Pics from Tuesday's F1 testing (56K keep away)

Z102

Z102

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 25, 2005
Messages
513
Location
Valencia, Spain
Car(s)
'07 Ford Fiesta 1.6 Sport
Given that my new job is in Valencia city, and that Tuesday was a local holiday, my new colleagues and I decided to spend the day watching the F1 testing taking place in Cheste. Unfortunately, many people seemed to have the same idea, so the road to the circuit was completely jammed, which meant, in my case, 1 hour to get there (usually it only takes about 30 min) and, once in the circuit, about two hours' queue for the tickets. This meant that by the time we finally sat down, most teams were in the middle of their lunch break, so the first minutes were not very interesting. At first there was only Red Bulls and Toro Rossos lapping the circuit. The Red Bulls specially put on quite a show:

http://img507.imageshack.**/img507/5775/rbrskid1resizejj1.jpg

http://img205.imageshack.**/img205/9310/rbrskid2resizesc8.jpg

We were lucky to snap this photo of the Force India, because it didn't finish this lap (there was smoke coming out of the engine), and didn't come out again:

http://img251.imageshack.**/img251/9646/forceindiaresizehr9.jpg

A few minutes later the Toyotas joined the Red Bulls, and being in the Doohan curve we saw some overtaking action:

http://img505.imageshack.**/img505/1928/toyotavsrbrresizewt5.jpg

A closeup of the Toyota:

http://img179.imageshack.**/img179/6209/toyota03resizelr7.jpg

As the afternoon progressed, more teams came out, first of which were the Williams, in a nice black livery:

http://img341.imageshack.**/img341/8360/williams2resizeom7.jpg

And then the Saubers, which sounded incredibly loud:

http://img165.imageshack.**/img165/2179/sauber02resizenu8.jpg

After this, all hell broke loose, and all the big ones started coming out. First the Ferraris:

http://img126.imageshack.**/img126/6184/ferrari01resizerf8.jpg

And then the McLarens:

http://img403.imageshack.**/img403/3636/mclaren02resizepp7.jpg

And, finally, the most awaited of them all: Fernando Alonso's Renault:

http://img519.imageshack.**/img519/8881/alonso03resizees0.jpg

http://img519.imageshack.**/img519/3766/alonso05resizeho8.jpg

All of them lapped the circuit for a while, till one of the Hondas, we think (it was a completely white car, we're not sure what it was), skidded out of the track and the session was stopped for a good 15 minutes. In these crappy pics taken with my crappy camera (the ones until now were taken by one of my colleagues, using a 10mp Panasonic) you can more or less make out a white car in the gravel:

http://img132.imageshack.**/img132/5317/hondacrashxg4.th.jpg

http://img88.imageshack.**/img88/2184/hondagruame3.th.jpg

This was a pity, for two main reasons: one, it was by far the loudest of all the cars present, and second, the session was stopped for about 15 minutes until they took the car away.

After they took away the Honda, the testing was resumed, but we decided it was time to leave in order to avoid another traffic jam to Valencia, so we watched Alonso for a couple more laps and went home. But before getting to my car, I snapped a picture of this beauty in the car park:

http://img245.imageshack.**/img245/5833/lanciadeltamartiniresizxg8.jpg

Finally, here are a few random shots from both my camera (crappy, faraway ones) and my colleague's:

http://img135.imageshack.**/img135/1589/ferrari05resizesh8.jpg

http://img254.imageshack.**/img254/815/redbull02resizelg9.jpg

http://img523.imageshack.**/img523/2381/williams02resizekb4.jpg

http://img99.imageshack.**/img99/1373/mclarenvsredbullresizemk1.jpg

http://img526.imageshack.**/img526/9479/hondaresizecm5.jpg

http://img175.imageshack.**/img175/6320/redbull02resizexh6.jpg

http://img175.imageshack.**/img175/5488/tororosso01resizewa1.jpg

http://img91.imageshack.**/img91/3634/tororosso02resizenj2.jpg

http://img525.imageshack.**/img525/4769/toyota07resizesu1.jpg

http://img521.imageshack.**/img521/9624/mclarenvsrbrresizegq2.jpg

http://img220.imageshack.**/img220/6697/mclaren09resizeuc2.jpg

http://img235.imageshack.**/img235/4111/mclaren10resizewq5.jpg

http://img120.imageshack.**/img120/7457/ferrari03resizeht4.jpg

http://img110.imageshack.**/img110/6350/sauber01resizedh0.jpg

http://img87.imageshack.**/img87/8767/williams03resizezo6.jpg


I didn't think this belonged entirely in the Photography forum, since these are just a random shots, with no artistic intention whatsoever. Mods/admins feel free to move it there if it need be :)
 
Thank you for posting these, nice pictures.

And yes the all white car is indeed a Honda.

How much were the tickets for testing?
 
Fantastic pics! I had no idea that testing sessions were such big spectator events. The season seems so far away. :cry:
 
KaJuN said:
Fantastic pics! I had no idea that testing sessions were such big spectator events. The season seems so far away. :cry:
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Well apparently there was a Valencia (could've been Jerez, I can't remember) session that drew a crowd of 35 000 people! As far as I know it definitely isn't the standard, but I guess good wather and the chance to catch most of the new cars in action, plus the Fernando factor, was quite appealing.

Interesting photos and thanks for sharing! :)
 
Nice photos, thanks for sharing. :)
 
Great photos mate. :cheers:

It's good to see the cars on the track. And I have to one up KaJuN, I didn't know that off-season test sessions drew so much crowd.

Shame about the Honda spinning out, seems like it sounded amazing. I'm looking forward to hearing it for myself in a month and a half's time.
 
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Z102 said:
We were lucky to snap this photo of the Force India, because it didn't finish this lap (there was smoke coming out of the engine), and didn't come out again
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Poor Fisichella, I hoped that Force India would be quite competetive, but it seems that there will be many problems with the car.
 
Thank you :)

I just love that Williams :rolleyes:
 
Testing period usually doesn't get a huge crowd. It's because the testing was in Spain and Fernando was ther. That is the only reason there was 35000 people watching.
 
Gman333-X-ferrari said:
Great photos mate. :cheers:

It's good to see the cars on the track. And I have to one up KaJuN, I didn't know that off-season test sessions drew so much crowd.
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As Red_Bull and Cpt. J have pointed out, Fernando has a huge following in Spain. Even people that never watched F1 before are now fans. Couple that with the good weather (my car's thermometer read 30?C when I picked it up to leave) and the fact that most people working in Valencia didn't have to go to work that day, and you have a huge crowd: between 35000 and 40000 people. I don't think testing anywhere else in the world would attract so many people.

Gman333-X-ferrari said:
Shame about the Honda spinning out, seems like it sounded amazing. I'm looking forward to hearing it for myself in a month and a half's time.
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By all means go and see (and hear) it for yourself. It was by far the loudest of all the cars there. Every time it passed in front of us everything vibrated. The Saubers were pretty loud, too, but by far the best sound was the Honda's.

maateuszz89 said:
Poor Fisichella, I hoped that Force India would be quite competetive, but it seems that there will be many problems with the car.
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It's too soon to say, but they still have a long way to go, that's for sure. The fact is that they were the only ones missing during the afternoon. I don't know wether they came out in the morning (the session started at 10am and as I said we couldn't enter the circuit until well past midday), but we only saw the car do two laps before it had to go back to the pits with smoke coming out of the engine.

AnGuRuSO said:
Man... F1 is so mean, I can't believe you had to pay for a testing session. How much were the tickets?
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Tickets were 5?, plus the price of a few sodas and Ruffles to keep our stomachs distracted, in all less than 10?. Frankly, going to a movie costs double that and very often you don't enjoy yourself half as much :)
 
you had to pay.... maybe silverstone should do that, when i went to watch testing there we just waltzed right in, sat down, got our ears pummelled and then went home.
 
Two things.

1) Wheres the photo of the Force India?

2) HONDAS!! WOOHOO!! LLLLOOOOUUUDDDD!!!
 
Its back now.
 
HondaF1 said:
Two things.

1) Wheres the photo of the Force India?

2) HONDAS!! WOOHOO!! LLLLOOOOUUUDDDD!!!
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The sound the Hondas were making was just the sound of the new aero sucking air into a vortex of mediocrity at the rear of the car :p
 
I must say, the Ferrari and Williams are definitely the best looking cars this season. In the shots posted above anyway. Something doesn't feel right about the McLaren and the BMW is too busy.
 
maateuszz89 said:
Poor Fisichella, I hoped that Force India would be quite competetive, but it seems that there will be many problems with the car.
Click to expand...

It wasn't the new car they were using...so there is some slight hope...
 
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