Life Thru The Lens – The 2011 season in photos – Part two
F1 photographer Mark Sutton looks back at his favourite pictures from the second half of the season.
Round 11 – Hungary: Heidfeld fire part two
I was quite lucky to be in the right place at the right time for this photo, although it would have been better without the Eni advertising hoarding at the top of the frame. I’m always very critical of my own work but that’s how you move forward and improve your work. In this case I just saw it out of the corner of my eye as I was standing on the tower at turn one. After last year’s incident with Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello, I felt that it would be the best place to view as much action as possible. I saw the first sparks coming out of the side of the car as he was leaving the pits and then it burst into flames right under the Eni sign – a couple of metres further down the road and it would have been perfect for my photo! But like I say, I’m very critical of my own work and I like to have clean photos. It seemed to me that the marshals were quite slow arriving on the scene and that’s when it blew up and spewed carbon fibre across the track. It looks spectacular even though I’m a fair distance away and it was an important photo to get. For Nick, it’s his second fire of the season and very similar to the one he had in Barcelona, so hopefully, for his sake, there won’t be any more any time soon.
Round 12 – Belgium: Schumi’s celebrations
These were the gear ratios from the 191 which Michael ran in his first race because Gachot was in jail! Michael was brought in with the help of Norbert Haug – who was there and almost tearful – as one of his protégés. So it was his celebration and all of the drivers showed up, and in the second picture he’d just opened this keg of beer and given them all a glass, and no-one else was bothering to have a swig while Michael did! The Eddie situation was funny because they’d done all the other presentations but Eddie was hanging in the wings with his gear ratios knowing that he’d get one over everyone else and have his little piece on TV. I saw Eddie come in with a TV crew and thought I’d pick my cameras up again – because it wasn’t really a photo night – probably because they didn’t want shots of Michael getting drunk! Which was fine, everyone was having a few swigs but they probably didn’t drink as much as Michael drank; he was on the keg serving all night. It was obviously Michael’s weekend; everyone cheered him as he finished the race and having qualified fifth here at his first race he finished fifth on his 20th anniversary.
Round 13 – Italy: Webber retires
All these shots are handheld as I’d lost my monopod while I was there, which made it a bit tougher for me. What we try and do as an agency is spread everything around, not everyone’s at the first corner every race. If I was on my own I would probably be at the first corner every race, but I’m not and to be perfectly honest I don’t want to be because I think it becomes a little bit stale. So in some races like in Valencia, here and some other tracks I’ll make a commitment to go somewhere else and do my bit because I don’t mind other people taking the plaudits if there’s a crash. I like Parabolica so I did the grid and then walked down the track, taking some shots of the fans as I went. During the race I had my Kangaroo TV on and I saw Webber run in to the back of Massa, so I was just focussing down the straight at Webber with his broken wing and all of a sudden he locked up, went across the gravel and in to the barrier. I ran down from the tower to this gap I thought he’d come through, but he went back to the last corner and was leant against this truck that was there. It’s quite a nice picture because he’s watching the race but you can see in the background his car being lifted away.
Round 14 – Singapore: Starstruck Kobayashi
This was before qualifying, and the lead singer of Linkin Park – Chester Bennington – was there meeting the Force India team, because they’re huge in India and were playing after the race. All of a sudden Kobayashi comes over and he’s almost bowing in front of this guy, this is his hero, it was a bizarre moment! He was asking him “What are you doing here? I love your music! I really wish I could come and see you but I don’t think I’ll be able to because the race will be going on.” The problem was they were starting at half 10, and the race didn’t finish until ten o’clock, but he said “I’ll try and make it but it’ll only be if I crash out!” And then Kobayashi went and crashed in qualifying so it was quite funny! But then he said, “If I can’t make the concert why don’t you come to the party, we’ll probably be going to the Amber Lounge?” And Chester said “No, I don’t party anymore.” Kobayashi asked him “Why not, you’re a rocker?” and he replied “I’ve got four kids and twins on the way; I’m a family man I don’t go out partying anymore!” That just made it all even funnier, because Kobayashi was in awe of this guy because they’re big in Japan too. They got on so well that Chester designed Kamui’s helmet for the final race in Brazil.
Round 15 – Japan: Our champion
I was quite lucky to get this shot because of my location. There’s a really nice balcony on the media centre but no-one’s allowed outside, which is really odd. It’s like prime position to take photos during the race but we weren’t allowed, but we asked if we could go up after the race, which we were allowed to do. It was a really nice position but we didn’t know what would happen, and unfortunately Seb was third so he was right underneath us. But that gives it a completely different aspect, and with the blue background it’s a real blend of the Red Bull colours. He stood on the car and pointed with both fingers to symbolise his two world titles, and then ran over to his team to celebrate. It’s just a great shot of him stood on the machine that gave him the title, and also shows his special helmet which he was auctioning off for charity. It’s just a really nice, poignant picture of the champion.
Round 16 – Korea: Race start
This is taken right from the back of the first corner grandstand. The reason I went there was to try and get the lovely bridge at the back of the shot. It’s a beautiful structure and must have cost them millions; it’s made out of really heavy wood that you can smell as you walk through. People don’t see the inside but it’s really nicely finished with huge beams and metal rivets. It’s the only iconic structure at the circuit at the moment and it’s great that you can get it in the same picture as the start. But I had to go right to the top of the grandstand because if you were to take the same shot from ground level you would have got the Pirelli banner in the way. It was good to see a packed grandstand and they estimated that 79,000 people were there on race day, which is impressive when you consider how far the track is from Seoul. Having said that, some of them still don’t seem to get it because I saw coaches arriving with fans midway through the race!
Round 17 – India: The start of something special
In this picture you can see the circuit organiser Samir Gaur as he cheered the cars out of the pit lane in first practice. It was funny because he missed the first few cars but he got down there for Vitaly Petrov and Michael Schumacher going out. Sebastian Vettel actually stalled his car as he went out for the first time and had to be pushed back to the pits, but obviously it wasn’t too bad an omen for the rest of the weekend. I said to Samir that I didn’t just want him stood there watching the cars so I got him to give a bit of a reaction by giving the thumbs up and cheering them out. It was just a great display of emotion because he’s put a lot of hard work into the track and at this point it had all come together for the first session of the weekend. Hopefully the area around the circuit will be built up over the next few years and we’ll start to get some more interesting backgrounds for photos. I talked to one of the guys behind the project and the plans sound very interesting, so I think it’s only going to get better year on year.
Round 18 – Abu Dhabi: Mother’s boy
This leads on from the last shot but was taken after the podium celebration and press conference. Originally this shot was just going to be of the team doing the usual three cheers, but then Lewis’ mum turned up and we had to do it all over again. Everyone sat down in their places once more and we did the same celebration shot five times in the end – so if you didn’t get a picture from that, you had no-one to blame but yourself. Normally I don’t think they’d bother if someone was missing from the photo, but because it was his mum everybody was very happy to go through it all again.
Round 19 – Brazil: Brazilian podium
The podium’s really set back in Brazil, and it’s such a big podium that they split it and you literally walk through the podium. It’s the only podium where they do that because you normally come round the side of it. That caught a lot of people out, so when Webber did his jump he did it almost immediately and people weren’t ready! This is basically after the presentations, they light the podium to lift the shadows and then they spray all this tickertape in to the air before starting some music. It just creates a great atmosphere as the podium’s going on, and you can see all the people’s hands going up in the air as the champagne is sprayed. You’ve also got the lovely blue sky in the background and parc ferme down below where the cars are, so it creates a really atmospheric picture as I would call it. We’re well stationed in Brazil on huge platforms and it was just a perfect end to the season.
Life Thru The Lens – The 2011 season in photos – Part one
F1 photographer Mark Sutton looks back at his favourite pictures from the first half of the season
Round 1 – Australia: Red Bull afterparty
The main shot here was taken out of a flower bed so that I could get the angle, and I actually ended up on German TV as Niki Lauda was being interviewed right behind me. I didn’t want to get in the way, but I could see it being a good shot and the only way to get it was to trample on these flowers! I just held the camera up in the air with it pre-focused and set to 1/15 shutter speed and used the flashes from the main press pack for the lighting. Once the photos were taken the first champagne cork popped and Mark Webber – who was understandably a bit pissed off – made a swift exit. I saw my opportunity and got right on pole position to get a photo of Sebastian with a face full of champagne. Everyone else was in the wrong position so I was probably the only one to get the shot this close up.
Round 2 – Malaysia: Felipe Massa locks up
I don’t often do blurry, slow-shutter speed shots but I really like this one of Felipe Massa going in to the last corner. I took it hand held with a 500mm lens and at 1/15 of a second, which is a really slow shutter speed. I’d noticed that a lot of cars were locking up into that corner and I was just looking for something different. As you can see it was quite dull because the sun was behind the clouds at that point and that allowed me to drop it down to a slow shutter speed. It’s also quite an interesting picture because you can see that he has his hand nearly vertically up as he turns into the corner, even though he’s locked up.
Round 3 – China: The queue in qualifying
I took this shot out of the Force India garage on a 70-200mm zoom lens. I was in there for qualifying, because Paul [Di Resta] was doing really well, so I hung around for each session. On this instance, because the red flag came out on the last run of the second session, they were waiting in the pits and they all came out like in the old days and all lined up. Basically if you weren’t out in the first three cars you weren’t going to get a lap in, so it was just nice to see them all lined up again. On this shot you can see how close they are, the red light is flashing at the end, and everyone’s looking over the barrier; it’s all quite tense. All the teams are looking over at all the other cars. It’s nice when it’s a race battle in qualifying to get in to the last ten.
Round 4 – Turkey: ‘Please don’t take away our GP’
There were some great signs and posters in the grandstands over the weekend such as “I love you”, “Marry me” and “Come, come, my blonde, come” – although I couldn’t tell you what that last one means. And obviously there was the one that says “Bernie, please don’t take away our Turkish GP” which was particularly relevant. Some of the fans started shouting my name because they must have recognised me and wanted a photo of them to be published all around the world. There was one guy who kept shouting at me and then added me on Facebook and followed me on Twitter!
Round 5 – Spain: Fighting for the lead
For the end of the race I went down to the first corner because I thought if Lewis Hamilton was going to overtake Sebastian Vettel, then it was going to happen there. This is taken form a bit before the first corner over a brow on the pit straight and it creates this lovely shimmering mirage effect, where you almost get reflections of the cars on the track. The other great thing about this picture is that you can see the shards of discarded rubber on the side of the track. There are piles of the stuff, just imagine how much would be flicked up if a car drove through it to try to overtake. So this shot is actually telling a few stories from the race, the battle between Lewis and Seb, the use of the DRS – personally I don’t think the zone was long enough and they should have started it from the exit of final corner – and the tyre degradation.
Round 6 – Monaco: Geri Halliwell enjoys a Red Bull
This was a funny sequence. I was on the pit wall during the race getting the pit stops and shooting down at the Swimming Pool Chicane. Geri Halliwell was at the Red Bull end and I took a couple of shots of her and her boyfriend, but at one point they all got out a can of Red Bull – whether this was set up I don’t know. They were looking at the can like they’d never drunk the stuff before and then tasted it like they’d never tasted it before, and all this time I was reeling off a sequence of shots, almost paparazzi-style. Then all of a sudden she saw me on the pit wall taking photos and she just started killing herself laughing. So I don’t know if it was a set up because it was a great sequence of photos for Red Bull’s promotion and it’s great for me because I got some interesting expressions from them. She’s a fun person to photograph and she’s certainly not shy of the camera.
Round 7 – Canada: The winning kiss
Jessica and Jenson always create great pictures. There’s a lot of love there between the two of them, they always came in in the mornings over the pontoon to the track holding hands, laughing and joking with arms round each other, and they’re like that all through the paddock. Obviously after the race when Jenson won he went over to hug and kiss her but he still had his helmet on, so it didn’t really work as a picture. I was back at McLaren after the podium because they always do a team photo – it’s a real team effort – and he came back and the next minute there’s a massive thunderstorm, so I was back at McLaren with Jessica. I know her quite well and we have a bit of a rapport, and then Jenson came back when the rain stopped, and I moved this desk out the way just in time for him to run towards her and plant this kiss. It was the first reaction between the two of them, and it’s a great shot. It’s nice to see a bit of love in the paddock between people, it can be very tense but after winning on the last lap it was such a great atmosphere down there. What’s so good about this shot is it’s natural, it’s not set up, that’s an emotional reaction there and that’s the best part of it.
Round 8 – Europe: Champagne moment
This is an unusual angle because I was positioned down in parc ferme to get photos of the top three as they got out the car and I thought I’d try my luck and stay there for the podium. At first I couldn’t see what was going on during national anthems and trophy presentation because I was tucked right under the rostrum where. But as the champagne started to flow Sebastian came forward and sprayed it into his mouth right above me. I think it’s one of the best shots of the podium that weekend because I’m right underneath it and it’s not obscured by spray or shadows. It’s a great champagne moment, and you’ve got Valencia on the side of his hat so it’s identifiable as the European Grand Prix.
Round 9 – Britain: The Eddie and Bernie show
This was a bizarre moment and I must admit I still don’t know what it was all about. It seemed to me like it was all to do with Eddie’s glasses, which are very similar to Bernie’s and very Andy Warhol-esque. Bernie pointed at them and then took them off him and Eddie retaliated by stealing Bernie’s. They had a bit of a pretend scrap before calming down and posing for a photo wearing each other’s eyewear. The two of them obviously have a good rapport going after all their time in F1 together and you can see that in the paddock at most weekends.
Round 10 – Germany: Hurdling Hamilton
We’re normally behind the second barrier where the teams are, but when we were let in to parc ferme we were allowed up to the first fence. So we were sort of in front of all the team. Lewis got out of the car, did all of his celebrations and then was looking around for his team. When he saw the team over behind the mass of photographers he decided to bounce off his car, took a couple of steps and then ‘boom’; straight over the barrier. I was perched on the pit wall and I couldn’t see where he went so I just shot him bouncing over the wall. It’s quite funny seeing the reactions of some of the photographers who are totally unprepared for it with the wrong lenses on. Fortunately I had pre-empted it and got him just as he jumped; he looks like a hurdler or someone mounting a horse. That’s the thing with Formula One; sometimes you’re lucky and you’ve got the right lens on and sometimes you don’t know what the hell is going to happen! It’s not the cleanest picture in the world but I think the photographers around him add to the shot.
Brazilian Goodbyes
F1 photographer Mark Sutton picks his six favourite shots from the Brazilian Grand Prix
Massa’s massive cake
This was to celebrate Massa’s ten years in Formula One and 100 races for Ferrari. Quite a few drivers turned up: Barrichello, Alonso, Schumacher turned up, quite a few Sauber people turned up too because his whole career has been just Sauber and Ferrari. It was a massive cake, absolutely massive, with loads of cars and logos on it. His wife was there with their little boy, and his parents and everyone clapped him when he arrived, it was really nice. This was on the Saturday night after qualifying and then Ferrari gave him an engine cover signed by all the team and the drivers which was a nice little surprise for him.
RunThatTrack
I know I’ve mentioned this before but this photo just displays the number of people getting involved in running the track. For every person who submits their time for running a lap, UBS donates money to the Make A Wish Foundation, and the total passed $190,000 at Interlagos. There was at least 100 people there doing this run, and there’s also some competition too as you post your times online. Out technician – Matthew Kingston-Lee – is a very quick runner and he’s won every race except Monaco, which unfortunately he didn’t run because it was too dangerous and he didn’t have time before the sessions. This was one of the group runs, which I’ve done this year because they donate $300 per person. I’ve been encouraged to do them all next year but I’m not exactly fit for it! At the start we were all lined up and Keith stood 50 metres down the straight to get a shot but I ran at him really fast and burnt myself out immediately! But there’s great camaraderie; I came in second last but they all stayed to cheer me in – I wasn’t worried about the time it was all about getting the charity money. We even won the team championship, but it’s more an individual thing that even team members like Ciaron Pilbeam do and it’s for a great cause.
Hamilton and Massa
I was really lucky to get this shot. I had gone in to the paddock to do the Red Bull team celebration shot, and all of a sudden I saw Lewis go over to him so I just went in there with my camera – bang bang bang – three frames and that was all I got. This is the first frame I got of them hugging, and I don’t think anybody else got it. I saw it happen, I got something of it, you can see there’s some contact and a bit of a smile between the two of them; it’s the perfect picture as far as I’m concerned. The hug would have been nice – it’s sort of half a hug – but I don’t think anyone else got anything. Felipe was literally doing interviews for the Brazilian media, and the door on the left is McLaren so Lewis literally just popped in and shook hands whispered “sorry” or something like that in his ear, and it’s a nice shot. It really tells a story. I was lucky to get it to be honest, and it’s cropped up, it’s literally a frame out of nothing. If you think there’s 70 photographers in F1 you’re lucky to get an exclusive nowadays but that is certainly an exclusive and it ends the feud of the season.
Brazilian podium
The podium’s really set back in Brazil, and it’s such a big podium that they split it and you literally walk through the podium. It’s the only podium where they do that because you normally come round the side of it. That caught a lot of people out, so when Webber did his jump he did it almost immediately and people weren’t ready! This is basically after the presentations, they light the podium to lift the shadows and then they spray all this tickertape in to the air before starting some music. It just creates a great atmosphere as the podium’s going on, and you can see all the people’s hands going up in the air as the champagne is sprayed. You’ve also got the lovely blue sky in the background and parc ferme down below where the cars are, so it creates a really atmospheric picture as I would call it. We’re well stationed in Brazil on huge platforms and it was just a perfect end to the season.
Schumacher’s shredded tyre
I really like this shot because they tyre is just shredded to bits. Our guy was on the back straight and he had a shot of it when the tyre was still intact, so he’s done a complete lap on it and it’s almost fallen off here. It’s amazing he didn’t damage the suspension like Vettel did in Abu Dhabi. I was at the hairpin and he came round with it flapping away, and he was going quite slowly so I was able to just motor-drive it as he came in. I always go on about it but it was so good that I had the Fanvision available to me. There are no screens in Brazil and obviously no commentary for us so I just use it to listen to the 5Live commentary, and I heard “Schumacher and Bruno Senna clash at the first corner, but Schumacher continues…” so I took it out of my pocket and could just follow him round the circuit. That meant I knew which lens to have and be fully prepared. No other photographer has one as far as I know so it gives me a little bit of an edge.
Celebrating champions
What happened here was Red Bull decided to do something different rather than do the celebration shot in front of the garage, and the podium was the perfect place. They even got the lights put back on which was pretty amazing, and there was plenty of tickertape left from the podium ceremony so they just scooped it up and through it in the air in celebration. We just went back on the photographers towers and the whole team was up there, so it was pretty perfect. What this does is it gives you a team picture. It’s all about teamwork at the end of the day, it’s not just the drivers that win the championships it’s the mechanics and engineers, catering staff, management, Renault; it’s about everyone who’s involved in the team at the end of the day. There will be an event in Milton Keynes to celebrate the factory people next month, but I know that a lot of the teams have already got their 2012 chassis built and they’re now building parts for next season. It’s been such a long season but it just doesn’t stop. They’ll be manufacturing parts during December, have the cars put together in January and launched ahead of testing in February. It just doesn’t stop!
