The Blackest day in F1

Minichamps 1/43 Williams Renault FW16
Ayrton Senna 1994

For the first time, Minichamps have decided to put tobacco liveries on their Rothmans cars. One of those cars were the Ayrton Senna FW16 car. This is a reissue of the Williams FW16 that Minichamps released a long time ago. It's surprising that this car, the reissue, is more valuable than the original release. Probably because of the tobacco livery and the rarity of this car.





The legend of Ayrton Senna drives on at Imola, where the memory of his death still casts a shadow over the track. Ten years after his tragic death at Imola, the legacy of Ayrton Senna lives on from the Sao Paulo slums to the streets of Monte Carlo. Imola 1994 was a watershed for grand prix racing, shocking the world and robbing the sport of a three-times world champion still considered by many to be the greatest man who ever graced a race track.

"He was the one driver so perfect that nobody thought anything could happen to him," said former McLaren teammate Gerhard Berger after a terrible weekend that also claimed the life of Austrian Roland Ratzenberger. "He was the only driver I respected," said four-times champion and old rival Alain Prost.

The painful memories, present every year at Imola, will remain even if the circuit has changed and teams treat next week's race, coming a week before the May 1 anniversary, as business as usual. "I'll try to keep my head low, as will Patrick," said Frank Williams, the team boss who faces another trial in Italy along with technical director Patrick Head and former designer Adrian Newey as a result of Senna's death in their car.

All will remember a hugely talented driver and may wonder, as many have over the past decade, what might have happened had Senna lived. Would Ferrari's six-times world champion Michael Schumacher, now heading for his fourth win in a row to match the best start of his career in 1994, have been the same record-breaking phenomenon that he is today? One can only imagine the battles the two might have had. Senna was 34 and at the height of his powers just as the 25-year-old Schumacher was emerging with Benetton.

Could Senna have equalled Juan Manuel Fangio's record of five titles before Schumacher did in 2002? Their rivalry might even have matched the intensity of that between Senna and Prost, a feud fuelled by controversial title-deciding collisions at Suzuka in 1989 and 1990. "He felt that there was a part of formula one that was prepared to win at all costs," said McLaren boss Ron Dennis, whose cars took Senna to his titles, when asked what the Brazilian had thought of Schumacher.

"It was a group of people that fell into that category, not just drivers, but elements of teams or whole teams. And he felt that certainly Michael fell into that category and that was never his way of going into formula one." Whatever the conjecture, it only heightens the mystique of an absent champion whose charisma, intelligence and talent combined the spiritual and the sporting to a rare degree. Dennis spent more than an hour talking to reporters about Senna at the last Bahrain Grand Prix.

"His legacy is moments like this." he said. "Even 10 years after he lost his life, there is still a tremendous interest in him. I do not think Ayrton would change anything that happened."He lost his life doing something he was passionate about. It was his life to the exclusion of many things that other drivers and individuals enjoy."

Francois Cevert

This, I think is one of the older models that Minichamps produced. It has very minimal driver details but the detail of the car is really nice. I got this the time that the demand was low and the cars flooded ebay.

Thoughts from my friend Laurent:
"It’s surprising to see in France how François Cevert’s death is still hurting us. There seems to have a lot of resentment against fate that took away the life of who seems to have been at the time nothing less than a hero in the eyes of the public. It was considered back then that he could have been the first Frenchman to become World Champion. We finally had to wait until 1985. It is also surprising that many women between 50 and 60 (and that includes my own mother) still remember him fondly. With his fame and good looks, he was the secret love of many of them."



Francois Cevert coming out of the "Toe" of the "Boot" in one of his last, if not the last, lap he ever drove that tragic Saturday in October of 1973




The glamorous son of a Paris jeweller, this dazzling Frenchman made his name at the wheel of an F3 Matra before graduating into F2 in 1969 with a Tecno. Picked by Ken Tyrrell as successor to Johnny Servoz-Gavin after his abrupt mid-season retirement in 1970, Cevert spent the next three seasons as a loyal and devoted pupil of Jackie Stewart, maturing from strong number two to front-line contender.
He won the 1971 United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen thanks to a combination of good luck and flawless driving, but by 1973 his talent was close to its peak and Stewart acknowledged that Cevert was actually quicker than him in some of the mid-season races - notably the German GP at Nurburgring where Jackie scored the last win of his career.

Cevert was being groomed to take over the Tyrrell team leadership in 1974 on Stewart's retirement, but hopes for a seamless transition were dashed when Francois was killed in a very violent accident during practice for the US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen. The team withdrew from what should have been Jackie's final race, but the long-term consequences of Cevert's death denied Tyrrell's organisation the chance of sustaining its competitive momentum into the mid-1970s.

Courage's Car

1/43 Minichamps De Tomaso 505/38 Ford Piers Courage
Frank Williams Racing Team 1970

This is an incredible model of the beautiful De Tomaso 505/38 as driven in the 1970 Grand Prix of South Africa by Piers Courage. this model boasts it's fabulous engine detail, exquisite wheels and tires, and a flawless paint finish. Gone are the days where Minichamps produce models that have minimal detail. The driver detail on this car is also good.



Piers Courage driving a the same car with a different number

A member of the famous brewing dynasty, Piers Courage preferred to stay with Frank Williams into the 1970 season instead of accepting an offer from Ferrari. He crashed fatally in Frank's F1 de Tomaso in the 1970 Dutch Grand Prix. It was a tragic fate for the highly motivated 28-year old who had stormed to second places in the 1969 Monaco and US Grands Prix driving Frank's Brabham BT26. He'd raced in Formula 3 and 2 throughout much of the 1960s and briefly contested Grands Prix for the BRM team before really making his name in 1969 in the Williams Brabham.

Rookie Sensation

1/43 Minichamps Williams-BMW FW24
Nico Rosberg Barcelona Test December 3, 2002

December 2004 is a month where I splurged on diecast cars without really having a day job. This is one of the cars I bought. It was on sale at Toronto Motorsports.
The demand for Nico Rosberg memorabilia took a plunge when he was beaten last year by Mark Webber.




17 years, after Keke stepped out of a Williams for the last time, Nico steps into one for the first time. He has half a day at Barcelona in an FW24 as his present from BMW for winning the 2002 Formula BMW Championship in Germany. He impresses everyone in the team with his feedback, application and speed.
On the pitwall, Keke looks on proudly, keeping an eye on his boy as he has done ever since Nico started racing. In fact, as racing dads go, few are more committed than Keke, who has not missed a single one of his son's races since his career began - even when he was karting in North America.
"I try to keep out of his way," says Keke, "but I must confess that I really enjoy watching him. I'm here to help if he needs advice, but otherwise, I try to let him get on with it."

Yellow F1

1/43 Minichamps Mclaren Mp4/2 1986 Portuguese GP
Keke Rosberg

Keke Rosberg drove the yellow Marlboro car to promote Marlboro Lights. Minichamps, as usual, did not have the proper livery for this car as tobacco branding is prohibited in diecast cars. I was the one who converted this car to the proper livery. The detail is ok but for a recent Minichamps release, they could have made the diecast better.




During the 1986 Portuguese GP, the McLaren-Porsche of Keke Rosberg (Nico's dad) used Marlboro Lights colors instead of the usual red-and-white livery. However, the brownish color looked yellow in front of the cameras, so the experiment was never repeated. The other McLaren (car #1 of Alain Prost) had the usual red-and-white colors.