F1 Legends: Ayrton Senna

The second F1 legend is Ayrton Senna.

Ayrton Senna was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil in March 1960, and he is widely regarded as the greatest F1 driver ever

Senna's first season was in 1984, and during that season he drove for Toleman. Soon after, he was signed by Lotus, with whom he drove for between 1985 and 1987. He had a total of six wins during those three seasons at Lotus. Ron Dennis signed him for McLaren for the 1988 season. During his time at McLaren, he won three world-championships in '88, '90 and '91.

He moved to Williams for the 1994 season, however he passed away after a fatal crash during the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.

Senna is remembered as arguably the greatest Formula One driver ever, with the possible exception of Michael Schumacher.

Kit Review: Tamiya Tyrrell P34 - 20053

Tamiya released a kit of the 1976 Tyrrell P34 in 1977, and since then, it has been known as one of their classic kits. In 2001, they re-released this kit, however adding extra parts and a new set of decals, converting it to the 1977 Monaco car. Here it is:

This is the new sprue, containing the parts for the 1977 car. These include a new seat, cowling and rear wing.

I built this model, however I did convert it back to the 1976 car, using aftermarket decals. You can see it in the completed builds section of the blog.

Trophy Room - Alex Payne's Ferrari 312

The next model to be featured in the Trophy Room is Alex Payne’s excellent Ferrari 312.

Thank you for featuring in the Trophy Room with your Ferrari 312. Could you tell us a little bit about yourself please?

What is your full name?

Alex Payne

What is your career?

I am a retired MOD security officer.

How long have you been modelling?

Since I was about 7 - don’t ask how long that is!

Your favourite team and driver?

My favourite team is Ferrari, and my favourite driver is Ayrton Senna.

When did you first watch Formula 1?

1961 British Grand Prix at Aintree.

Great. Could you please tell me a bit about the model?

What is the full name of the car and which driver and race does it represent?

It is a Ferrari 312/68, driven by Chris Amon at the 1968 ‘Race of Champions’. This was not a race featured in the championship, rather a ‘warm-up’ race at the start of the season.

Which manufacturer is the kit made by?

Model Factory Hiro.

When did you complete the model?                      

March 2011.

Did you use any detail parts on the model?          

I used turned nuts/tyre valves, some alloy tubing, black wire for the engine, and clear tube tinted in yellow for the injection system.

Which paints did you use?

I used Halfords' Vauxhall ‘Flame Red’, a very good red for this Ferrari era.

Did you use any reference material for the build?

Yes, mainly from the web, at gurneyflap.com and ultimatecarpage.com .

The car itself was not very successful; Ferrari was really struggling in the late sixties and their V12 engines were not able to match the Ford DFV for power, however the V12 sounded better! Chris Amon is known as the most unlucky driver ever in F1; he should have won many races, if not the championship, but broke down when in the lead more than any other driver in history.

If you have a modeI which you are proud of, please don’t hesitate to contact me on jkilsh@tiscali.co.uk .

Model Show Report: ModelKraft 2013, Milton Keynes

Today I went to ModelKraft, and was surprised by the amount of F1 cars to see/buy. I have pictured some of them below.

Open For Discussion: Pirelli Tyres

With many drivers and team members criticising this year's tyres for ruining the racing, what are your views on the situation?

I personally think that they need to use tyres which don't completely dictate the race weekend, thus creating an empty qualifying session with many drivers not wishing to complete laps, just so that they can have a free choice of tyres for Sunday.

I'll admit that today's qualifying session was better than last week's but it still wasn't great!

What do you think?

F1 Legends: James Hunt

The first F1 Legend is James Hunt.

James Hunt was born in Surrey, England in August of 1947, and he is known for his 'action-packed' driving style, which earned him the nickname 'Hunt the Shunt'.

His relatively short F1 career spanned seven seasons, from 1973 until 1979. Hunt drove for three different teams, Hesketh, McLaren, and Wolf, and used his excellent McLaren M23 to bring home his only Driver's Championship in 1976.

During the 1976 season, his rivalry with Ferrari's Niki Lauda was considered to be one of the most extreme rivalries in F1 history, with the possible exception of Senna and Prost, and the film 'Rush' will be released later in 2013, documenting Hunt and Lauda's rivalry.

Hunt commented for the BBC alongside Murray Walker following his retirement, and was known for his knowledge, sense of humour, and comical criticism of drivers whom he considered to be underperforming.

James Hunt died following a heart attack at his home in Wimbledon during 1993. He was just 45.

WIP: McLaren MP4-13 Presentation Livery: 01

My current project is a McLaren MP4/13 in the Presentation Livery. This was the car shown at the launch on February 6, 1998 in London.

The car was revealed in an orange colour scheme, similar to that of the early McLarens of the late 60s. The car ran the first couple of tests in this livery also, and the silver/black livery was revealed at the Circuit de Catalunya on 17 February.

I am using the Tamiya kit, Tabu Design decals, and Zero Paints.

The kit is perfect, apart from one strange thing. The body assembles in two halves (left and right), similar to that found in aircraft kits. This means that you have to glue the seat into the body before you even paint it - this has disaster written all over it. So I enlarged the opening at the bottom of the body, so that I can slide the seat in after the bodywork is painted.

Before:

After:

It doesn't matter that it isn't neat, as it won't be seen.

A quick mock-up of the body:

Another modification is that, for obvious reasons, the presentation car had no cameras, so the mount for the main camera has to be taken off and sanded:

Before:

After:

More to follow!

Trophy Room - Sean Grainger's Lotus 99T

Camel Lotus Honda 99T, Ayrton Senna, 1987 Detroit Grand Prix

I thought I’d start a new feature, which I hope will differ Formula One Modelling from the other blogs. ‘Trophy Room’ will showcase some of the most impressive models built by some of the best F1 modellers around. If you have a model which you are really proud of, please don’t hesitate to contact me on jkilsh@tiscali.co.uk. 

The first model to be featured in the Trophy Room is Sean Grainger’s excellent Lotus 99T.

Thank you for being the first to feature in the Trophy Room with your Lotus 99T. Could you tell us a little bit about yourself please?

What is your full name?

Sean Grainger.

How long have you been modelling?

I have built models since I was about 13.

Your favourite team and driver?

My favourite team is McLaren, and I support Jenson Button.

When did you first watch Formula 1?

I don't remember the first race I watched however I remember Murray Walker and James Hunt commentating so it was probably in the early 1980s.

Great. Could you please tell me a bit about the model?

What is the full name of the car and which driver and race does it represent?

It is a Camel Lotus Honda 99T, driven by Ayrton Senna at the 1987 Detroit Grand Prix. 

Which manufacturer is the kit made by?

It is made by Tamiya.

When did you complete the model?

December 2007.

Did you use any detail parts on the model?

Yes. I used Studio 27, Acu-Stion and Thunder Valley F1 parts.

Which paints did you use?

I used Zero Paints ‘Lotus Camel Yellow’.

Did you use any reference material for the build?

I used ‘Grand Prix Fascination Formula 1 by Reinhard Klein’, ‘F1 in Camera 1980-89’, ‘F1 Modeling Issue 5 and Senna Giga Special’.

The 99T was the Lotus entry into the 1987 Formula 1 season. The drivers that season were Satoru Nakajima and the late Ayrton Senna running the number 11 & 12 cars respectively. It used the active computerised suspension system which compensated for track conditions, speed, steering and even weight changes caused by the ever-decreasing fuel load carried by the car. The car won at Monaco and Detroit and showed the way for Formula One to evolve in the next few years.

The dimensions of the 99T dwarfed those of the Williams FW11B which also competed that year. As well as the poorer drag factor of the bigger body the active suspension proved to be a double edged sword. It's hydraulic pump, driven off the back of one of the camshafts, used a chunk of power from the Honda engine and there was a weight penalty of around 12 kilos. In effect the Lotus Honda needed more power and therefore more fuel to match the straight-line speeds of the Williams Honda. With fuel restricted to 180 litres, Senna often had to think economy, which was not his natural way in a race car. Ayrton eventually took third in the driver’s championship; Nelson Piquet took the title with Williams.

You can read more about Sean’s Lotus and his other builds at http://www.scalereproductions.co.uk

Donington Grand Prix Collection

In October last year, I went to the Grand Prix Collection at Donington. Below are some pictures.

Thoughts on the 2013 Chinese Grand Prix

The 2012 Formula One season was arguably the greatest ever. It featured seven different winners in the first seven races, was the longest season ever with a 20-race calendar, and also welcomed the return of the hugely popular United States Grand Prix, absent from the calendar since 2007. So when the 2013 season started in Australia nearly a month ago, many fans were unsure what to expect. It was obvious that everyone hoped for another exciting start to the season: however if the season was dominated by Red Bull, as the latter stage of the 2012 season was, there would be many disappointed faces, except from in the Red Bull pit garage of course! Most fans wanted a great start to the season, an exciting race with plenty of overtaking and perhaps a surprise outcome. And that is what they got.

The Malaysian Grand Prix was perhaps one of the greatest races ever, and so we were hoping that the third race of the season, held at the highly technical Shanghai International Circuit, would be as good as the last. Luckily, few were disappointed.

Lewis Hamilton achieved his first pole position for Mercedes, and was hoping for a win in the race. Meanwhile at the Red Bull garage, controversy continued as Mark Webber ran out of fuel during Q2, and world-champion Sebastian Vettel failed to set a time in Q3, instead going back to the garage.

Sunday afternoon's race was very eventful, living up to the standards set by previous Grand Prixs (and last season). The start of the race was surprising, with Kimi Raikkonen slipping back a few places from P2 due to wheelspin. 4 laps in, and Lewis Hamilton was overtaken by both Ferraris in just 3 seconds.

At the entrance of turn 14 on lap 5, Esteban Gutiérrez drove into the back of Adrian Sutil's Force India, and so they both retired, Sutil after a disastrous pit stop.

Webber's bad luck continued on lap 18 when his right-rear wheel came flying off, rolling across the track at turn 15.

Fernando Alonso won the race, followed by Raikkonen and Hamilton.

Throughout the race there were several incidents regarding DRS misuse, for accidentaly using DRS during a yellow-flag period. Kimi Raikkonen, Sebastian Vettel, Jenson Button, Romain Grosjean, Daniel Ricciardo, Valtteri Bottas, Max Chilton and Mark Webber were all investigated after the race.

This was overall a very exciting race, but perhaps not as exciting as Sepang. We hope for another great race at Bahrain next weekend.

Chinese GP Model Ideas

During this morning's race, I found many scenes which I thought would be interesting to see as a model.

Lap 4: Hamilton overtaken by Alonso and then Massa in a short time.

Lap 5: Gutierrez/Sutil collision

Lap 6: Sutil’s disastourous pit stop

Lap 15: Webber/J.E. Vergne collision

Lap 16: Perez/Raikkonen collision

Lap 18: Webber’s wheel rolls across track in front of him

Parc Ferme: Alonso celebrating whilst standing on top of his F138.

What does everyone think?

New to this sort of thing...

Hello and thank you very much for taking the time to read my blog. I understand that there are many Formula One blogs out there, but I wish to make this one slightly different: I will combine the F1 racing aspect of the blog with my hobby, which is making scale models of Formula One cars. These are usually from plastic kits in 1/20 scale, and I enter my models into competitions at local model shows.

On this blog I hope to share my views on the hugely fascinating world that is Formula One, whilst also sharing with you details of my progress making scale models.

Another thing which I'm sure is different to many other F1 blogs is that I am just 13 years old and I wish to become a journalist. I do hope that you may be interested in what I have to say, and I always wish to hear your comments on whatever it is I post.