The fire at the German GP is well documented, and whilst it was cheating, it is understandable how the Benetton team thought they had legitimate grounds to take the action that they did (removing a part from refueling rig) rather than erring on the side of caution.

I think this car is under-rated because of the cloud that hangs over it,  but it was a brilliantly nimble car that with a Ford V8 Cosworth engine, competed and beat the leading Renault V10s and Ferrari V12s. Generally, Schumacher was driving excellently that season, and there were mistakes, especially at the season finale in Adelaide where he had a massive shunt in practice, and then that famous off in the race, and that chop on Damon Hill that cost the Williams driver the championship. But he was unbeatable in the first half of the season, and it took a lot of events that conspired against the German that lead to Hill getting anywhere near the championship battle in the second half of the year. Whilst the Williams ended the season with the better car, in my opinion, and controversy aside, on a pure racing level, this Benetton B194 driven by Schumacher was fully deserving of the 1994 title. They prepared the best for the new regulations, Schumacher was extracting the very best out of the car, having spent years fine tuning it with the team, and I think the 1995 season which they dominated, should have been a repeat of the 1994 on a pure racing level - it was looking this was in the early races. 

1994 Benetton B194 by Fongu

So with all that in mind, I wanted especially to do justice with this car, a true legend of the sport, whatever side of the fence you fall on. I'm putting my best techniques learned over the last two decades to do this. With me still using Zmodeler 1 to create my shapes, it still takes time to manually put the car together in a polygon efficient manner, without key curves looking blocky. With having spent a bit more time in Photoshop in the past couple of years, my texture work continues to improve and there is a better mapping relationship between shaping and texturing processes. 

To make sure I'm well under GP4's polygon limit, I decided I would not create the engine and keep the gearbox detail to a minimum, sticking with a similar level of detail to the Codemasters version. In the end, this comes to around 55,000 faces, which is by comparison around 10,000 less than my Williams. 

1994 Benetton B194 by Fongu

On the shape front, I have opted for more rounded edges on the front and rear wing endplates, as well as the bargeboards. Where there are more curves, I've put more polygons to smooth them more than I have done in previous 1994 cars. To compensate for this increase in detail, I tried to use much less polygons on flat edges, on parts of the nose and the sidepod in particular. For details like screws and bolts, I've opted to shape them separately, mapping them to a larger and more detailed part of the texture, where previously I had painted them in a smaller resolution. This way, you can zoom in and see the detail. There's more detail in the wheel hub assembly than other cars, though the brake pad itself is still borrowed from when I created my 1996 cars. So pumping more energy into areas that you will see is hopefully a better solution than spending lots of time on an engine that you'll very rarely see in-game. For the cockpit, again I wasn't shy in using polygons where I needed to there. This will carry over into the internal cockpit shape. For wing levels, I tried to match the level of downforce with photos from the Australian Grand Prix as reference. 

On the texture side, I kept a similar mapping to the original 1994 car by Mckey and Oggo, with a second texture at half the size for various details, and I've created a new carbon texture. 

The livery is not that straight forward, and there's curves that passes various seams, so it took a while to get the base livery right. I was able to use a combination of the codemasters car and various photos to make sure the livery is as accurate as possible. 

1994 Benetton B194 by Fongu

For the logos, most of them are personally sourced, but I'm grateful to consult with GP4 logo-master Jurgen (Quickslick), to help me find better quality versions of some logos. On that, I ended up creating my own personal Mild Seven (and Benetton non-tobacco equivalent) vector myself. I searched for a long time, the logo on modern cars, on models, on decal sheets, well let's just say I noticed variations from the original car. Also the one on the engine cover, as it's on a slightly slanted surface, it's stretched vertically, as well as arced to fit - so making my own vector logo ensured the quality remained on the logo itself. Again with the text like 'Power By' on the engine cover, and the font on the lower rear wing, I took care to find the best match using a favourite online tool of mine, whatsthefont.com. I've also taken time to distinguish between black parts, carbon parts, and parts that look like a plain black plastic, and amended the alpha channel (reflection management) to suit. 

1994 Benetton B194 by Fongu

I'm always trying to improve and push myself to create as accurate a model as I can, without breaking the game when I put it in. Hopefully you can see some of the effort I've put into this model when you run it in game. 

My plan is to release this car as a stand alone release first, and then with a couple of variations and other new content in a 1994 mod update at a later date. 

1994 Benetton B194 by Fongu