Minichamps 1:43 Red Bull RB19 – Max Verstappen, Winner Bahrain GP 2023 Art. 417230101

A 1:43 model of the Red Bull RB19 as raced by Max Verstappen to victory at the 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix — the opening round of the season. Resin, on a display base in a clear case.

This is race one of nineteen wins

The 2023 season is the most dominant in the history of Formula One, and Bahrain is where it started.

Verstappen won 19 of the 22 races. That is 86 per cent, a higher win rate than any season by any driver — ahead of Michael Schumacher's 2002 and 2004, ahead of Alberto Ascari in 1952, ahead of Lewis Hamilton's best year. Ten of those wins came consecutively, which is also a record and one that had stood to Sebastian Vettel at nine since 2013.

Red Bull as a team won 21 of 22. The single race they lost was Singapore, where Carlos Sainz won for Ferrari.

Verstappen led the championship from this race to the last and never gave it up.

Why the first race of a season matters to collectors

Minichamps releases a model for a great many individual Grands Prix, and most of them differ from each other only in the small print of the livery.

The season opener is different for a simple reason: it is the first appearance of the car. The RB19 had never raced before this weekend, and by the end of the year it would be the most successful chassis ever built by that measure. This is the version before anybody knew.

Specifications

Scale: 1:43 · Resin · Display base and clear case · Age: 15+