Image : BBR Models

Sebastian Vettel crossed the line first but finished second in the Formula One Canadian Grand Prix earlier this month thanks to a controversial penalty, and, in an act of historic but relatable pettine ss, swapped the finishing-order signs to convey that he’d won. Now, there’s a commemorative diecast for it.


Well, “diecast.” The diecast part is missing, for historical accuracy.

Image : BBR Models


This “winner” diecast is so clever and silly that it almost looks photoshopped, but that isn’t the case: It’s a real product, by a real shop called BBR Models, and it’s actually for sale—for just $20 at current exchange rates, at that. (Jalopnik has asked the Ferrari team if it was at all associated with the making of this model, and will update this story if we hear back.)

A quick look back at the scene will show the extreme lengths BBR went to in order to recreate the appearance of the empty ground around that first-place sign Vettel so desperately needed to claim, for sentimental reasons, aside from a more artful rendition of the shadows:

Image : Sky Sports

The diecast, of course, models the scene after Vettel’s infamous Canadian Grand Prix penalty that his Ferrari F1 team tried and failed to get overturned. Stewards gave Vettel a five-second penalty after determining that he’d left the track and returned in an unsafe manner while leading, getting in the way of the second-place car, Lewis Hamilton, when he did.

The other, also plausible interpretation of the penalized move was that Vettel was just regaining control of his car after driving over a bunch of grass. Here’s the video, for reference:

Vettel crossed the line first by less than two seconds, meaning the five-second penalty dropped him to second in the finishing order. He was mad—like, “gate door to an airplane closing as you’re running up to it” mad—and switched the signs in front of his and Hamilton’s parking spaces in the parc fermé after the race to show that he’d won and Hamilton had gotten second.


Vettel ended up putting his sign in front of an empty space, since he’d parked his race car elsewhere and left it because he “didn’t really want to join anything that was happening,” Motorsport.com quoted him as saying—thus, the diecast without an actual diecast.

It’s all very clever, and for $20, it’s a good reminder that everybody has a right to be petty sometimes—whether that be on an international stage or one that’s, well, slightly less publicized.