'The 2010 Good Bloke Championship'

If there were a World Championship for nice blokes then Karun Chandock would be top of the table, with team-mate Bruno Senna following in a close second.
In fact you could just about turn the current F1 drivers championship table on it`s head and that would give you the `2010 Good Bloke Championship` standings.

Whether being a nice bloke relates to how quickly you drive I very much doubt, but there is certainly some correlation to the current crop of the drivers championship leaders loosing out to the other end of the paddock in personality stakes.

I first met and started working with Karun a few years ago and have always been very impressed at what a nice guy he is. He knows everyone, and I don`t just mean to say `hello` to in the paddock, he really knows them, he knows their name, their nickname, who they work for, their wives name, where they live and their phone number. It is not unknown for Karun to telephone me during a GP weekend and ask for my help or to see if I have a specific photo of him.

Karun realises that his position in F1 is fairly non-standard. He is there because he has the raw skill to compete with the best drivers in the World, but he is also there because he is Indian and he brings some much needed cash to a struggling team at the bottom end of the grid. Karun realises this and therefore has to make the very most of every second he is fortunate enough to be an F1 driver in a super competitive job role.
Karun manages his own sponsors, he organises garage visits and arranges photoshoots. He looks after his own PR and makes sure that at each GP the media have daily news to keep the 1 billion plus Indians up to date with his latest japery.
I have been with Karun at many autograph sessions this year and he is in his element. He is after all one of the biggest F1 fans I have ever met. He mingles with the paying public, throwing promotional caps into he crowd and talking with fellow F1 fans.
It is a great shame that Karun is currently missing out on a driving role at Hispania, but he understands the situation and is aware that if he wants his F1 career to continue further he basically has to shut up and wait to see what happens.

Karun was at the Hockenheim circuit last week, attending media events and interviews. He commentated for the BBC and was the usual role model for the team knowing fully well that the minute a cheque cleared Sakon Yamamoto was going to jump into his car.

This makes the Ferrari Team Order fiasco even more irrelevant.

Karun has been forced out of his drive by HRT team orders.

He has been ordered to sit on the sidelines until HRT feel that he can have his seat back. Hopefully this will be soon. Hopefully HRT will find the funding to allow their drivers to develop the car and arrive for the 2011 season on the right foot. Hopefully this will include Karun.

So as Fernando Alonso sat uncomfortably in the FIA post race press conference, having taken a fairly hollow win, avoiding journalists questions and arrogantly stamping his place as Ferrari team leader, maybe he should have given Karun a thought.

He drove back home to the UK on Saturday and was no doubt watching the race sat on his sofa in Brakley, with a curry on his lap, wondering if F1 is all that it is cracked up to be.

Love Hate Relationship

Things I love about the British GP:

The fact that I live 5 miles away. The atmosphere. The fact that everyone speaks English. The fact that I can sleep in my own bed. The Red Arrows. The beer. The staff in the media centre. The celebrity turnout. And very strangely this year, the weather.

Things I dislike about the British GP:

The circuit

Now this may seem like a flippant comment but it really is that bad. Don`t get me wrong, if you are a driver I`m sure it`s fantastic with its high speed corners and sweeping bends. As a fan it is pretty good too, with new facilities, good vantage points and a good atmosphere. But I am a photographer, and believe me this is the most difficult circuit that we visit to get a good selection of photos over the weekend.

The old shaped Silverstone was bad, but the new circuit layout has certainly shot to the top of the leader board of my least-favourite circuits to photograph.

It`s a shame as just about everything else about the place is spot on. I have had a lovely weekend. The weather has helped by being very un-English, the British fans are some of the best in the world and create a unique atmosphere especially as we have 2 World Champions at McLaren this year.

It has been wonderful having a houseful of friends and colleagues who have stayed during the week. We have partied, bbq`ed, eat well and generally had a very enjoyable weekend
Not even the World Cup Final managed to interrupt my Sunday.

Silverstone has done wonderfully well to host this years GP. Bearing in mind that we should really have been at Donington, and they were always a bit on the back foot getting ready for this years event. The circuit revisions have all been finished to a high standard and on time and the new pits and paddock building are looking good in time for next years GP.
But I just wish that this would also relate to the imagery that we aim to produce at each GP.

At every Grand Prix my aim is to produce imagery that not only shows the cars and drivers in the best possible way but also to portray a sense of the location of the race. In Melbourne we have the city skyline, In Bahrain the desert and palm trees, In Malaysia the stunning grandstand and the gravel traps painted in the colours of the Malaysian flag. In Montreal again a city backdrop and the St Lawrence River. Hungary, Belgium and Italy all have beautiful local colour and landscapes. Singapore and Abu Dhabi are quite literally stunning. Oh and Monaco you can just about fall over and take a beautiful photo.

So why, oh why at Silverstone do we have a featureless backdrop? Ok it`s a war time airfield and it doesn`t have the government funding enjoyed by other countries. But changes are happening at Silverstone. There are developments planned, let`s just hope that they think about the `Britishness` of the British GP and give us some photographic features in the future. Everything else is great, I just want to be able to take some nice pictures.