When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Would be interested in seeing images from the members of F1 machinery and people at races back in the day. If you could mention where, when and who that would be great. Not a pro but a serious amateur that attended quite a few races over the years with varying quality of gear, access and skill.
I'll start with a few from Adelaide, Australia Nov. 4 1990
1. Ayrton Senna McLaren-Honda
2. Nelson Piquet Benetton-Ford
3. Jean Alesi Tyrrell-Ford
4. Nigel Mansell Ferrari
Pole sitter and already crowned World Champion. DNF here when gearbox locked up and he spun off. Winner of the race from seventh on the grid. The 3 times World Champion's second last win of his career. Harvey Postlethwaite's revolutionary anhedral high-nose Tyrrell 019 was used to great effect by a rookie Jean Alesi in 1990. Nigel's last race for Ferrari was a second place finish. He would announce his retirement but was convinced to drive for Williams the next couple of seasons. The rest, as they say, is history.
Here are some less than spectacular shots as requested. Both sets from Canada. Lauda in 1985 and Hakkinen in 1998. Gear used was not the best and did a lot of
"roll your own" Ektachrome and home darkroom developing back then to keep costs down, so a lot of grain in the images as well.
Niki Lauda McLaren - MP4/2B TAG/Porsche, 1985 Canadian Grand Prix. Qual 17, Race DNF-Engine After winning the championship in '84 by half a point over Alain Prost, 1985 would be his final year. Mika Hakkinen MP4/13 McLaren - Mercedes, 1998 Canadian Grand Prix Qual 2, Race DNF-Gearbox The weekend in Montreal was one to forget for Mika in 1998. The season as whole was definitely not however, as he won his first championship!
Some "people" shots from the 1986 Canadian GP. Before the track was reconfigured and the new pit garages were built, the teams were out in the open during sessions. They would retreat to garages at the end of the rowing basin otherwise.
Ayrton Senna and Peter Warr. Nigel Mansel and Nelson Piquet. Johnny Dumfries. Alain Prost. Derek Warwick. Thierry Boutsen. Teo Fabi. Patrick Tambay. Ricardo Patrese.
Still have my race program. Cost $5. Road & Track article showing race results. Two fools on top of a small building.
Here is the story of my one and only F1 race:
I first started following F1 in the late 70s. I didn't have cable to to watch it so I got my coverage from Autoweek magazines given to me by a friend. Got cable in 1985 and was able to watch since then. When a friend and I found out F1 was coming to Dallas in the summer of 1984 we both decided we would go. Since both of us were into photography we paid for "Photo Access" (or some such words) which we read in the brochures would give us much better access to areas to take pictures from. I can't remember what we paid for those tickets (for Saturday and Sunday I think it was but somehow $180 comes to mind. I got there late Friday afternoon, my buddy got there later that evening as he had school/and or work. Can't remember where we stayed, I'm guessing somewhere east of the track.
Saturday morning and off to the track we go. We get in, get our "photography access badges" and head out. We had been told we could go up into towers, and up to the holes in the fences to take our pictures. Get to the first tower, nope, can't go up here. Same at the next. Same at the fence holes. By this time there are 10-15 other guys (no girls) who had also not been allowed to go to where we had paid for. We all went to the credentials office and someone was the spokesman and made our case. Low and behold we were given the OK to go up into the towers and much closer to the fence holes - but not right up to them. I can't remember what we saw Saturday, I assume Qualifying (and perhaps a practice session) and a a sports car race of some sort. Did I mention it was hot? I have the Road & Track issue that covered the race and it said at times the track temp was 150 (f), and the outside air temp was 108.
Sunday morning, off to the track we go. We get in and wander into the pits and get some pictures including the only one I have of a driver, Nicky Lauda in his car getting fitted out. We head for one of the towers-nope can't go up. Back to credential office-locked up. Now, me and my friend did not have any grandstand tickets and standing room only meant no pictures do to distance and fencing. We are wandering around and spot a small (10 foot square) building and can see if we get on top of it we will be able to at least get some pictures and see part of the track. Did I mention it was HOT? Temps were same as Saturday. We boosted ourselves to the roof of this little building and found it has a gravel roof. We stayed up there for the entire race, a Dallas cop walked up to the building, looked at us, said nothing and walked away. I did get down once to go get some Cokes for us to drink. I was kinda neat reading the Road and Track article about the race (I read it this afternoon). I do remember seeing an aerial picture of the start finish line and part of the track. In that picture is the little building with a red and blue dot on the roof. In the series of pictures here there is one with a white arrow pointing to us also. I still have the VHS tape of the race and you can actually see us on lap 1 as the cars come around. After lap one they lowered the camera just enough to see our legs dangling if we were sitting down.
Learned my lesson at that race that I would never go to a road course race gain as about all you can see is one or two straights and maybe two turns at best. I was offered free tickets when the Indy cars ran in downtown Houston and turned them down. would rather watch on TV. I did become a season ticket holder at Texas Motor Speedway when it opened in 1997 (?) and had season tickets until about 6 years ago. First turn from Start/Finish from photo tower. Practice, I think. Ferrari pits Note the "moving around" wheels/tires. Rain tires not needed this weekend. Did I mention it was HOT? Practice, I think. Oops. I believe this was the last team using the Ford V8. Alfa Romeo engine. Note the ducting added to get air to the driver. View from a different photo tower. Race tires. Sports car race. Track started coming up. They were working on it until 10:30 Sunday morning. Nigel Mansell was driving for Lotus. He collapsed pushing his car to the S/F line at the end of the race. Was awarded 6th place.. Eye candy. Pits, Sunday morning. Found out or badges would get us in there. Nicky Lauda. Note hoses being added for ventilation. Starting lineup. I guess I saw this in the pits. Race fan. Pit board sign. The start. Note how much lower and thru the fence we are from our little building. Going away from us. This was out view for the rest of the race so no more pictures.
Last edited by B-17/B-25 CC; 11-24-2023 at 12:42 AM.
Reason: added pictures
Great post! Love the back story. Thanks for sharing. Exactly the kind of stuff I was hoping to see in this thread. Started following F1 after reading Rob Walker's race reports in Road & Track at the beginning of the 80's. Watched races on CBC until we went to our first race in Montreal. That was 1983, the year after Gilles Villeneuve was killed, Didier Pironi had his career ending crash and Riccardo Paletti was killed on the start line in Montreal. That first year was General Admission with no camera. Went pretty much every year after with gear that I could afford or borrow and learned the "spots" to shoot. We could get decent access because it was not crazy popular like it is now. Sporadic attendance during the late 90's and 2000's. Kids and life got in the way. Went to Detroit once in 1985. Never saw so much chain link in my life. Adelaide in Australia was the highlight of a once in a lifetime six week trip in 1990. Hoping to do a little travelling soon now that we're both retired and going to add in a GP in which ever countries we pick.
More paddock shots from the 1986 Canadian Grand Prix on Friday practice day. Conditions were cool with a few showers around that day.
Quick bite before getting back to it. Turbo change. Some early carbon/carbon brakes. Rain tires. Now...where is that damn 10mm? Funky transport wheels on the Tyrrell.
Some "people" shots from the 1986 Canadian GP. Before the track was reconfigured and the new pit garages were built, the teams were out in the open during sessions. They would retreat to garages at the end of the rowing basin otherwise.
Ayrton Senna and Peter Warr.
IMO, Ayrton was the greatest driver in the history of all motorsports. Going back and viewing his run at Monaco for example...he is doing things with that car that look simply impossible!!
A few more from Montreal in 1986. Saturday was a much nicer day.
An actual gear lever! Early turbo era, open air, fuel fill before the fuel got super toxic. Lovely. Tool guard. Gear ratio change on the Ligier. Alessandro Nannini waiting for his quali tires.
Some on track action from Montreal 1986. For me personally it was a spectacular weekend with great access and a new decent lens and camera combination. My film stock choices were not the greatest, as I was still learning, but I did manage to get some good shots.
"Red 5", Nigel Mansell/Williams-Honda. P1 from pole. Finished runner up in the championship after a dramatic tire blow out, at 180 mph, during the final race in Adelaide, Australia. "The Professor", Alain Prost/McLaren-TAG. P2 from 4th on the grid. Would go on to win his 2nd consecutive world championship with McLaren. Michele Alboreto/Ferrari. P8 from 11th on the grid. A terrible season for Michele and Ferrari overall. 9 DNFs and some lacklustre results contributed to 9th in the championship. Nelson Piquet/Williams-Honda. P3 from 3rd on the grid. Would go to the final round with a shot at the title and drove well, but Mansell's blow out forced Williams to bring him in, while leading, to change tires. Ultimately would finish 3rd in the championship. 1 point behind Mansell and 3 behind Prost. Derek Warwick/Brabham-BMW. DNF-Engine from 10th on the grid. Derek's first race in the low line BT55 Brabham with the powerful but unreliable BMW. Warwick replaced Elio de Angelis after he was killed in a tragic testing accident at Paul Ricard just a month earlier. Michele Alboreto leads Stefan Johansson in the Ferraris. Stefan would often outpace Alboreto during the '86 season and would actually place 5th in the championship. DNF-Accident from 18th on the grid for Stefan. Thierry Boutsen/Arrows-BMW. DNF-Electrical from 12th on the grid. Thierry's final season in the uncompetitive Arrows. He would move to Benetton in '87 and later to Williams, Ligier and Jordan. Rene Arnoux/Ligier-Renault. P6 from 5th on the grid. First year driving for Guy Ligier after leaving Ferrari at the beginning of 1985. Driving well in an uncompetitive car, Arnoux would finish 10th in the championship. Keke Rosberg/McLaren-TAG. P4 from 6th on the grid. With 8 DNFs and no wins, Keke only managed 6th in the championship compared to his team mate winning the title. 1986 would be his final year in F1. Martin Brundle/Tyrrell-Renault P9 from 19th on the grid. Tyrrell was past the days of competing at the front and even though Martin drove well, 7 DNFs prevented him from getting any higher than 11th in the championship in '86.
Just today I booked tickets for the F1 Hungarian Grand Prix on 7/21/24. It’s part of our large family vacation to Hungary. One of my sons is an amateur photographer and loves photographing cars. I’m hoping he brings his good camera set.
OT but any tips for attending would be appreciated. This is all new to me.
Way back in the 60s I enjoyed watching Jackie Stewart, now Sir Jackie Stewart, race F1. He competed from 1965 to 1973 winning three World Drivers' Championships. He was known as the "Flying Scot".
Just today I booked tickets for the F1 Hungarian Grand Prix on 7/21/24. It’s part of our large family vacation to Hungary. One of my sons is an amateur photographer and loves photographing cars. I’m hoping he brings his good camera set.
OT but any tips for attending would be appreciated. This is all new to me.
Never been to Hungary, so can't speak to that specific circuit but I would say if you or your son want decent pics without a "press pass" you will need to allow plenty of exploratory time to scope out the circuit. Hopefully you can go for all three days. Clear lines of sight could involve using elevation change, gaps in catch fencing at steward's posts or just grandstands overlooking the fences. Often it's a little better on Friday with the smaller crowds. Long lenses will almost always be required because often you need to be some ways back to get that clear shot. Put on good walking shoes and get around during the F1 practice sessions and any support races to find where the best spots are at the circuit, given the light (AM or PM) and access. Above all, enjoy the experience. Seeing those cars live doing what they do in the braking zones and high speed corners is mind blowing.
11-12-2023, 09:05 AM
F1 History
