The FW19 was a logical development of the very successful FW18, the car which comfortably won both drivers and constructors titles in 1996. It was also the last Williams chassis designed Patrick Head and Adrian Newey, the later left the team to join McLaren. It was also the last Williams chassis to run a works Renault engine, in this case the RS9 V10.
1997 proved a more trying season for Williams. A tough, season-long battle with Michael Schumacher driving for Ferrari. Villeneuve took the Drivers' Championship with seven wins and a single other podium position, all told he gained 81 points.
Frentzen’s year was disappointing he won only one race but had six other podiums, he picked up just 42 points but it transpired to be enough to gain second place in the drivers' championship, although this is due to the disqualification of Michael Schumacher from the championship standings as punishment for a controversial collision with Villeneuve in the last race of the season in Jerez.
Together the drivers gave the team 123 points. Enough to win the Constructors' Championship, which remains (to 2012) the last drivers or constructors championship won by Williams.
The ninth round of 1997 F1 season, the British Grand Prix was held, as had become the norm, at Silverstone. Villeneuve won the race after two preceding leaders retired from the race due to mechanical failures and despite losing 30 seconds in pit lane with a wheel nut problem. A wheel bearing failure put Michael Schumacher out while he was leading by over 40 seconds. Then Mika Häkkinen was robbed of his first win when his engine blew during his battle with Villeneuve.
In some ways the race was more notable for things happening down in the pack. Alexander Wurz achieved his first podium finish in only his 3rd Grand Prix, even leading the race for a while during the pit stop phase. Also Damon Hill scored his first point for the Arrows team after the late retirement of the Prost of Shinji Nakano let him into 6th place at the finish.
1/24th scale kit.
Built by Ian.
Revell have produced quite a large range of F1 cars in 1/24th scale. While nobody can argue that these kits are in the same class as some of the 1/20th scale resin model kits available, they are affordable and can be built into very nice representations of the cars.
The important step in doing this is reading the instructions. Understand the kit parts and how they go together and you can then manipulate the build sequences to fill joint lines that shouldn’t be visible. Thus making a much more realistic model.
This one was made in 1998, you can see the problem with not protecting the tyre decals, which several people have mentioned seem to be affected by the rubber and bubble off again. The answer is coat the tyre wall with clear varnish, apply the decals and then cover the decals with a satin varnish. This way you are protecting the decal from any attack from the tyre or sunlight, moisture.........
This model has been painted with Halfords car paints and Citadel acrylics.
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