{"id":461709,"date":"2026-02-08T12:22:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T12:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/461709\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T12:22:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T12:22:10","slug":"inside-the-hidden-world-of-an-f1-launch-season-linchpin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/461709\/","title":{"rendered":"Inside the hidden world of an F1 launch season linchpin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Max Verstappen revived the \u2018Inspector Max\u2019 social media meme after taking a close look at the Red Bull car revealed on stage at his team\u2019s Formula 1 season launch last month. <\/p>\n

His notable intrigue about the steering wheel in particular came through as he declared how impressed he was as he and team-mate Isack Hadjar got a sneak peek.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is that?\u201d he asked. \u201cIs that a sim wheel or something? Where did they get that? What the hell? I need to ask them where they made that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The answer to his question is that the steering wheel \u2013 and in fact the whole car \u2013 is not something that Red Bull made at all.<\/p>\n

It is instead one element of the ultra-realistic official \u2018Gen 26\u2019 F1 show cars that are produced by British company Memento Exclusives and which Red Bull used one of at its launch. <\/p>\n

The modern world of F1 show cars is one that not many people know about, so The Race caught up with Memento to find out more about the technology and industry behind it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Like the real thing\"\"<\/p>\n

There was a time when Formula 1 show cars would have been made up from bits of old race machinery with some added plastic bits to make them look good and current.<\/p>\n

But those days are gone. Nowadays, the official F1 show cars are high-precision machines created with the same CAD, the same manufacturing processes and built using the same carbon fibre materials that\u00a0are used with the real cars.<\/p>\n

That quality means they look so much like the real thing that teams are happy to use them on stage at their official launches.<\/p>\n

It was a Memento\u00a0show car\u00a0that Red Bull revealed its livery on; it was a Memento\u00a0show car\u00a0that Audi did the same with at its livery launch.<\/p>\n

It will also be a Memento\u00a0show car\u00a0that Cadillac will be using for its livery reveal at the Super Bowl this Sunday night. <\/p>\n

As Barry Gough, CEO of Memento Exclusives, tells The Race about the show cars: \u201cThe product has to be good these days.\u201d<\/p>\n

A growing business\"\"<\/p>\n

The\u00a0show car\u00a0element of Memento is now a central pillar of its business and potentially makes the company the biggest producer of F1 cars in the world \u2013 with 180 show cars set to be made this year.<\/p>\n

Memento first started building show cars before the previous regulation change in 2022. But its ever-stronger relationship with teams, and a licensing arrangement it has with F1, has made it scale things up fast.<\/p>\n

It has helped transform what Gough started out as a memorabilia business 15 years ago into a full-scale manufacturing programme today. He now employs 120 staff at a 70,000 square foot facility.<\/p>\n

Turnover in the next financial year is expected to be \u00a375million – \u00a345million of that will be from manufacturing, and \u00a330million of that will be from memorabilia.<\/p>\n

Gough, a former number one mechanic at BAR and who started his F1 career at Simtek, is now running an operation as big as F1 teams used to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say there would be about 70 people involved in the\u00a0show car\u00a0process from the drawing office to build,\u201d he said. \u201cBut then you include finance and it\u2019s more.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was at Simtek Grand Prix in 1994, and I’ve got four times more people than they had.\u201d<\/p>\n

Efforts to ensure that things are done to the right standard has meant that he has hired ex-F1 staff who have good knowledge of what teams expect.<\/p>\n

This includes designers who worked with top teams plus his head of manufacturing Terry Wasyliw, who was composite fitting shop manager at the Mercedes F1 team for more than 20 years.<\/p>\n

As Gough (pictured below) said: \u201cWe understand what the teams want and what the quality has to be.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

The build process\"\"<\/p>\n

Producing each official\u00a0show car\u00a0to the specification required is not the work of the moment.<\/p>\n

Gough explains it is a multi-month process from his team receiving the first CAD drawings to the finished product.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis first 2026 project took us eight months to get from there to where we are now,” he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if someone gave us the CADs now, I would say it\u2019s about 18 weeks to get from us then manipulating them, to then machining and tooling and getting to the finished product.\u201d<\/p>\n

While underneath the skin the show cars feature none of the complicated systems the\u00a0real things need \u2013 like brakes and hydraulics – every element that can be seen from the outside is made to look as genuine as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a dummy engine, but it looks like an engine,\u201d added Gough. \u201cWe have a rear impact structure, which is carbon, so that looks real. Then we have got rain lights that look real, and the suspension all looks real.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe uprights aren’t as spec as an F1 car, but they are real uprights with bearings that we’ve designed.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso, our cars are pitstoppable as well. We’ve designed them so that the teams can use them. You wouldn’t use them as pitstop practice for an F1 team, but they could be used for activation for a team.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Gough the details matter \u2013 which is why he was quite happy about what Verstappen said about the steering wheel that Memento uses in its show cars.<\/p>\n

\u201cMax was commenting on our steering wheel and they are great,\u201d said Gough. \u201cThey are made of carbon, and they look just like a real steering wheel.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the teams now use them for activation when they’re at the track to show guests what a steering wheel is.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey look the same, and the buttons and the paddles all work.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Working with the teams\"\"<\/p>\n

Memento also has the means to individually tailor the build of a car specifically for what a team wants.<\/p>\n

So it\u2019s not just a case of painting colours on the same standard bodywork \u2013 Memento produces bespoke cars for anyone who wants it.<\/p>\n

Right now, with the new rules designs in their infancy, each team\u2019s individual cars have not yet appeared, as there is only the official standard one that exists.<\/p>\n

But the first proper individual 2026 show cars should be appearing mid-season, once teams supply the designs to Memento.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe get the CAD designs from teams and use those,\u201d he said. \u201cThe cars will be tailored to them with their own spec aero and things like that.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd we certainly don\u2019t expect them to give us their top secrets. This is a relationship that is built on trust and process, and we have NDAs with all of the teams.\u201d<\/p>\n

The future of show cars\"\"<\/p>\n

Gough is always thinking about how to make the show cars better, which is why he has some interesting ideas for the future.<\/p>\n

Memento is set to launch a new sim based on its latest show car, plus it is working on a pitstop rig so that the cars can be used for tyre change demos at activation events.<\/p>\n

It is not impossible that the show cars could get homologated enough to get an electric engine put in and then be used in actual pitstop practice if teams wanted.<\/p>\n

But the inevitable question that is fuelled by the show cars is how much they cost \u2013 especially because individual teams\u2019 versions are available to buy directly.<\/p>\n

Each car\u2019s price varies, plus there are different specifications available depending on what the customer wants, but you can expect to pay around \u00a3500,000.<\/p>\n

As Gough said: “Our cars aren’t cheap, but teams \u2013 like we saw with Red Bull at the launch \u2013 are using it as their centrepiece.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Max Verstappen revived the \u2018Inspector Max\u2019 social media meme after taking a close look at the Red Bull…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":461710,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-461709","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/461710"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}