F1 Fanatic

Lewis Hamilton at the Goodwood Festival of Speed

I snapped over 3,600 photographs at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this weekend.

I managed to get some close-ups of the drivers and lots of pictures of weird and wonderful cars in action and on display. Here are my 40 favourites from the weekend in high resolution:

I was fortunate enough to get into the preparation area on Sunday afternoon:

The scene in the preparation area when I arrived

Aston Martin and Ferrari sports cars wait to hit the track

Here I was able to get some pictures of the drivers at close quarters – including the world champion himself, Lewis Hamilton:

Lewis Hamilton meets his fans

Lewis Hamilton before his final run

Hamilton arrived in the preparation area shortly after his car got there. The fans were lined up several rows deep behind his car, and beginning in the middle, he worked his way down the entire line, signing autographs and having his picture taken with all of them. Then he went to the opposite end of the line and repeated the process until he was back at his car.

Lewis Hamilton gets into his McLaren

Lewis Hamilton in his McLaren

Lewis Hamilton in his McLaren

Lewis Hamilton in his McLaren

This picture (above) was the 3,613th and last one I took at the Festival. Here are some more of my favourites.

Ferrari F300 up on jacks

Also in the preparation area, a 1998-specification Ferrari F300.

Timo Glock's Toyota TF108 is wheeled into the paddock

I was actually sitting on the ground fiddling with the camera settings when I looked up and saw I was about to be run over by a Toyota…

Marc Gene before his final run

Marc Gene heads out for his final run

As you can see from the earlier picture, Marc Gene had his Ferrari moved into an earlier batch on Sunday so the team could get home earlier. This was probably because the event was running slightly behind schedule. I was able to get some pictures of Marc before he got in the car for his last run.

It's alive! The Life L190 manages its first run up the hill

Arturo Merzario squeezes into the Life

On its fourth attempt the Life L190 with its strange W12 engine was finally coaxed up the hill. At the wheel is Lorenzo Prandina, the man who restored the car. As you can plainly see, he was rather too large for the cramped cockpit.

Arturo Merzario drove the car on Sunday – I was there on Friday when he squeezed into the car for the first time, which you can see in the second picture. Merzario, a veteran of 84 Grands Prix, was one of the men who helped pull Niki Lauda from his burning Ferrari at the Nurburgring in 1976.

Kazuki Nakajima back in the first Williams he raced - the FW27

Adrian Newey drives his own creation - and gets two wheels on the grass

Red Bull designer Adrian Newey drove two of his earlier creations over the weekend – Damon Hill’s championship-winning Williams-Renault FW18 and this FW16 from two years earlier.

The 1971 Tyrrell-Cosworth 002 climbs the hill

On Saturday morning there was light rainfall and I’d gone a bit further up the hill to get pictures of the car as they came towards me.

Timo Glock got the Toyota properly sideways

Opposite Glock

Timo Glock was at the Festival on all three days and was still entertaining the crowd with power slides and burnouts on Sunday. You can see the heat haze behind the car in the first picture.

The Shadow-Cosworth DN5 heads towards the imposing flint wall

Not a very sharp picture of the ex-Tom Pryce Shadow-Cosworth DN5, but I like the splashes of colour on an otherwise dark car.

David Coulthard drives the Mercedes-Benz W154 on Friday

I really like the incongruity of Coulthard’s modern Red Bull overalls and crash helmet within the plain silver 71-year-old Mercedes.

Stirling Moss gets reacquainted with his Mercedes-Benz W196

Sir Stirling Moss, on the other hand, went for a period look when he drove his Mercedes-Benz W196, wearing his old overalls.

Lewis Hamilton on the hill

Lewis Hamilton’s first run up the hill on Sunday morning, driving the same chassis he won last year’s British Grand Prix in.

The McLaren-Honda MP4/4 grinds to a halt

Hamilton didn’t get to drive the other car he wanted to, however. The McLaren-Honda MP4/4′s gearbox failed while Bruno Senna was driving it – as this very photograph was being taken.

The Lotus-Cosworth running on Saturday

I was worried when the Lotus 79 failed to appear on Friday, but happily the car that dominated the 1978 championship was running on Saturday.

Audi's display in front of Goodwood House

The Audi Streamliner on the centre display

It was Audi’s turn to construct a display in front of the mansion house, and they suspended an Auto Union Streamliner and a modern R8 V10 35 feet above the ground.

Sir Stirling Moss in the car named after him

Mercedes has produced a variant of its SLR McLaren supercar named after Stirling Moss – and the man himself took the car up the hill.

Lewis Hamilton drives a fan up the hill

Lewis Hamilton, meanwhile, gave a passenger ride to a fan who’d won a competition run by the event organisers.

B188 and B192 Benettons in the pits

For me, this is what makes the Goodwood Festival unmissable – getting so close to the cars you’re practically tripping over them.

Adrian Newey's Leyton House from 1990

I spent a long time poring over this Leyton-House CG901B from 1990, one of Adrian Newey’s earliest F1 car designs. It has classic Newey hallmarks of being incredibly tightly sculpted, to the point of imposing serious constraints on the driver. But it worked – the car came within a couple of laps of winning the French Grand Prix that year.

In the paddock, the car was presented with its various body parts removed, allowing a full appreciation of just how radically tiny and tightly-packaged this creation was.

Old-fashioned gear knob in a 1968 Ferrari 312/68

Michele Alboreto and Rene Arnoux didn't get much leg protection

A saucy up-skirt photograph

The Renault RE30B proved troublesome to get running and was hardly seen outside of the paddock. But I managed to get in to get a close look at its ‘skirts’ – the ground-hugging trim down either side of the chassis which served to suck the car to the ground at speed. They were banned after the final year the car ran, in 1982.

Alain Prost's Toyota Auris

The same man who drove that Renault – Alain Prost – has more recently been driving this car. It’s a Toyota Auris ice racer designed to compete in the Trophee Andros which takes place in France every winter. Prost won the title in 2007 and 2008 – but lost to Jean-Philippe Dayraut’s Skoda Fabia this year.

The arrow-like Williams-Cosworth FW0 from 1978

Not an F1 car, but one of my all-times favourites: a Jaguar XJR12

This one's for Tommy B - Lola-Aston Martin LMP1 beneath the trees

I didn’t just snap the F1-related stuff, of course – here’s two of my favourite Le Mans racers to prove it. Let me know if you would like me to post some more of the non-F1 racing cars.

Marc Gene passes the Mercedes stand in his Ferrari F2008

The championshp-leading Brawn was a big draw, even as a static dsiplay

The only thing I failed to get from the Festival which I particularly wanted was a picture of Jenson Button. I did get a shot of his car though, which wasn’t allowed up the hill due to the 2009 testing restrictions.

The camera

Finally, a few people have asked me what camera I’ve been using at these events. I’m very fortunate that my girlfriend is into graphics and imaging and has recent bought a decent camera and some lenses, which I’m allowed to borrow (if I do my share of the housework, of course!)

I took my Goodwood pictures with a Canon EOS 450D. Most of the ones on this page were done using a Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L USM lens. I also had a Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS for wider angle pictures, but it didn’t get much use. Sorry I didn’t get around to answering your questions sooner!

Loads more pictures

I’m still updating the original galleries with more pictures of the cars – there’s over 400 pictures in there already:

• F1 cars, post-1980 (Goodwood Festival of Speed pictures)
• F1 cars, pre-1980 (Goodwood Festival of Speed 2009 pictures)
• Williams F1 cars collection (Goodwood Festival of Speed 2009 pictures)
• Mercedes and Auto Union Silver Arrows (Goodwood Festival of Speed pictures)

More pictures from other people

• @Knighttyme’s pictures from Friday
• Ollie White’s (BlogF1) set on Flickr

Images © F1Fanatic.co.uk