FSW Weekly Edition #39/2026

Hamilton's Silver Farewell

Minichamps' Mercedes W15 4th Abu Dhabi 2024 #44 Hamilton in 1:43 scale records the final chapter of one of the most successful partnerships the sport has ever seen. Hamilton arrived at Brackley from McLaren for the 2013 season, a move many at the time regarded as a gamble, and over the following twelve seasons he and Mercedes rewrote the record books together, with six of his seven World Championships, eighty-four Grand Prix victories and a run of eight consecutive constructors' titles between 2014 and 2021 that no team had managed before. His last weekend in silver at Yas Marina did not begin well, with elimination in the first part of qualifying leaving him sixteenth on the grid, but what followed was a reminder of exactly why the partnership had been so formidable. Running a long first stint on the hard tyres, Hamilton worked his way steadily through the field and on the very last lap passed his team mate George Russell to take fourth place, before saluting the team with a set of celebratory doughnuts on the start and finish straight and a quiet moment beside the car that had carried him home. It was a fitting farewell to a twelve-year association that will be talked about for as long as the sport is followed.

Minichamps' diecast interpretation captures the #44 W15 as it appeared in Abu Dhabi, complete with driver figure and full sponsor detail, and the car's long, low profile, its sculpted sidepods and the familiar silver and black Mercedes scheme are all cleanly resolved at 1:43. As the last Mercedes Hamilton ever raced, the W15 carries a significance well beyond its results on the season's timing sheets, and it is a model that will sit at the very end of any Hamilton or Mercedes collection as the natural full stop to the story. It is currently in stock and ready for immediate dispatch, and stock is limited.

The Mercedes heads a strong week for the Formula 1 collector. Minichamps' delivery spans three decades in all, joining the Hamilton car with Lando Norris' McLaren MCL39 from his victory at the 2025 Mexican Grand Prix and, in compact 1:64 scale, Ayrton Senna's Williams FW16 from the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix, both of which are available to order. Tameo's latest delivery takes us back to 1977 with Jody Scheckter's Wolf WR1 from his victory at the Monaco Grand Prix, a car that won on its debut in Argentina earlier that season and remains one of the great privateer success stories, beautifully reproduced as one of Tameo's highly detailed 1:43 resin and metal kits and available to order now.

There is a good deal more to look forward to besides. Spark has followed its recent 1:43 and 1:18 announcement with the same choice of new Formula 1 models from the Dutch, Italian and Spanish Grands Prix as 1:64 diecast miniatures, and like the larger scale models, the Norris Zandvoort and Kimi Antonelli Monza winners and Pierre Gasly's pole position car will each come with accessory parts. Mini GT also has 1:64 models planned for the middle of next year, with Mario Andretti's Lotus 78 from his victory at Long Beach in 1977 joined by the Aston Martin AMR24s of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll from the 2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix. For collectors of the sport's great personalities, Le Mans Miniatures has a new standing Jochen Rindt hand painted driver figure in the pipeline in 1:18 scale, a fine companion piece for any larger scale Lotus 49 or 72 already on the shelf.

Mercedes W15 4th Abu Dhabi 2024 #44 Hamilton - MIN410242444

 

Ferrari 849 Testarossa Assetto Fiorano 2025 Metallic Red 1:18 - BBP18276B

Testarossa Reborn

BBR's Ferrari 849 Testarossa Assetto Fiorano 2025 Metallic Red in 1:18 scale brings one of the most evocative names in Ferrari's history back to the shelf. The Testarossa title has graced two very different but equally celebrated Ferraris, the 250 Testa Rossa sports racers of the late 1950s and the flat-twelve Testarossa that came to define the supercar of the 1980s, and Maranello does not revive a name of that stature lightly. The 849 Testarossa takes over from the SF90 Stradale at the top of the range, combining a twin-turbo V8 engine with three electric motors for an impressive four wheel drive powertrain, and its styling draws openly on the sports prototypes of the 1970s, with a cleaner, more muscular body than its predecessor. The Assetto Fiorano version goes further still, adding carbon fibre and titanium components that reduce weight by some thirty kilograms along with aerodynamic enhancements that include the distinctive twin rear wings, and the white stripes running over the red bodywork give the car a purposeful competition flavour that suits it very well indeed.

BBR's interpretation is a hand built resin and metal model in the maker's usual idiom, which is to say a superb paint finish, crisp detailing and a level of presence at 1:18 that very few manufacturers can match, and on a car whose appeal rests so heavily on the drama of its shape, that is exactly what the subject demands. The metallic red is deep and rich, the stripes are cleanly applied and the twin rear wings and the sharply drawn rear end are resolved with real precision. It is produced in a limited edition of just twenty-four pieces and is currently in stock and on sale, ready for immediate dispatch, with very limited stock remaining.

The Ferrari heads a strong week for the road car collector. BBR's delivery also brings the open top Ferrari 296 Speciale Aperta finished in Metallic Yellow, the sharper and more focused Speciale version of Maranello's V6 hybrid berlinetta with the roof taken away, and another beautifully presented hand built 1:18 model in the maker's finest tradition. Parked alongside the 849 Testarossa, the yellow 296 makes about as striking a pair of modern Ferraris as anyone could put on a shelf, and it is available to order now.

Classic road car collectors have been every bit as well looked after. Matrix's latest delivery brings two beautifully detailed pre-war road cars in 1:43, the imposing 1929 Maserati V4 Sport 16 finished in maroon, built around the remarkable sixteen-cylinder engine Maserati created by pairing two straight eights, alongside the elegant 1935 Mercedes 500K Cabriolet C, also presented in a rich maroon finish and one of the definitive grand touring shapes of the 1930s. Between them they sum up the grandeur of the period about as well as any two cars could, and both are available to order.

There is more to come on the road car shelf as well. KK Scale continues its run of 1:18 film star cars with the 1985 Lincoln Town Car, which will be available as Mickey Haller's black car from "The Lincoln Lawyer", Raegan's metallic red car from "Point Break", Arthur Lawson's white car from "Miami Vice" and Sonny Vaccaro's silver car from "Air", four very different screen roles for one very American shape. Autocult adds two more choices from the world of automotive weirdness, the comparatively less odd 1911 Mercedes 38/70 PS Kettenwagen Landaulet of Kaiser Wilhelm, complete with its two roof-mounted spare wheels and offered with either an open or closed roof, and the 1924 Skoda Sentinel steam powered truck in both tanker and flatbed forms, with the 2026 Yearbook and Model Of The Year also available to pre-order.

Fourmaux in the Monte Mire

Ixo's Hyundai i20N Rally1 4th Monte Carlo 2026 #16 Fourmaux/Coria in 1:43 scale records a fine drive in one of the most punishing editions of the Monte in recent memory. The opening round of the 2026 World Rally Championship was run in brutal and unpredictable Alpine conditions, with pitch-black nights, heavy fog, rain, snow, ice and slush turning the mixed-surface stages into a lottery for the unwary, and Adrien Fourmaux and Alexandre Coria picked their way through it all to finish fourth overall, the leading Hyundai crew on an event won by Oliver Solberg. The Frenchman saved the best for last, coming alive on the final day to take a string of stage wins, including the Super Special through the streets of Monaco itself, an experience he described as a first for him and one he thoroughly enjoyed. With Thierry Neuville following him home in fifth, Hyundai placed both of its full-time crews inside the top five, a solid start to the season after a weekend that caught out a great many.

Ixo's diecast interpretation captures the #16 car as it ran on the Monte, with the i20N's wide, purposeful Rally1 bodywork, its substantial rear wing and the full Hyundai Motorsport livery and event identification all well presented at 1:43. Ixo's models have long offered collectors a well finished and very competitively priced way to build up a complete field, and with the Monte Carlo cars that is exactly the opportunity on offer. It is available to pre-order now at a discounted pre-order price, with delivery expected during October.

The Hyundai heads a strong week for the rally collector. Ixo's Monte Carlo programme covers most of the 2026 Rally1 field, with the 1:43 models due for delivery during October, headed by Solberg's winning Toyota and joined by the Toyotas of Elfyn Evans, Sébastien Ogier, Takamoto Katsuta and Sami Pajari, the Fords of Grégoire Munster and Josh McErlean and the Hyundais of Neuville, Fourmaux and Hayden Paddon, while in 1:18 the cars of Evans, Fourmaux and Neuville are expected too. With Ford now confirmed for a full factory return in 2028, the M-Sport cars from this season take on a little extra interest as well.

There is a good deal more to look forward to besides. Trofeu's early October news brings two more 1:43 rally subjects, the Ford Escort RS1800 of Hämäläinen and Scott which finished sixth on the 1977 RAC Rally and the Fiat 131 Abarth of Moschoutis and Silef which took seventh on the 1982 Acropolis. DSN 43's sole rally car this month is the Porsche 911 Carrera RS of Gonçalves and Oliveira from the 1978 Portugal Rally, and for those who prefer to build their own, Hasegawa is readying for reissue early next year its excellent 1:24 plastic kits of the Martini Racing Lancia 037s of Walter Röhrl and Markku Alén which finished first and second on the 1983 Monte Carlo Rally, about as fitting a companion to this year's Monte cars as anyone could wish for.

Hyundai i20N Rally1 4th Monte Carlo 2026 #16 Fourmaux/Coria - IXORAM1026B