Minichamps 1:43 Aston Martin AMR23 – Fernando Alonso, 3rd Bahrain GP 2023 Art. 417230114

A 1:43 model of the Aston Martin AMR23 as raced by Fernando Alonso to third place at the 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix. Limited to 1,296 pieces. Resin, on a plastic base with an acrylic showcase.

A midfield team arrived at race one with the second-quickest car

Aston Martin had finished seventh of ten in 2022 and scored 55 points across the whole season. At the opening race of 2023 it put a car on the podium, and went on to take eight podiums that year — six of them Alonso's.

Changes of that magnitude do not usually happen between seasons. It is generally credited to Dan Fallows, a Red Bull aerodynamicist Aston Martin hired after a legal fight over his contract, and to a new factory finally coming online.

For the first third of that season the AMR23 was genuinely the second-fastest car on the grid. Alonso finished on the podium in six of the first eight races.

Forty-one years old, in his twenty-second season

Alonso made his Formula One debut in 2001. By Bahrain 2023 he had been racing in the championship, with two years off in the middle, for longer than several drivers on that grid had been alive.

His two world titles came in 2005 and 2006. The eighteen years since have included McLaren-Honda, a car he described over team radio in terms the broadcast apologised for, a spell away racing at Le Mans and Indianapolis, and a return with Alpine at 40.

The obvious question — why no third championship — has a plain answer: in the years he was quickest, the fastest cars belonged to other people.

Why a third place gets its own model

Minichamps generally produces winners. A podium model exists when the result is the story, and a 41-year-old putting a midfield car on the rostrum at the first race of the year is a better story than most wins.

In the range

Set 417230118 is his team-mate Lance Stroll's AMR23, and 417240114 the following year's AMR24.

Specifications

Scale: 1:43 · Limited to 1,296 pieces · Resin · Acrylic showcase on plastic base · Age: 15+
Model dimensions: 13.4 × 4.7 × 2.5 cm