14.04.2020Valentine's Day à la Alfa Romeo Racing: Modelcars of the C38 in 1:18

Minichamps delivered modelcars this week, which should make the heart beat of the fans faster in two ways: Miniatures that replicates the Alfa Romeo Racing C38 as it stole the show on February 14th, 2019 from some teams in the run-up to last season. The day before the presentation of the Ferrari SF90, the Alfa Romeo team, which had been running under the name Sauber until then, showed its new racing car for the 2019 season for the first time: Team newcomer Kimi Raikkonen underwent an interim paint job with red Valentine's Day hearts and Alfa Romeo shamrocks the first shakedown on a black background. And that's exactly what Minichamps is now bringing, the appropriate 1:18 scale modelcars, which have been handed over to specialist dealers under the item number 110199907 and made from diecast.

The models, each weighing around 850 grams, were produced in the usual high quality from Minichamps and correspond exactly to their prototype in terms of shape and appearance. It was originally planned that the new racing car would only be shown on the Monday where the winter tests in Barcelona would begin. Team boss Frédéric Vasseur, however, probably changed his plans and booked a so-called film day on the Ferrari test track, during which a racing car can be driven 100 kilometers according to the regulations. At that point, competitor McLaren had long ago announced that its new Formula 1 would be presented on Valentine's Day, but Vasseur's action stole the show from Kimi Raikkonen's McLaren before. The normal paint job was then shown in Barcelona.

Basically the same team

An advertisement gag with backround: Since the season 2019, the team of the still existing Sauber Motorsport AG competes under the name Alfa Romeo Racing. The car brand from Italy acts as title sponsor and namesake, even though without shares in the company. The adventure Formula 1 had started for the team of Peter Sauber with the season 1993, still with power from Ilmor or Mercedes-Benz; since 2010, the team relies on engines of the company Ferrari, which also was supplier of the drive sets in 2019 and will remain in 2020. The "C" in C38 stands for the name of Peter Sauber's wife Christiane and thus refers to the long history of the team. The team achieved with 57 points the eighth place of the manufacturers rating in 2019. 

Here: Click to the Valentine's Day C38 in 1:18