Minichamps 1:43 Kick Sauber C44 – Valtteri Bottas, Bahrain GP 2024 Art. 417240177

A 1:43 model of the Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber C44 as raced by Valtteri Bottas at the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix, carrying car number 77. Resin, in a protective display case.

The season the pit stops became the story

Sauber's 2024 was defined by something that almost never gets talked about: the wheel nuts.

A Formula One pit stop takes about two and a half seconds. Sauber's took four, five, sometimes far longer — in Australia, Bottas sat stationary for over a minute while the crew fought with a front wheel, and in China a similar failure cost him any chance of points. The cause was traced to the wheel gun and nut design, and it took most of the season to resolve.

The team scored four points all year, and finished last. In a season where its car was genuinely capable of reaching the lower points positions on merit, the pit lane took the results away.

It is a useful reminder of how much of a Formula One result is decided by parts nobody watches. A team can build a competent car and lose the year to a component that costs a few hundred euros.

Bottas

2024 was his last full season in Formula One — ten years, ten wins, twenty poles and three consecutive runner-up finishes in the championship alongside Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes. He moved to a reserve role for 2025.

In the range

Set 417240124 is his team-mate Zhou Guanyu's C44, and 417230177 the 2023 Alfa Romeo C43 — the same team under its previous name.

Specifications

Scale: 1:43 · Resin · Protective display case · Limited edition · Age: 14+