
Mercedes R-Class W251 Obsidian Black Minichamps 1:18
You save 38.00 €
Lowest price in the 30 days before the reduction: 189.00 €

You save 57.00 €
Lowest price in the 30 days before the reduction: 189.00 €
TL;DR: Minichamps' 1:18 resin VCARB 01 reproduces Ayumu Iwasa's FP1 session at his home Japanese Grand Prix in 2024, a rare on-track appearance for an RB junior driver. The sealed one-piece body captures the current ground-effect Formula 1 aero package, appealing to fans following Japan's next generation of single-seater talent.
A home Grand Prix free practice outing is a small, specific slice of a driver's career, but for a junior talent it can matter more than a full race weekend elsewhere. Minichamps' resin VCARB 01 documents exactly that moment for Iwasa at Suzuka.
Formula 1's regulations require every team to run a rookie driver in at least two free practice sessions per season, a rule designed to give young talent real seat time in current machinery. Ayumu Iwasa, part of Red Bull's junior driver pipeline and a competitor in Formula 2 during this period, took that FP1 opportunity at his home Japanese Grand Prix in the VCARB 01, the car raced that season by the team formerly known as AlphaTauri under its Visa Cash App RB branding. Running in front of a home crowd at Suzuka, one of the sport's most demanding and historically significant circuits, gave the session outsized meaning beyond its short track time.
This model is a single sealed resin body with no opening cockpit or engine cover. Current-generation Formula 1 cars run ground-effect underfloor tunnels and heavily sculpted bodywork that channels air around the sidepods in ways earlier regulations never required, and resin's precision casting holds those complex, low-profile surfaces with sharper definition than a heavier process typically achieves. The VCARB 01's livery, distinct from the team's earlier AlphaTauri branding, carries the Visa Cash App sponsorship graphics that need clean registration across the car's sculpted surfaces, particularly around the sidepod undercuts.
FP1-only liveries are a narrower subject than full-season race entries, appealing specifically to collectors following a driver's development path or documenting home-race milestones rather than championship results. At 1:18 scale a current F1 car measures approximately 25 centimeters, its wide, low stance distinct from the taller, narrower cars of earlier regulation eras, and it displays well alongside other current-generation liveries on a modern F1 shelf. For anyone tracking Japanese drivers' rise through the sport specifically, this is a genuinely uncommon and personal piece.
The current generation's dark blue and white livery photographs cleanly under directed shelf lighting, with the sponsor decals holding sharp edges against the darker base color. FP1-specific liveries typically see smaller production runs than full-season race cars, a genuine scarcity factor worth weighing against the shorter track history the livery represents. Paired with a full-season teammate livery from the same year, this piece rounds out a complete picture of the team's 2024 driver roster.
No. It is a sealed one-piece resin casting, with all cockpit and aerodynamic detail built into the fixed exterior body.
F1 rules require teams to give rookie drivers FP1 seat time, and Iwasa used that requirement to drive at his home Japanese Grand Prix in 2024.
It carries the Visa Cash App RB branding introduced when the team rebranded from AlphaTauri, distinct in colorway and sponsor graphics from prior seasons.
Yes, FP1-only liveries document specific development milestones that full-season race liveries do not capture, making them valuable for driver-focused collections.