A couple of weeks ago I got to experience my first ever Formula One event at the Melbourne Formula One Grand Prix, many people say its the best event of the year (except maybe Monaco) being the first event for the new year.
My very first taste of the F1 came late Wednesday afternoon whilst a mate and I were at the pub, the Minardi Two Seater with Cameron McConville at the wheel was running some warm-up laps for rides a bit later, to say I was impressed with the V10 scream is an understatement that’s for sure, wow. We’d get to see and hear this car each morning around 7.20am as our alarm clock.
SO I’ve been to lets say hundreds of race meetings, yet here I am at the Pinnacle of Motorsport and its so laid back, nothing on track till after 9am even later some days, gees at a grass roots event we’d have had 3 races by then! 🙂
Supporting the F1 were the Australian GT’s, Porsche Carrera Cup and of course the V8Supercars. I had a few clients in all classes but really this was a junket event for me (have to thank my wife for that 🙂 )
The media centre was split in two with the National Media Photographers (thats me) on one side, plus the F1 Photogs on the other, then the wordsmiths were in another Media Centre. In ours were Canon and Nikon Professional Services, this was cool, I got both camera’s I had with me a free sensor clean, we got rain jackets for the lenses (which was great as we sure needed them!) BUT the biggest plus was having a play with some great gear! I got to use the Canon 1DX, the 200-400 lens, wow! Plus the new 100-400 which I really enjoyed. I can see some purchases in the near future.
The supports had some great races but with a few to many safety cars! And my take on the F1 was well they were pretty cool, fast – hell yes, noisy, not near enough, would have loved to seen them in the heyday of the V10’s, I regret waiting 40 mumble years to shoot them! But that’s life!
On the upside Auto Action ran a few of my images from the event which was pretty cool too. Here is a selection of images from the event.
And once again thanks to our Photo Sponsors, carselling.com.au and Automobility, without your support this just wouldn’t have happened.
I think I’ll be going back next year ! 🙂
