Massa’s helmet-cam lap of Jerez (Video)

Posted on

| Written by

We don’t see enough helmet-cams in F1 – the last time I remember seeing one was during David Coulthard’s final appearance at Interlagos in 2008.

Happily Felipe Massa has given one a try during testing at Jerez recently – check out the video above.

But you have to wonder what the pictures would have looked like had he been wearing one at the Hungaroring last year…

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.

43 comments on “Massa’s helmet-cam lap of Jerez (Video)”

  1. Great video, just a pity the camera isnt a small bit higher, or someone tell Felipe to lift his head up :).

  2. No. Felipe, keep your head down… and safe this year.

  3. Great video. Some comments:

    I wonder what all those pushing buttons and changing settings before he exits the garage really are…to me the driver has really too many stuff to take care as he’s driving. May be they don’t overtake because they have other things to worry about! (joking…partially!).

    I wonder why they have speed indication on the wheel. What would it exactly be for?

    Would be great if we hade helmet cameras on during races.

    With the very high nose cones of 2010 cars it is really hard to see to the front of the car. They can’t imagine where exactly the front is. Wouldn’t surprise me if many will touch the back of the front car during close battles.

    1. ” the driver has really too many stuff to take care as he’s driving. May be they don’t overtake because they have other things to worry about”

      Agreed, agreed, agreed.

      1. On the contrary, when the drivers had to use a stick shift to change gears, it often opened up opportunities for overtaking if a driver makes a mistake.

  4. Very cool stuff. Nice to see Massa looking smooth behind the wheel. Was this officially released by Ferrari? No in car footage out there from any of the others, I guess?

    1. Was this officially released by Ferrari?

      Yep, it was originally posted on their website (warning for autoplay).

  5. Didn’t Massa try out a helmet cam in testing a couple of years back? May have got muddled up there.
    Wish there were helmet cams during races as Coulthard’s was excellent!
    I like onboards for the angles we get to see but the quality is so high and they are so strong and unmoving that it makes driving a Formula 1 car look easy. Sometimes I wish we had the cameras they used like in the early 90s as they gave a real sense of speed.

    1. Yeah, I remember Massa used a helmet camera at the F60 shakedown at Mugello last January.

  6. It’s a nice idea, but in future it would help if Ferrari would actually point the camera in the right direction. We get a great view of the cockpit and steering wheel but not much else!

  7. Oh. It the video doesn’t seem to want to play on my connection…that’s strange as I’m in the UK and don’t normally have any problems with vids posted on here…

    1. what was the error message?? cant help without knowing….#:)

      1. There wasn’t one, couldn’t even get that far. The play button on the above viewer is greyed out and even if I do try clicking on it nothing happens…

  8. Fantastic, I was probably leaning into the corners with Felipe by the end. That shows the battering a driver gets much better than the fixed onboard cameras, as steph pointed out. Just tweak it upwards slightly and it’ll be perfect.

    Its also proves the drivers never look in their mirrors…

  9. That engine sounded like the ones in the early 1990’s

  10. I prefer the videos from helmet cam they released last year as it shows more of the track. I think there was some talk about every driver having a helmet cam last season but it obviously didn’t come to be for some reason.

    Here is a video showing Massa around Bahrain track aired last year at Italian television. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIvyhjzFRO0

    1. Sound is a bit out of synch on that one, I was impressed by how early he was getting on the throttle until I realised that :P

  11. I like the camera that is placed under the track at Melbourne and the cars whizz past real close to it and sometimes drive right over the top of it!

    1. I think most tracks in most series use those. The hillbilly announcers of NASCAR call them “gopher cams.” They get points for an amusing name.

  12. I dont think this is the 2010 car. The Jerez test was february 2010. At the end of this film appears (C) Ferrari 2009………….

  13. Wow, that was MUCH better than my experiences with cameras fixed on the cars. They’re so common place now, it took watching some footage from ’86 and seeing what kind of a fuss they made of having an in-car camera to realize how special it used to be getting to see these views. But anymore, with them statically pointed where ever the car is pointed, it feels like a video game. This felt intensely more like actually being in the car, leaning into the corners, looking where I’m going rather than staring straight ahead. As a film nerd, I have to imagine this is what it felt like to the first cinema-goers ducking from the oncoming train on the screen.

    1. I don’t think we got Massa’s veiw there really. I mean all you could see was the nose. I think a lightly better placed Helmet calm would have been fantastic but this just left me wanting imporvements.

      1. I agree a better view of the track ahead would have been ideal, but I still enjoyed it. To each their own.

      2. I agree – other two videos with Massa’s helmet car that were posted show better angle.

  14. wow…loved the video and the sounds of course….now i am excited and cannot wait for the 1st race of the year

  15. cant see much till it gets to about 4:00 then u can see some of the track lol xD

  16. Was this thing mounted by a blind person. Why has he directed it toward the floor? Not very exciting, looking at the steering wheel for the duration of the video :/

    1. There is nothing wrong with there the camera was placed. The problem was that Felipe was at maybe half throttle for 98% of the lap.

      On a few brief occasions, when he was at WOT and his head was firmly against the headrest because of the acceleration G-force, the view of the track was almost PERFECT.

      Watch again and pay attention at 4:20 to 4:22, 4:00 to 4:02, 3:53 to 3:56 and 3:05 to 3:09.

      Blame Felipe for going 4 tenths lol

      BTW – absolutely love this site – lurk often and I’m happy to drop post #1 here from the states.

  17. Great video, F1 should definitely have more of those.

  18. Amazing!! More helmet-cam’s please!!!!! :)

  19. Helmetcams are great and I hope they become commonplace. However, its not hard to see that mounting it above a drivers head is not that great as you get more or less the same view as the in car cam with tilting.
    David Coulthards cam was also wrongly placed as it was too low. The best place IMO is on one side of the helmet in line with the drivers eyes. Of course this may not be feasible especially for safety reasons, but still worth thinking about.
    What if we had 2 cams either side of his head so we could have F1 in 3D? Maybe I’m dreaming. Lets get HD first. :-)

    1. Not silly at all, but for 3D, need to mount the cameras on the sides and top of the airbox. For the true driver view, both sides and top of helmet required, but then said safety issues ensue – even then, cameras would be very close to each other, thus minising the effect.

      FOM are stupidly protective of their product. ‘Bleed a little, sell more’ doesn’t seem to have occurred to La Gnome. Is Bernie not a silver surfer? Ah well.

      As you say HD is priority. BE doesn’t believe there is much take up yet on this either. I am assuming he knows we’ve got colour sets now at least?

      Bernie, time to put something back. No one lives for ever, but a legacy gift to the sport you helped onto the big stage, that could carry your name?

  20. camera is not good height, might as well use the t-cm on top of air intake it’s that high.

    If the camera was at ‘eyeline’ then it would be great.
    The drivers eyeline is basically only just high enough to see over the front of the cockpit body work, unlike this helmet cam vision where the eyeline looks as if it’s on top of the helmet or middle of the air intake.

  21. toyota had a ad on tv where they had a perfect helmet cam…

  22. That is a great video but why would they try it on a wet track?.. save that for a good dry day and then they can really light it up.. that was definitely the 2010 car as the nose had the Red Bull bumps.. :)

    1. theres no red bull bumps

  23. Jraybay-HamiltonMclarenfan
    1st March 2010, 17:42

    I remember he had a helmet cam last year in mugello and Bahrain but they were positioned perfectly and you could see the track in front and the wheel as if you were the pilot :D . What happened here? Still a good video tho :D .

  24. here is nothing wrong with there the camera was placed. The problem was that Felipe was at maybe half throttle for 98% of the lap.

    On a few brief occasions, when he was at WOT and his head was firmly against the headrest because of the acceleration G-force, the view of the track was almost PERFECT.

    Watch again and pay attention at 4:20 to 4:22, 4:00 to 4:02, 3:53 to 3:56 and 3:05 to 3:09.

    Blame Felipe for going 4 tenths lol

    BTW – absolutely love this site – lurk often and I’m happy to drop post #1 here from the states.

  25. This is an idea that still needs further development. The camers needs to incorporate more of the steering wheel and more of the track so we can see whats coming up…

  26. Christoph Boll
    11th March 2010, 1:44

    Well it`s good to see they are working on it. Only question, why? OK the Coulthard cam 2008 was way to low, but this is to high. I only want a helmet cam that shows me the driver`s actual eyeline. Here seen with Kubica: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZbJUkRziWA and Alonso: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6hGGlmie6U and different ChampCar drivers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o_U4mBthrc , http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOUJS3F-5XY

    If this is not achieveable, they should just leave it on the cars.
    Anyway, enjoy the season opener!

  27. Hey, thank you for your usefull post. I found it on google. I’ve been following your blog for 3 days now and i should say i am starting to like your post and now how do i subscribe to your blog?

  28. I found it from yahoo. I’ve been following your blog for 3 days now, and i should say i am starting to like your post and now how do i subscribe to your blog?

  29. the information on this article is really 1 of the most beneficial substance that I’ve at any time occur throughout. I really like your submit, I will appear again to examine for new posts.

Comments are closed.