GP Racing UK October 2021

@BenAndersonF1 We’ve nearly finished Formula 1’s great format experiment of 2021, and now the novelty has worn off and Monza’s ‘F1 Sprint’ (good they’ve finally settled on the name!) is in the books we can begin to analyse what we’re seeing. I have to say I think it’s the right approach to shake up F1’s traditional three-day schedule. For too long Friday practice has been a drawn-out boreathon. I know Robert Kubica loves using these sessions to work on finer details of set-up, but you don’t need four hours of practice when simulation is so good. Even cutting the total duration by an hour this year, eliminating most of the long-run tyre analysis, has been a step in the right direction. Having a focal point on each day is sensible, and it’s particularly…

STEVEN TEE It's a trip down memory lane for our principal photographer as he give us his thoughts on his first trip to Zandvoort for 36 years (p44) DAMIEN SMITH Damien speaks to Vanessa Nöcker, one of the makers of the upcoming Schumacher documentary on Netflix, about the film (p56) OLEG KARPOV Oleg investigates the impact Sebastian Vettel is having at Aston Martin (p34) and Yuki Tsunoda's inconsistent start to his F1 career (p68) STUART CODLING What news of Codders this month? Well, he's been chatting with McLaren's Zak Brown about the direction the company is taking (p62) Thanks to Tim Bampton, Connor Bean, Matt Bishop, Harry Bull, Adam Cooper, Clarisse Hoffmann, Will Hings, Sabine Kehm, James Mann, Jonathan Noble, Carolyn Paterson, Will Ponissi, Michael Power, Charlotte Sefton IS POWERED BY…

This is Max ‘leading’ behind the Safety Car during the first attempt to start the Belgian Grand Prix. You can see how excited the strong Dutch contingent among the spectators is – the flares are already starting to go off in the background. This is the run up to Les Combes and on a dry day you might see cars running three abreast at the start of the race. But on this day, at this point, it was already obvious to me there was no chance of starting the race. The rain had set in and the spray was getting worse. What a shame for Max and his fans that his first F1 win here was the proverbial damp squib. Where Spa, Belgium When 3:25pm, Sunday 29 August 2021 Details Canon EOS-1DX MkII 70-200mm lens, 1/1000th…

One of my key weekend jobs is to shoot parc ferme and the podium celebrations, and in Belgium that entailed rather a longer wait than expected. In fact, for a while we weren’t sure whether there would be a podium ceremony at all… You could see that in the body language of the drivers. Max had never won a grand prix at Spa-Francorchamps before and, this being one of the classic circuits where the finest drivers thrive, you feel a top-drawer talent like him should be a winner here. Likewise George Russell has all the makings of a grand prix winner but had yet to reach the podium. So it was a bit of a rum do for them to be there after just three laps behind the Safety Car. Where Spa,…

This is a classic Spa image and I’m glad I captured it on Friday, when the track conditions worked in its favour. Nobody would have been able to go fast enough on Sunday… There’s a small area for photographers on the left, on the inside apex of the first bit of Eau Rouge. It’s a spectacular place to stand even if you’re not taking pictures. The change of direction, both horizontal and vertical, really tests the cars and their skid plates kick up great rooster tails of sparks as the suspension compresses when they hit the hill. Panning after them with a relatively slow shutter speed gives a nice graphic effect as well as a sense of the car’s sheer speed. Where Spa, Belgium When 2:17pm, Friday 27 August 2021 Details Nikon D6 18-400mm lens, 1/20…

On race day in Belgium I took myself up to Les Combes because that’s a place where things happen – and not necessarily on the first lap. Still, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen anyone have a shunt there while driving to the grid. Apparently Sergio Pérez said afterwards that it could have happened to anybody. He’s not far wrong. It was a peculiar accident, all at very low speed and not at all spectacular: Pérez just rode over the kerb at a bit of an odd angle and slewed off, a passenger as he slid into the wall. It must have felt awful. Still, I had a job to do, so I fired off this shot of him as he was surveying the damage while the car was being hoisted… Where…