The 2002 season began for Ralf Schumacher with a 'launch'. At the start in Melbourne he ran into the back of Rubens Barrichello's Ferrari, his Williams flew through the air and landed in the gravel. One corner, and the first race was over. Two weeks later, in Malaysia, the FW24's whole season would come together in a single afternoon.
The FW24 was the work of Gavin Fisher and Geoff Willis under Patrick Head, built around the BMW P82: a V10 that revved beyond 19,000 rpm and was regarded as the strongest engine in the field. In qualifying the car was often the only one able to keep up with the Ferraris — Montoya took seven poles that year, and at Monza he set the fastest qualifying lap in history at an average of 259.8 km/h, breaking Keke Rosberg's record from 1985. But on Sundays the Ferrari F2002 was almost always faster.
Sepang was hot: over thirty degrees in the air and well over forty on the track. Michael Schumacher was on pole, Montoya alongside him, Ralf fourth. At the first corner Montoya and Michael Schumacher came together; the Ferrari ran wide and pushed the Williams off the track. The stewards blamed Montoya and gave him a drive-through — the first time a driver in Formula 1 had received such a penalty for a collision. It cost him about twenty seconds.
Ralf, meanwhile, drove his own race. Barrichello led until his pit stop, after which Ralf took over at the front; on lap 40 the Ferrari's engine failed. Behind him Montoya came back through the field, setting the fastest lap of the afternoon, 1:38.049. After 56 laps Ralf won by almost forty seconds, Montoya was second and Michael Schumacher third, after Jenson Button stopped with two laps to go with a broken anti-roll bar mounting.
It was Williams' first one-two since Portugal 1996, and the team headed to Brazil eight points ahead of Ferrari. It remained their only win of the year. Ferrari won fifteen of the seventeen races; Williams finished second in the constructors' championship with 92 points, Montoya third in the drivers' championship, Ralf fourth.
The model is a Minichamps set in 1:43: Ralf's #5 with the yellow helmet and Montoya's #6 with the red one, together on one base in Compaq blue, with Allianz, Castrol and BMW Power on the flanks. The box says it exactly: 1-2 Finish Malaysian GP 2002. I bought the set in 2021.