The Glastonbury Festival is justifiably seen as the Mecca of the music world – taking place on a vast estate and attracting the worlds best acts of many genres, some old some new, to perform on a series of stages to huge crowds of adoring fans. The Mecca of the motoring world is the Goodwood Festival of Speed and this year, for me at least, was the best yet.
Rather than the Pyramid Stage tent, the action centres around the rather more permanent edifice of Goodwood House.
Having been born shortly after the start of the F1 era I could really relate to the central theme celebrating 75 years of the championship. An astonishing array of cars – surely the largest number of F1’s ever seen in one place – was almost overwhelming to the senses. There was representation on the track from all the current teams, the presence of 8 former world champions and many of the genius designers and engineers, notably Ross Brawn, Gordon Murray and Adrian Newey.
75 years is a very long time so it is fascinating to see how the cars have developed over three quarters of a century.
One current subject of debate is just how big the cars have become – to the point where the cars have literally outgrown places like Monaco – where expanding the run off areas, as many tracks have done, is simply not possible These two shots give an idea of just how great the size differences are between the 1.5 litre rear engined normally aspirated cars of the early 60’s and the current 1.6 litre turbocharged hybrid ones.
At the outset cars were somewhat larger – universally front engined and powered by either 1.5 litre supercharged or 4.5 litre normally aspirated engines. Vehicle aerodynamics were little understood at the time so cars tended to be quite sleek with beautiful curvaceous tails. Over time they became very exposed and messy and more recently have recovered their modesty with very complex forms.
Fronts were incredibly less complex than on the cars of today and drivers were hugely more exposed.
One of the joys of such events is the contact one has with other photographers. As my focus is primarily on classic car racing it is rare to rub shoulders with those who operate in the world of F1. It was thus a rare pleasure to shoot cars (and the breeze) with Bob McCaffrey, who works with Red Bull and Getty Images.
Bob, in turn, introduced me to Darren Heath – one of the greatest names in race car photography and someone whose work inspired me almost 30 years ago to devote more time to the subject. His mantras of “knowing where to stand”, “working with the light”, “creating a sense of movement and excitement” and “being passionate” are constantly in the back of my mind. I will never get within a million miles of his level of skill or artistry – but that does not stop me from trying. I would highly recommend visiting his site www.darrenheath.com
In future pieces I will be showing the many other aspects of the Festival – including the antics of the outrageous “Drifters”. F1 cars are, of course, not immune to such antics.
In the meantime here are a few more shots of my favourite F1 Cars in action.
