Behind the scenes at Jerez

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Home away from home - working on F1 Fanatic at the Jerez media centre

Last week I went out to Jerez for the second F1 test session. I’ve had a lot of questions about going to the test, which F1 events I’ll be covering in future and requests for a “behind the scenes” article on the test.

Find out more about my experience at the track below.

Hi, I’m Keith…

Only one airline is flying direct to Jerez on the Tuesday before the test starts and there’s a few recognisable F1 faces on the plane: new Force India test driver Paul di Resta the team’s press officer Lucy.

This being my first visit to an F1 test in a media capacity I spend much of the four days introducing myself to various people. While jostling for Michael Schumacher’s attention in the media gaggle after Thursday’s test, a woman I’m elbow-to-elbow with suddenly demands, “Are you a journalist?”

“Yes”, I retort and, slightly taken aback, can only think to follow it up with, “Are you?” Indeed she was – it turns out I’d addressed my question to one of Bild’s Formula 1 correspondents…

Day 1

Alarm goes off at 6:30. Shower, find the car, find the track.

At the gate a security guard peruses my accreditation documents, then points me back the way I came to an abandoned petrol station barely visible through the dim morning light.

I drive out to the station. By now the LCD on my Citroen rental car’s dashboard reads seven-thirty. One hour until the covers come off the new Red Bull. Can’t miss that. Have to get in.

I’m a little relieved when I finally meet someone I recognise – Sam from Racecar Engineering, who I met at Silverstone last year. He assures me that the level of organisation I’ve seen so far is pretty typical. A woman arrives with wallet full of press passes and a key to the petrol station’s cabin. There’s no power, so we point another rental car at the booth and turn its high beams on.

Accreditation sorted (mine reads “K Kollantine” of “FanaticF1”, but never mind) I drive Sam and his colleague Russell into the track. Next is the scramble to sort out internet connections – the circuit charges ?óÔÇÜ?¼60 for four days on a wired connection. That sorted, it’s down to the pit lane just in time to see the RB6 poke from beneath its sheets.

Base

For all the problems I had getting in, the facilities inside the circuit are excellent. The media suite is spacious and Jerez’s looping layout means you can see both ends of the track from it. Walk up the stairs to the roof and at least half the track is visible, and you can peer down onto the pitlane.

Inside the centre are banks of monitors showing the latest lap times, the best so far, and climactic conditions at the track. There’s also a rolling CCTV feed of the track which is programmed to follow either Fernando Alonso or Michael Schumacher when one of them is lapping.

As the teams aren’t publishing lists of lap times (unlike last year, so I’m told) the only way to get data on the stints each team is doing is to write them all down as they appear on the screen.

I’m told media attendance at the test is much smaller than it was at Valencia – no surprise, given the number of debuts at the first test. Nonetheless there’s easily a hundred journalists, photographers and broadcasters all beavering away on laptops. Though at least one of them seems to spend most of the time playing Farmville.

Close quarters

I make a point of getting out to the track itself whenever I can to get a close look at the cars and how they’re behaving. This is my first visit to Jerez, and I tour the circuit making mental notes of the scenes of various historic moments at the circuit.

Here’s turn one, where a puncture ended Jean Alesi’s race before it had barely begun in 1990. It’s also where Jaguar’s three-car team of XJR-6s eliminated themselves in an embarrassing crash on the first lap of the sports car race in 1986.

Down to Curva Dry Sack, where the 1997 world championship was decided between Michael Schumacher and Jacques Villeneuve. I note Schumacher isn’t turning into the hairpin quite as early as he did that day.

And on to the fast right-handers behind the pits, where Martin Donnelly had that sickening crash in 1990. The barriers are further back from the track now, there’s more run-off, and the F1 cars use the slow, fiddly chicane known rather depressingly as the ‘Senna S’. Except when they’re on in-laps, when drivers tend to cut the slow corner and use the old route.

Having a press pass I can get right up to the barriers, so close you can almost touch the cars. I’m spoiled for choice for places to take photographs from. Here’s a selection of my pictures from the test:

Eats

I’d anticipated the pricey internet connection and expected food to be similarly expensive. So I’m quite taken aback to discover there isn’t any.

Instead, journalists grab a bite to eat at one of the team’s motorhomes where there’s often food left over after their mechanics and other staff have eaten. The upside is the food is delicious, healthy and free. The downside is you never quite know when you’re going to eat.

Red Bull have the largest motorhome (as they have Toro Rosso mouths to feed as well) and it’s right next to the media centre, so it becomes a favourite haunt. Risotto, pasta and salad is washed down with plenty of the company’s cola product, which I’m now hooked on.

I get away from the track by 9pm and eat in in town at a tapas bar: delicious rolls stuffed with chewy chorizo and queso and plenty of cerveza. Sherry is the speciality of the region but I haven’t got a taste for it. Local manufacturer Tio Pepe used to sponsor the Grand Prix in the eighties, and as a result drivers weren’t allowed to spray champagne on the podium.

The drivers

Most of the teams make their drivers and other key personnel available for interviews with the media immediately after the day’s running has finished.

Over the course of the test I see Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button, Michael Schumacher, Vitantonio Liuzzi, Nico Hulkenberg, Adrian Sutil, Lucas di Grassi, Paul di Resta, Sam Michael and Force India’s Mark Smith.

Here a little experience and better organisation would have helped me meet more people and ask more questions. But it’s a good start and helps me generate plenty of original material for the site. Next time I’ll get much more:

Where the action is

Getting to report on an F1 session first-hand was one of the main things I wanted to accomplish in my first year of running F1 Fanatic full-time. Whether I’ll be able to do more of these in the future, and start getting to full Grand Prix weekends, largely depends on whether I can make it cost-effective.

Interest in the test meant F1 Fanatic enjoyed some of its busiest ever days for site traffic while I was in Jerez. More visitors means more advertising revenue, and that’s what pays for flights, hotel rooms and everything else.

At the moment I’m working to get to the final test at Barcelona where we should see the most significant action of the pre-season. If you enjoyed the coverage from Jerez please help spread the word by letting other F1 fans know about F1 Fanatic.

You can also support the site by making a donation – I’ve already received some very generous contributions which helped fund the Jerez coverage. Another way to help the site is by purchasing products from Amazon via this link.

At Jerez last week I posted hundreds of live updated to Twitter, shared hundreds of pictures from the track, and wrote dozens of articles. Whatever suggestions you may have for how I can cover F1 events better in the future, please let me know in the comments.

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

85 comments on “Behind the scenes at Jerez”

  1. Awesome Keith, a great insight.

    1. Excellent Work Keith… Keep it Up

  2. Very interesting. Living the dream, aren’t you :-D

    How exactly does one sort the required accreditation?

    Didn’t realise about the sherry sponsors – much more civilised podium ceremony that would have been!

    1. —Didn’t realise about the sherry sponsors – much more civilised podium ceremony that would have been—

      Haha, I can picture them up on the podium holding a glass of Sherry saying “Jolly good race old chap, well done to you”

      1. I know – the only people I can think of who drink sherry are my grandma and Frasier Crane…

    2. I had to apply to the circuit and FOM to get accreditation. They wanted details of the site’s traffic, the usual sort of stuff.

      But yes, a fantastic experience. I’m desperate to get out there – knowing the cars are on track at the moment and I’m not there hurts…

      1. Just the kind of dedication we need from our editor! Love this article, certainly rivals Jake Humphrey’s.

        Hope you get out to Barcalona next week too.

  3. Hi, Keith. Love the behind the scenes stuff.

    If you are thinking of doing a similar analysis of laptimes this week you might save yourself some trouble and check out http://www.msfree.gr/ms.php?id=10691 Click on a driver and get all his times.

    It has one glitch but you’ll soon spot it.

    1. I don’t see it.

        1. Jarred Walmsley
          17th February 2010, 20:08

          What about the fact that it is not in english???????? Do you think that could be it?

      1. You’re not Keith and you’re trying hard enough. ;)

        The time given final lap of a stint is also given for the outlap of the next stint.

        At least it is for me.

  4. You like red bull cola? Well i guess someone had to, personally i think its terrible, and i like regular red bull!!

    I didnt know about the amazon link though, ill have to book mark it, i always buy stuff off amazon, and seeing as i read this site about 15 times a day, it makes sense.

    1. I love Red Bull Cola but washing down pasta with it doesn’t sound too great :P

  5. Wonderful article Keith, thank you. It’s great hearing what happens ‘behind the scenes’ as it were and quite extraordinary about the whole food situation at the test! I hope you have a good few days and manage to get to Barcelona too. Keep up the good work! :)

  6. Wow great read Keith,
    I wish I could do what you do, my dream job would be an F1 photographer.

    Maybe one day.

  7. Great stuff Keith! I hope you can write a similar article at every F1 event you attend as a journo, it provides a great insight.

  8. I can’t figure out how to make the Amazon link work.

    Regardless, fantastic article Keith, hope you can get to Barcelona.

    1. If you’ve got an adblocker switched on, that might be the problem – my Adblock Plus hides the Amazon widget on that page (took me a while to figure that out!). Add it to your exceptions list and see if the widget shows up.

      1. Mouse_Nightshirt
        17th February 2010, 20:26

        This is the only site I turn adblocker off for – every little helps Keith, which in turn helps us get amazing reporting and analysis :)

  9. Great Keith. Each of us, I think, would like to be in your clothes.

    ” I note Schumacher isn’t turning into the hairpin quite as early as he did that day.”…SARCASTIC!!! :-D

    1. Or maybe just shoes.

      1. Sorry, literal italian translate is not the same…

  10. Great Article Keith.

    Good luck getting to the Barcelona test and other events during the year.

  11. Very interesting Keith!

    Hope you can make it to Barcelona!

  12. Keith,
    Waiting you here in India 2011

  13. I’m with them ^^^^

    Great Article, the sort that other sites don’t really deliver. If you can keep articles coming from a fan’s perspective on the inside, rather than a journo’s there is a lot you can tell us that other sites don’t.

    Looking forward to more of the same.

    1. TheGreatCornholio
      17th February 2010, 12:52

      Ditto:) Totally agree with this chap, this is the sort of article that after reading it i thought “why the hell has No-one done this before”! Bravo.

    2. I think your behind the scenes take on the sport could really be your hook for the site. We can get times & pics from lots of the other sites, but no one is doing what you did with this piece. Please keep it up.

      1. Keith? Don Watters is correct. My suggestion for future articles was to be the “Fan behind the scenes” type of chap.

        You know: We are F1 anoraks and seldom, if ever (don’t get me started on Canadian GP stories ;)) get to experience the true ‘up close and personal’ experiences of the insiders to The Grand Prix Circus. Back in the early eighties in Montreal and Detroit, one would often get to meet drivers, team leaders and mechanics at the porta-loos or exits and so on.

        Now, things are so rigid and secure.

        Your hook, Keith, for this site, could be as “the every-man”, one of us! Write your usual articles, but also include the olde: “Jings, I interviewed Michael Alonso and Fernando Vettel!” type articles.

        Us Walter Mitty sorts may then live vicariously through your experiences.

        And, if I ever get around to it, I shall pen you an article on marshalling, and fan-dom in general.

        Andy

  14. great stuff Keith! keep up the good work!
    F1 Fanatic Fan here.

  15. Wonderful tale, as to be expected. Congratulations again, Keith.

    Speaking of the Amazon shop — it does not seem to be working now (the search box is not there); and would it support the various country-specific stores, or just Amazon US?

  16. This is quite mediochre really, but you have accidentaly typed Jere’z in the Base section of the article. My eyes were drawn to that strait away!

    How to get to go, can you just pretend to be a journo or do you need an invite?

  17. brilliant article keith. i do think f1fanatic needs to be advertised a bit more- flyers/stickers/internet etc.

  18. Keith, will you be attending many races this season?

  19. Really enjoyed your background & your site in general. Its always one of the first I check every morning to see what is really happening in the F1 World. Still hope you manage to squeeze some of Le Mans though :)

  20. Keith, great work as always. Really happy for you that you’re getting to do something you love for a living.

    I have to ask, how much of a risk was it for you personally to decide to run the site full time??

    1. Interesting question! It was a calculated risk, I looked at the site’s figures and income and took the decision.

      But it’s not like I’m doing this with a family to support, there’s just my girlfiend and I in our household and we talked it through a lot before I took the plunge.

  21. Fantastic article, Thanks Keith for your efforts to keep us up-to-date. Thank you again.

  22. STRFerrari4Ever
    17th February 2010, 13:42

    Great article seems like it was a great experience!
    And I knew you’d always turn into a Red Bull Cola addict :) remember when you did the article on the STR4 launch ;)

  23. Well done, must have been nearly as exciting as driving at the test!

    I particularly liked the photos and live updates, here and on Twitter. I’m kind of missing those today, there seems to be less media again at the test this week.
    Hope you can make it to another test before the season starts.

  24. Loved the article. I bought two books from Amazon UK last week even though I could have gotten them cheaper from the US Amazon. It’s all good though because I appreciate the work you do on this site.

  25. Hi Keith,

    Great coverage on the test, really good insight. I was there myself on Staturday, in the main grandstand, freezing! Didn’t matter so much though, plenty to keep me entertained on the track.

    Little off topic: I know it’s not your fault, and I’m only saying this as a heads up to other people, but the disabled facilities are terrible. I’m 17 and weigh 12st and my father and two strong friends had to carry me up two flights of stairs because there was no lift to get me to my seat, and the nearest disabled toilet was miles away, meaning I missed about 30 min of action whenever I went.

    Again, that’s only to help other people. Otherwise great day, great article and great website, thanks Keith.

    Nathan

  26. Terrific article, Keith – and it goes without saying that I am horribly jealous! Relly pleased for you though. And don’t go drinking too much Red Bull Cola – it’s delicious, yes, but once it gave me the jitters and my temperature soared!

  27. Well done Keith. Hope this site is getting bigger and bigger, attract more visitors and can generate benefit more than you need to cover everything about our beloved sport.

  28. Excellent article Keith.

    This has to be one of the best ever written articles on F1Fanatic.

    “Rolling CCTV feed programmed to follow Alonso or Schumacher”, “Schumacher braking early” – ROTFL!!

    Also, good to know that there are power cuts in countries other than India as well :). Here, they can be pretty irritating.

    1. Also, “one of them seems to spend most of the time playing Farmville.” – Hilarious!!

      1. The others would surreptitiously hit his ‘mute’ button when they got sick of the sheep noises. I’m not making this up!

        1. lol!!!

          Great article Keith.
          Here’s to you attending more F1 action…

  29. One day, i go to put Motorizado page’s on a high profile!!!

  30. Nice to see you are doing what you love most (professionally speaking, of course)
    Good article and waiting for more!

    1. “and start getting to full Grand Prix weekends, largely depends on whether I can make it cost-effective”

      why don’t you try to ask us (the readers) to contribute for funding your GP weekends? Joe Saward is asking for 35 GBP for meeting him, and it seems he is having some success.

      I know some readers aré going to laugh out loud, but who knows, maybe you get some funds for covering one or two GP in Europe.

      1. I think I’d need to accumulate a few more years in the paddock before I could offer something like that and make it good value for money for people. But I’m always open to ideas!

        1. It would be really cool if you could produce some F1 Fanatic merchandise, maybe Tshirts, hats, car stickers etc. Maybe with a bit of humour? “FOTA Rules” etc. It would definetely help fund the site and I’m sure they would be a big hit!

          1. Yeah and we could all get together and wear them at silverstone!

          2. Merchandise is one of those things that’s been on the lower end of my to-do list for too long. This year, I promise.

  31. Congratulations Keith. Its great to see an obsessive fan work their way into the journalist quarters and get involved. I hope you’re able to make the running of the site cost effective, and that you’re able to attend full race meetings. Best of luck to you!

    As a side note, is there a video of the Jaguar 1986 Jerez incident you mention? That sounds rather impressive.

    1. I used to have a clip of it on a 1987 VHS “Car Wars”. I can’t find anything online, but there are a few copies of the video knocking about on ebay if you really have to see it.

      It’s been years since I watched the video but from memory there are a few clips of Formula Ford races featuring stars of the future, like Damon Hill, Bertrand Gachot and Roberto Moreno. Might dig it out again actually…!

      1. Wow Dan I used to have the same video!

        1. Haha, I used to love it when I was a kid – but looking back I can’t belive anyone would pay over £10 for half an hour of footage, a fair amount of which was actually boats!

    2. I found a video of this incident online – it’s at http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xy41q_1986-r6-jerez_sport

      1. Thanks!

        It wasn’t as spectacular as I’d hoped, but its quite impressive nonetheless. The team boss must have been furious!

  32. Schumi_the_greatest
    17th February 2010, 15:01

    good to see your hard work on the site is paying off, you must have had no free time for the 1st few years running this site and working your normal job, to be fair there’s always at least 3 new articles everyday and your doing it all by yourself.

    good to see its going well and hopefully we’ll get to see more behing the scenes articles in the future, gives a great insight

  33. Is there a way to buy stuff off the amazon link here in the US?

    1. Do you not get the US site when you click through? If not I’ll look into it.

  34. Since putting this up I’ve had a few more, very generous, donations from readers. Thank you very much, it’s deeply appreciated.

  35. AWESOME STUFF.Feel bad that your mane is spelled wrongly,but very jealous that you enjoyed more then we did while sitting in front of the web.Will definitely try to increase your visitors.
    CHEERS FOR Barcelona.

  36. Way to go, Keith!
    Great reportage-what it is like to actually do it.
    Also loved the track history…lots of memories.
    Continued good luck to you.

  37. Great article. I’ll join the list of envious posters!

    I’d addressed my question to one of Bild’s Formula 1 correspondents…

    You’re a natural! Taking a leaf out of Brundle’s book and annoying the Germans already! :D

  38. Amazing Keith!

    Every single day this blog keeps getting better!

    Keep up the good work and I promise to visit every single day.

  39. Great article, Keith. I’m happy for you and wish you continued successes with the site.
    ps. Go Alonso!

  40. I’ve been visiting this site daily for a season and a half now and I love it. Nothing else comes near. When all the news sites aren’t reporting any news you always manage to fill the gap with some sort of interesting write up.

    I visit your site before I go to work, every hour at work and a quick peak early evening.

    And when I get bored at any time in between the above mentioned time slots, I try here first and then watch ayrton senna videos on youtube!

    The first race I ever watched was Imola 1994 and I wanted so much over the years to see what the hype was around Ayrton Senna, apart from watching his crash and feeling so sick when I found out the terrible news! This site made me look further into things and made me realise how much information there is out there! (And alot of it is here!)

    F1 is pretty close to being my religion, and F1 fanatic fuels my addiction to F1. Without it, I wouldn’t be the walking F1 encyclopedia I am!

    Thanks for filling every bored moment in my life! :D

    1. You’re welcome – will do my best to keep satisfying everyone’s F1 cravings, including my own!

  41. Great article. As others have said, this is the sort of thing that sets F1Fanatic apart from the rest.

  42. keith if you can get 2 press accreditations i have plane tickets with your name on for Montmelo tests. Plus free services of a local guide. drop me a line.

  43. Keith great article… Great site… Only found it a couple of months ago, now its a daily read. No how you feel missing this test . I went to valencia test for tuesday and wednesday now wish i was back out there……. Good luck on future trips. keep up the great work.

  44. hey Keith,
    it looks like you have made quite some people interested in your site. do you have an autobiography maybe? or better yet could you write an article about yourself and how you got to this point in your life where so many people are visiting your site daily?
    i only just started following you but i think your site is really cool.
    chris from holland

    1. Questions like this are not good for my ego! I’ll get a bio on the site at some point.

      1. Keith? This is not a slag, as I do not know you. But, using some basic psychology, I shall proffer advice. Do not include a bio, other than that which you have posted at the bottom of each page.

        F1 fans, or fans of anything think they know the writer, singer, artist, guitarist … When words or music or ideas are espoused, the reader’s mind fills in the blanks and makes the story their own. That is why so many folk who have read a book are dis-appointed with the movie.

        Give a brief outline of your blogging career and F1 experiences. DO NOT include personal details. “What, he likes cricket? Massive poof!” reactions are to follow.

        Most successful writers have a fan base that feels they truly know the author. Keep it that way.

        Familiarity breeds contempt, and all that. Just my two cents. Take or leave the advice at one’s leisure.

        For examples of great journalists (not writers) read up on Max Burns of Cycle Canada fame, or John Egan from Road and Track and other publications.

      2. I must say over the time I have been here the articles have become less ‘fan’ orientated and lot more neutral, always been well written though.

        You doing a awesome job Keith…!

      3. i would stil like to find out how basically a f1 fan became a reporter? what is your background?
        greetings

  45. Has tears in my eyes Keith ..

    You’re a true fanatic indeed !!

    I bow to thee

  46. Well done Keith! Brilliant job covering the Jerez test. There sure was plenty of buzz around testing that week and you did well bringing us an excellent first hand coverage.

    While this is not only an excellent site for F1 news and F1 community, the website serves as a record of your journey to what hopefully will be the top.

    Love hearing the stories about how you picked up your passes – Ooooh the glamorous world of Formula One!

  47. a great read; like others I’d love to read more like this.

  48. Gosh, I’m suddenly feeling jealous O:)

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