1/43 Model Review: 1997 Arrows A18 Yamaha

Background

It was not the first time that the driver who won the World Championship left the Williams team the following year, Mansell and Prost had also left earlier that decade, as did Piquet after 1987. He had apparently had offers from McLaren, Benetton and Ferrari, Hill surprisingly went for the TWR ran Arrows team, who finished 9th with one point to their name in 1996. However they were the main test team for Bridgestone on their debut season, which would bring an advantage against the Goodyear rubber ran by most the other teams.

Team-mate Pedro Diniz brought substantial backing with him, along with new Yamaha engines and later in the year a new techincal director, John Barnard from Ferrari. The car struggled to qualify at the first race in Melbourne and retired on the parade lap, and the car retired more often than it finished. It was uncompetitive, but by mid-season it began to fight for points. At Silverstone, Hill's home race, he ran well and scored a point for sixth place. Hill qualified third at Hungary, ran second behind Schumacher and then passed him when the German's tyres were shod. Hill lead for much of the race until a throttle linkage problem cost him considerable pace with a few laps to go. Villeneuve caught him and passed him on the grass on the last lap. Hill still finished an incredible second for the team.

Though Hill was the team-leader, Diniz out-qualified the champion at the French, Belgian and Japanese tracks, the later two both known as challenging drivers tracks and managed a fifth place at the Luxembourg GP at the Nurburgring.

Minichamps

Minichamps 430970001

Minichamps 430970002

Minichamps produced the Arrows car. It's nice to have the red nose and rear wing end plates on Hill's car and yellow on Diniz's car. The shape of the model is pretty decent representation of the real car. The most disappointing thing for me is how low the driver sits in the car. That and the slightly wonky front wing, I still quite like the model.

Minichamps 433970101

In the UK, they released four special versions of various Damon Hill's cars. The Arrows one is based on the British GP, where after a difficult year so far, he scored points at his home race.
Score: 7/10

JPS

I've not heard of JPS models before, and again there's not many good photos of this, but this is a pretty reasonable model kit. The model is based on the Hungarian GP, with the amended airbox inlet. However, that looks quite a skinny rear wing for the high downforce track. The wheels look like they sit a bit too wide. I think the model is of similar standard to the Minichamps model.
Score: 7/10

IXO

Released in 2022, Ixo brings this nice budget version of the TWR Arrows. 

1/43 Model Review: 1997 Sauber C16 Petronas

Background

After losing the Mercedes Engine to McLaren for the 1996 season, Sauber were able to negotiate Ferrari customer engines, a start of a nine year relationship, that was rekindled following BMW's departure in 2010. They took on long time Ferrari Test Driver, Nicola Larini, but he left the team after five races. Morbidelli replaced him, but broke his arm on two separate occasions, meaning Norberto Fontana was also used by the team. Herbert, in his second year for the team, was able to lead the team to 7th in the Constructors' Championship with an impressive podium finish at Hungary.

Onyx

Onyx 298

Onyx released their budget version of the Sauber back in 1997. It's really not too bad for a budget model, yes the front wing droops a bit, there could be more definition on the airbox, and the rear wing looks like it's going to fall off the back of the car, but the general shape is reasonable, the colour scheme acceptable, the rims are correct, as are the helmets, so it's not too bad all things considered, particularly for the price you pay.
Score: 6/10

Minichamps

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Minichamps finally released their version in 2019, available with Herbert and Larini in limited edition runs. The car is based on the end of season with the sculpted front wing endplates, and sculpted sidepod flaps and a much smaller rear wing endplate. This is a fantastic resin model from Minichamps, with lovely proportions and fantastic added detail as well.

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The real reason this model was made was to add to the Schumacher 25th anniversary collection, which comes in a few different inlays from what I can tell. Peter Sauber had a close working relationship with Ferrari and after the Italian GP, was able to borrow Schumacher for a secret test at Fiorano, with photos being leaked years later. Sauber wanted an experienced driver to help with imbalance issues, with Herberts teammates all struggling with the car. Schumacher completed 84 laps and lapping around a second slower than his time in a Ferrari. Schumacher ran the car without sponsors on.

Score: 8/10

Tameo

Tameo TMK244

Based on the Hungarian GP, this is the Tameo version of the Sauber. I love all the upper rear wing elements, the extra fin inside the sidepod opening, the detail on this model is lovely. The cockpit detail is exquisite and there's nothing missed on this model. I think I personally prefer the Minichamps model overall, but the fine details on this car just about makes up for it.
Score: 8/10

1/43 Model Review: 1997 Prost JS45 Mugen-Honda

Background

Alain Prost returned to F1 as team owner taking over from the Ligier team. The team was in transition for 1997 as Prost looked to build an all French team. The team retained the Mugen-Honda engines and Olivier Panis who was partnered by Shinji Nakano at Mugen's request. The team was amazingly competitive for the first six races, Panis offering a true title challenge, but a crash at Canada broke both of his legs, and he would not return until the end of the year. Prost quickly hired impressive Trulli from Minardi and they continued to show good speed. He finished 4th in Germany and lead much of the Austrian Grand Prix.

Minichamps

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This model was one of the earliest models I owned, with reasonably good midfield runner, Panis making an unlikely title challenge. Truth was he was in the best position to make the most of the new Bridgestone tyres that were particularly strong during the race. It's a shame Panis had his accident, I doubt he would have maintained the points scoring rate for the rest of the season, but I certainly think he would have added to his two podiums he had already secured. I remember the particularly long nose on this car, and compared to other cars, the rear wing endplates were as small as they could be. Other than that, the shape of the car is a development of their 1996 car, but I did like the simple all blue livery. The Minichamps model was reasonably well done, no real problems with the dimensions, and they've done a reasonably nice job at the rear of the car where the detail is.
Score: 7/10

Tameo

Tameo TMK246

This Tameo model is based on Trulli's Italian GP car, with low downforce wings, and it also comes with a removable engine cover. The detail underneath is fantastic and a plus for me is the asymmetric detailing, and you can see more it opens up more than on the Stewart car. I have to say, I'm a little disappointed by the rest of the model, the nose and monocoque section looks too square. The front top edge of the sidepod should be more rounded. The rear wing endplate looks like the normal season one, but the Italian GP version was even more cut down and minimalistic than this model.
Score: 7/10

1/43 Model Review: 2019 Haas VF-19 Monaco GP version (Minichamps)

The Monaco GP will be most remembered for the weekend that paid tribute to three-time World Champion Niki Lauda after his passing away. Many cars carried a fitting tribute, with Haas running a red strip on their shark fin.
The Monaco GP itself never really puts on an entertaining race, and there wasn't much racing to talk about at that stage of the season. Both cars finished, with Grosjean finishing in 10th place for a single point, which are hard to come by for the team in 2019.

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I believe there are a couple of Monaco GP versions of the 2019 grid due to be released by model makers, so I suspect there will be more to feature soon. On this Minichamps model, I can't see much difference in terms of the shape to make it track specific and it's interesting that these cars are not limited edition with a set number of models made.

Because there's barely any difference from the base model, I'm not going to score it here, but you can read my review here.

1/43 Model Review: 2019 Alfa Romeo C38 (Spark & Minichamps)

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

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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

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Minichamps have also done a limited edition of the Bahrain GP car.

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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.

1/43 Model Review: 1997 Stewart SF1 Ford

Background

Three Time World Champion, Jackie Stewart would be funded by Ford to start up a Formula One team on their behalf, running the team with his son, Paul Stewart, and hiring current Autosport analyst, Gary Anderson as designer with Alan Jenkins. The team, through its various incarnations is the current Red Bull Team who are double World Constructors' Champions. Rubens Barrichello drove all three years for the team, and finished second in the Monaco GP in its debut year. The car was able to battle for points positions, but poor reliability hindered the team from scoring more points.

I remember in the UK when the F1 broadcast moved from the BBC over to ITV and I wasn't looking forward to the race being interrupted by adverts, but they did some special features in the build up for the first race, one being a documentary on the new Stewart team. I remember enjoying watching that quite a few times when I was younger.

Minichamps

Minichamps 430970022

Minichamps 430970023

I do miss the days when there were more differences between teammates so from a longshot you could identify which car was which, Magnussen running with a blue headrest and blue on the nose cone. The model itself is quite nice, but it could do with more defined shapes, like the airbox and hte sidepod openings, it's just a little simplified. The tartan looks good and the chrome wheel rims are nicely done. A solid budget model for the time.
Score: 7/10

Tameo

Tameo TMK250

The Tameo kit model is based on the Monaco GP with removable engine cover and wet tyres. A fabulous model, with fantastic detail, even underneath the engine cover is nicely reproduced. I can't find many pictures of this model, so I can't review the model in any detail, but knowing the quality of models that Tameo produce, it looks like a great model.
Score: 9/10