My Day at the 2007 Formula 1 Malaysian Grand Prix

[Exarkun]

Guys, English is my second language so please bear with me regarding the narration.

Hi Everyone!

I have been going to the Sepang race since the year 2000 as a guest of McLaren via their partner Mercedes Benz. Usually around thursday before the race, the pass for the Paddock Club arrives at my house along with some goodies. They gave us attendees, a McLaren shirt or t-shirt with their official cap and some form of bag with McLaren and their sponsors logos all over them.

We were 'encouraged' to wear them during the race, but since I'm a big Ferrari fan, I usually try to circumvent that 'encouragement' by wearing RED into the paddock club. I do get funny looks when I'm in there. Everyone else wore black or silver and I'm one of the few with a RED attire. Tehehe..

All shots taken with my Nikon D50 and 18-200mm VR.

#1. The day began by me arriving at the Paddock Club around 11pm. It was a hot but beautiful day. There were hints of dark clouds in the sky but thankfully it did not rain during the race or I would have been confined to shooting from indoors. (That would have sucked)


#2. McLaren's paddock theme for the past 6 years used to be silver and black with a hint of red here and there. This year, with the arrival of Vodafone as their title sponsor, the colour red took a more prominent role in their theme.


#3. The scene inside the McLaren paddock club. It was still early hence the lack of people.


After taking some breakfast, I pulled out my trusty Nikon D50 and started exploring around the paddock, looking for interesting things to shoot and maybe capture some candid moments.

#4. I caught this macho looking photographer chick talking to her friends. Look at her sleeveless, shaved head and tattooed look. Later on she was on the roof with me and a few photogs taking pit stop pictures.


#5. Then I caught Williams driver Nico Rosberg (son of 1982 world champion Keke Rosberg) admiring his hands.


#6. "Ehem, excuse me, who put this mineral water bottle in me? Damnit Jim, I'm a tyre not a dustbin!"


#7. "Left Front, Left Front, Left Front...wait a minute...where are the Left Rears??"


Part two will come immediately after this.

Any comments appreciated!

[Exarkun]

Part Two!

After roaming around a bit, I saw quite a number of Porsche GT3 Cup in front of the Paddock Club. The supporting race was about to start and they were to enter the track through the opening near the Paddock Club at the end of the pit straight.

#8. Some artsy shots of the Porsches.



#9.


As soon as the Porsches were away, the pit lane was opened to the paddock club guests.


#10. Nelson Piquet Jr. (son of Nelson Piquet, 1981, 1983 and 1987 triple world champion) helping Renault practice their pit stops. He is currently their test driver.



#11. Renaults nose. I love the contours of the wings. Shiny too!



#12. Syed Zainal Abidin, Proton ( A Malaysian car company) CEO. "Hallo Hallo?? CFO?? Do we have money to sponsor one F1 team? No?? How come? We are LOSING MONEY!? WTH?? Our cars that sucky??"


Part Three next!

[Exarkun]

Part Three!

Now for some photog action.

#13. Darren Heath of F1 Racing Magazine fame. I love his work. He still uses film along with digital. Some of his shots for the magazine were taken with film.



#14. Another with a bazooka. I'm not a canon user so I do not know what lens is that. But I wish I can afford that. Looks like he's from Sutton Images.



#15.



#16. Photogs in action.



Part Four next!

[Exarkun]

Part Four!

#17. Nick Heidfeld of BMW Sauber. I hate his new grunge look. It's so messy.



#18. Mark Webber of Red Bull Racing



#19. Heikki Kovalainen of Renault F1.



#20. Alex Wurz of AT&T Williams.



#21. Meanwhile, upstairs, earlier, Fernando Alonso made an appearance in the McLaren paddock. Two hours later.. he won the race.


Part Five next!!

[Exarkun]

Part Five!

Now for some pit lane action. There were a number of cars being pushed on trolleys to the Parc Ferme area while I was there. I guess they need to check the cars to see if it conforms to the regulation.

#22. Felipe Massa's Ferrari F2007 being wheeled to the Parc Ferme area. The Ferrari team are so Italian that even the tyre warmers were labelled in Italian. Most other teams label theirs in English.



#23. Mark Webber's Red Bull Racing RB3 with sky-facing opened slots stuffed with rags. I guess to stop from bird shit getting into the car. :hehe:



#24. Ralf Schumachers' Toyota TF107.



#25. A Ferrari dude guarding the pit crew working station. We Malaysians, are fiddly and busy body types, we like to touch things and press things. This dude had to shoo away quite a few numbers of guest.



#26. Kimi Raikonnen's Ferrari F2007 being worked on.


#27. Fernando Alonso's McLaren MP4-22


#28. Nico Rosberg's Williams FW29.


Part Six next.

[Exarkun]

Part Six!

#29. Nico Rosberg's Williams FW29. Front view.



#30. Siti Nurhaliza and her husband. She's a huge Malaysian celebrity. Some of my friends who saw this picture commented that Siti has grown sideways a bit since getting married.



#31. David Coulthard's spare nose.



#32. Paula Malai Ali. Another Malaysian celebrity.



#33. Christijan Albers's Spkyer F8-VII



#34. Some tired looking TV dude. Imagine wearing that suit Malaysian extremely hot and humid weather....


Part Seven next.

[Exarkun]

Part Seven!

#35. The last shot during the Pit Lane walkabout.


It was then time for me to rush upstairs for a quick lunch before heading for the roof for the start. Lunch was ok, the highlight was the roast beef and rack of lambs.

I was so hungry by then that I forgot to take picture of my lunch. Maybe that was fortunate too, or I would have gotten funny looks from the glitz and glams in the paddock. "Why is this kid taking picture of his food??"

After lunch I rushed to the roof to get myself a good position but alas the spot nearest to the start line was full of people. I guess I ate too much and took too long. Hehe..

#36. But I did manage to get Fernando Alonso exiting the pit to go to the start line.



#37. David Coulthard on the way out of the pit lane.


#38. We were allowed to borrow this Kangaroo TV so that we can watch the race while at the roof top. It's Bernie's latest foray into Digital F1 TV I think. You can choose to follow which car with their onboard camera, and basically you decide which part of the track you want to see.



#39. The start line and the crowd in the grandstands.



#40. "Our cars seems to have gotten off without incidents. I guess we won't be needing this. I wonder if I can bring this home?"


Part Eight next.

[Exarkun]

Part Eight!

By this time the race was well under way. Being at the rooftop limits your angle and things to shoot. You can mostly take cars as they enter the pit lane and while they were doing their stop. To take shots of the car whizzing by on the main straight, I needed a longer lens and steadier hold on my camera. Trust me when I saw that most of my shots of them whizzing by are crap.

#41. Rubens Barrichello of Honda Racing on route to his pit stop.



#42. Vitantonio Luizzi of Scuderia Toro Rosso on his way to his stop.



#43. Darren Heath's film Canon EOS 1RS. I was told it's the 1RS. Correct me if I'm wrong. Was also told that this camera has 10fps. Something that only now a digital camera, the Canon 1D Mark III is able to achieve. (In case you don't realise by now, I like to take pics of other photogs and their equipment. Hehe..)



#44. Honda crew in action!



#45. One of my 'story' shots. The pit wall crew was deliberately taken sharp with Kimi's car a blur. Nice added touch is the guy holding the pit board to him. I don't know why but I like this shot. To me it has a story. *shrugs*




#46. Fernando Alonso's first pit stop. Leaned over the balcony with other photogs all around me doing the same. Let me tell you it's an experience you'll never forget! The sweat and the smell and the stinky breath and the hard elbows and the stepped on toes....



Part Nine next! (I have a total 60+ pictures to post. Tehehe...)

[Exarkun]

Part Nine!

#47.



#48. Lewis Hamilton (2nd Place) during his first pit stop. This boy seems to be good! He's a rookie!



#49. Heiki Kovalainen of Renault F1.



#50. "Oooo.. someone's shooting me from above. Ok let's pick this hose up so I look like I'm doing something. Now I need to do a macho pose! HRGGHH"



#51. Giancarlo Fisichella of Renault F1.



Part Ten next!

[Exarkun]

Part TEN!! (Wooh.. I'm already tired of typing )

This part is targeted at the gear heads in the forum.

#52. I wish I can afford this combo. (Yes its an artsy fartsy shots of cameras)



#53. More arty fartsy pic of cameras.




#54. Don't worry Nikonians, here's something for you guys to salivate. Anyone knows what beast is that?



#55. We were all waiting for Ferrari to come in for their pitstop. So naturally everyone was chilling away. Most of the photogs were setting up their shot by leaning over the railing and pre-focusing, etc. This three were leaning over when I swung my camera to take them. At that moment, all three turn in unison to look at me and flashed a big grin! Wahaha... Only person I recognize was Darren Heath. Anybody know who are the others?




#56. David Coulthard of Red Bull Racing



Part eleven next!

[Exarkun]

Part Eleven!

#57. Thousands and thousands of dollars worth of carbon fibre rear wing lying on its side on the ground looking so much like scrap. *Sigh*



#58. Lewis Hamilton second pitstop. Tried a different angle than the first pitstop.



#59. Luizzi.



#60. My one of the few main straight shot that was usable. Like I mentioned earlier, most of my main straight shot was crap. This is one of the few that was ok.



#61. Race winner Fernando Alonso final pit stop.


Part Twelve next!

[Exarkun]

Part Twelve! FINAL PART! Phew!


#62. This is what it looks like during one of the pitstop. I always wanted to take this kind of picture. Almost forgotten to take this until the final Ferrari pitstop. While busy shooting the car, my brain suddenly remembered my goal to take the photogs in action. This is the resulting shot.



#63. Felipe Massa's final stop.



#64. One of the few shots of Renault that I have. Frankly I think this years Renault colour scheme is UGLY! They should have just stick to white and orange. The dark blue spoils the theme!! Someone mention in F1 Racing UK Edition that Renault's current colour scheme is searing to the retinas!



When the race ended, I ran as close as I can to the podium. Managed to get Alonso celebrating his win on his car.

#65. "I RULE!!!"



#66. The double world champion and the rookie. 1st and 2nd place. McLaren first win after being winless in 2006.


Thank you for patiently reading and viewing my experience in Sepang, Malaysia. Comments appreciated. Again like I mentioned in my first post, all shots taken with the Nikon D50 and the Nikkor 18-200mm VR lens.

[enførcer[<o>]]

wow awesome work dude, so many nice pictures, the pit stop ones are crazy, i also like the one with the ferrari on the straight, nice quality from the 18-200

[Queen Pee(nis)]

Fantastic stuff.

Lots of post processing?

[Exarkun]

Actually no. A little bit of levels and curves on some of the pictures. And added the borders. Other than that, its as close to the original from the camera. Oh and only very few pics are actually crops.