F1 Testing - Silverstone

[ArosaMike]

Went to the F1 test at Silverstone today. Took quite a few photos so here are some of the better ones. Also was lucky enough to get a paddock/garage pass for Williams through a mate and got a couple of vids on my phone of the Wurz leaving and then entering the pits. Was pretty cool to see the engineer revving the engine via his laptop when it wasn't even connected to anything with wires!

So...first the two vids:

+ YouTube Video

Exiting the pit box

+ YouTube Video

Returning after a few laps

Now the photos!:


Wurz sitting in the garage (taken on my cameraphone)


Out for a few flying laps and going through stowe.


Sutil lining up for the first of the chicanes.


Sutil on another lap.


Heading up the back straight.


Braking for the second of the hairpins before bridge.


Exiting Copse


The BMW Sauber after rounding Stowe.


Exiting Stowe again.


Raikonnen taking Stowe.


Raikonnen rounding the chicane before bridge. Some kind of front brake cooling discs applied to the front wheels now.


Running a bit wide on the final corner.


Liuzzi brakes for the chicane.


Rounding the chicane.


Kovalainen prepares for a practice start at the end of the pits.


De La Rosa rounding Stowe.


Exiting Stowe and running a little wide. Check out the puff of smoke/dust from the car grounding the kerbs.

All in all was a great day. Good to see the cars again!

[napoleondyna]

Great photos! I like the second one alot. I do think the frame is a but much though.

[fbc]

Great shots - how did you manage to get that sort of access in the pits?

[Devon]

Awesome photos and footage mate, well done!! I want a pit pass

[monkeymax]

For that matter; how did you get into Silverstone on testing day? Can anyone get a ticket to go in?

Great photos though! Did you get to walk around all day? And you don't seem to have had any problems with the fence... just focussed through it or did you go up on the stands?

[otispunkmeyer]

Originally Posted by monkeymax

For that matter; how did you get into Silverstone on testing day? Can anyone get a ticket to go in?

Great photos though! Did you get to walk around all day? And you don't seem to have had any problems with the fence... just focussed through it or did you go up on the stands?

no tis free if you just wanna watch, me n some mates went last year on a whim, turned up, parked and went to the grandstand.

you may need to pay for a pit/paddock pass, but i dunno if you can. one of my mates used to work on placement for mclaren and they invited him into the pit lane as a guest and he got to speak with his mechanic pals.

but he was invited, didnt pay a penny except fuel to get there.

so yeah next time it is on, just turn up!

m gutted i had to miss it this time, especially since ferrari were out....i dont even think they were there last year

[otispunkmeyer]

mike your panning shots are sublime. good job

what the hell have ferrari got on the front wheels? i know they have those discs on the back, to reduce drag no doubt. but whats going on up front? just something with the camera?

[monkeymax]

Yeah, gonna have to head over next time - Silverstone ain't that far from me...

How do you know when they are there (only beginning to get back into F1 after a couple of years not watching it due to mostly working on Sundays...).

[ArosaMike]

Originally Posted by otispunkmeyer

mike your panning shots are sublime. good job

what the hell have ferrari got on the front wheels? i know they have those discs on the back, to reduce drag no doubt. but whats going on up front? just something with the camera?

You know....I thought it was something to do with aero too (like you say...reducing drag or some such), but my mates friend who got us the passes say that they genuinely are what Ferrari say they're for....brake cooling! Having those disc things on helps to reduce the turbulence of the air around the wheel or something like that and it means the heat gets extracted slightly better. Apparently Williams did try it, but found it didn't make that much of a difference on their car!

It's possible the ones Ferrari had on were to hide something they were testing on the brakes, but could also just be a similar idea. Whether that one is broken though I'm not sure, as it seems really odd to have a cutout on one side but not the opposing other. Maybe we'll see them in France? One thing I also noticed about the Ferraris was how soft they were running their rear end. I know it's not a very scientific comparison, but if you have a look at this composition of two pictures I took of the Renault and Ferrari entering Stowe you can really see the difference. When you consider how stiff an F1 car actually is, and the fact that they appear to be about 2 or 3 degrees difference in roll it's quite significant. You can see how much of a gap there is under the car in that side on picture I took too.