Monza training, Le Castellet & Spa-Francorchamps - 4 Hours Endurance Race

[MFloyd]

I spent two days in the beautiful Monza, following a racing team during their training session. The story will develop over the coming days.

Wednesday morning, the training session begins:


1 - empty seats


2 - first cars are coming out in the pit lane


3 - and  heading back...


4 - everybody arrived on Tuesday. This is the type of truck you need to run and manage one (1) car...


5 - and loads of tyres


6 - supplied by well aligned trucks

[Jakov Minić]

In the good old days of Formula 1 I used to go to Monza and enjoy the racing.
Prima Variante was the place to be 
Looking forward to the development of your story

[tommiejeep]

What a grey day .  Interesting images, I like the empty seats shot.  I'm with Jakov in looking forward to more and wishing you interesting light.
Cheers

[frankv]

Great images. There is something magical with motorracing. The noise, the smell, the people, the machinery. Spending a raceweekend on the track is a magical experience. Looking foreward for this story to unfold. and I'm going to Monza for the grand prix myself in a few weeks. :-)

[HCS]

Great images. There is something magical with motorracing.

+++

Jealous!

[MFloyd]

7 - installing extra cooling (bigger radiators)


8 - car out of the box


9 - fueling and tires


10 - and there she goes


11 - as do other competitors


12 - continuous ballet of exiting and incoming cars in the pitlane

technical note 1: to move light, I'm using only one (1) body, a Nikon D5, and three lenses: Nikkor 300mm f/2.8 VR II, Nikkor 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6, a Nikkor 16-35mm f/4, and an (unused *) TC20-E III; all packed in Think Thanks: a Glass Limo and a Digital Holster; also one carbon monopod from Induro (cheap, well finished and robust) together with RRS Really Right Stuff clamps and plates

(*) keeping in mind Capa's "if your picture is not good enough, you are not close enough 


13 - gear and water, earmuffles, sunburn cream and hat

[golunvolo]

I like the series with extra points for the empty sits and the 13th car of course

 Keep them coming!

[MFloyd]

Bit by bit, the pace is increasing to reach near competition. Exchanges of equipment, dialogue with the pilot, telemetry and more are now about frenetic.


14 - tire temperature measurement


15 - pilote remains is position for the time being


16 - exiting the very narrow cockpit needs some training


17 - dialogue between pilot and chief mechanic


18 - box for a new setup


19 - and there we go again for a number of turns

technical note 2 It is from uttermost importance to know from where the light will be coming; as you can't change very often your position on the circuit; you have to look were to position yourself in order to have the right light and also to be a close as possible to the places where you are supposed to take pictures. In my case it was on the inner side of the circuit, at the exit of the Parabolica, where the pits are. Another major obstacle are the very high metal fences, which are impossible to cheat with, even with a high aperture zoom lens (it smears a greyish film).  The best positions I found was on the top of the pit & press building, as well as at the very beginning of the pit lane; I had the privilege to have access on both


20 - The Photographer's Ephemeris screen shot. No chance to catch the "golden hours" but at least to start to shoot as early as possible i.e. from 9am on.

[MFloyd]

all pneumatic tools are supplied with air from SCUBA air tanks ..

Dilemma: camera at low or high speed?


21 - speed is well above 200km/h


22 - Aston Martin Vantage V8

my team: SMP Racing

23 - unpainted


24 - painted

technical note 3 the high ISO capacity of a modern camera, such as the Nikon D5, give you a very broad possibility of applying different solutions: from 1/8000 at f/2.8 to 1/125 at f/13, in a range of ISO 100 to 2'500, without any impact on the overall image quality of the picture.
The main camera parameters which worked out the best, are as follows: exposure: Manual, auto-ISO; light metering: central weighted (12mm); AF: continuous and 5 contiguous focus points; VR on. I always shoot in NEF 14 bits and AdobeRGB as color space. Post processing: Lr and Ps CC 2015. Important remark: the D5 delivers near to finished RAW images, which could eventually be used, "as such". The color depth of the D5's image are very impressive; the noise is maintained at very acceptable levels but it is more the "noise shape" which is excellent, somewhat comparable to film noise. All other parameters as vigneting, distortion, NR control are turned off (except long exposure NR)

[armando_m]

What a thrill to be able to shoot this races

[MFloyd]

Jakov, Tom, Hans, Frank, Golunvulo, & Armando: thank you for your interest & support. Indeed, it was a privilege to shoot these training sessions. The learning curve was steep, as everything goes very fast.  I'm putting some technical notes below each section (these might be updated after publishing, so please have a close look).  I'm also at your disposal to answer your questions at my best knowledge 😊

[Thomas G]

Great stuff!
Coincidence. I really like endurance and rally racing. Thanks for showing and taking the time for tech notes.
Truly appreciated.

[MFloyd]

Thank you Thomas 

I decided to add some snapshots. Although, there is no chance that one of these will become "the picture of the year", they add some atmosphere, some smell and taste 


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[Thomas G]

The snaps get you a +1!

[golunvolo]

The snaps get you a +1!

  Yes! Some smell and taste!