Safety car the winner

So we had a situation at the weekend where Korea had done a fantastic job to finish off their brand new circuit, the crowd had turned up en masse to watch their first ever F1 Grand Prix. 600 million people tuned in worldwide to watch one of the closest championship battles in the history of the sport and then at 3pm just as the start lights should go out, they decide that actually the race will not go ahead as planned.

Why? Because it was raining!

I have attended 100`s of GP`s over the years and have photographed many wetter ones than this, but for some reason we had to start the race behind the safety car. Then stop the race 4 laps later because the wet conditions were perceived to be dangerous. We then sat around for an hour whilst the rain still came down, until finally they paraded around behind the safety car yet again and eventually got the race going in fairly similar conditions to what we had at 3pm.


If the 24 most skilled drivers in the world cannot drive in the rain, then what a mad situation we have come to.

Ok other sports are occasionally affected by the weather. Cricket stops if it gets too dark, horse racers don`t like a frost. Footballers don`t like the snow. But come on, cars are designed to be driven in the wet. Drive to the conditions, grip and visibility that you have in front of you. And if this lot can`t negotiate the first corner then how do any of us get to the shops in a downpour?

The majority of the drivers drove to the grid on their intermediate tyres, and were then seen spinning and sliding all over the place. Well of course they were. They were gambling on the chance that they could get away with the inters, but arriving on the grid and deciding that actually they needed the full wets. But by then it was too late. The world tv audience and Charlie Whiting, the race director, had seen enough and the most exciting start to a race in a long time was going to be snatched from our hands at the last second.

I have great respect for Charlie. He is in a position where he has a huge burden on his shoulders to consider the safety, and his decision should be final. But the rest of the world wants to see a motor race and that has to be considered too.

And so after all the confusion we did have a race. And what a race it was. The action was thick and fast, there was overtaking galore, enough crashes and incidents to keep the crowd on their feet. Two of the championship contenders, Mark and Seb, failed to finish, turning the table on its head. So why oh why did we manage to have a race in the dark with no headlights, but we couldn`t have a race in the rain with no windscreen wipers?

Maybe the winners trophy should have been presented to the safety car?

Big in Japan

It's the fans that make the Japanese GP. Yes. Ok, the circuit is one of the most popular of the year, yes the un-predictable weather always throws up a few dramas but it`s the unique atmosphere of the Suzuka circuit that makes the Japanese GP weekend for me.

The fans arrive on the Thursday before the GP and fill the grandstands. We quite often see more fans on a Thursday in Suzuka than we see during the entire weekend at races such as Turkey and China.

And these are no ordinary fans.

It is a surreal experience being trackside as a photographer in Japan. The silence is eerie. We are so used to the fans being vocal, blowing air horns, shouting and screaming, but not in Japan.

In Australia the fans are drunk. In China they don`t understand it, in Bahrain they are so rich they don`t bother watching it, in Spain they shout and eat tapas, in Italy they are just simply passionate. The fans in Monaco are either asleep, drinking champagne or admiring bikini-clad women. The British fans are super keen and in their seats at 6am. The German fans are noisy, fat and usually half-naked. The Hungarians are either gorgeous or sunburnt. The Belgians are wet. The Brazilians are super passionate, bang drums and dance in the grandstands. The Turkish fans are quite simply not there.

But the Japanese are Bonkers!

They sit in the pouring rain, in silence, watching an empty track for hours on end. They dress up as horses, fairies, warriors and sumo wrestlers. They are super loyal to their favourite team and it is not uncommon to see fans wearing Jaguar, Arrows, BAR and Minardi merchandise from years gone by.
They enthusiastically wave their flags lap after lap each time Kamui drives past.

Let them close to their heroes and they simply break down in tears. Grown men shake and panic. Girls cry and scream.

There is an obsession for driver autographs. These normally reserved Japanese fans wait patiently outside the drivers hotel in hoards until they get a glimpse of their heroes. Then with black permanent marker pens in hand they mob the drivers for signatures.
As Bruno Senna arrived at the circuit on Sunday he raised his sleeve up to me with black marker pen all over him `Not bad, I only got done by 3 of them today`.

I remember a couple of years ago, for some reason, one fan was asking the drivers to sign their autograph on his face. Most drivers accepted the offer and scribbled all over this poor guys head. Rubens however decided that with the language barrier he could get away with writing various swear words all over this guys face, all of which are un-printable on this blog.

Quite simply bonkers!