THE TRAVELS AND PHOTOGRAPHY OF WFOGG: Formula 1 in Sepang

Ok, just for a change I am going to tell you some of the latest news.

This last weekend it has been the Malaysian Formula 1 Grand Prix in Sepang circuit. So now that I am here, that I am showing the most important aspects from Malaysia and that the Formula 1 is the most important sport event in the country, at least I could go and take some pictures, don't you think so?

I tried to get an accreditation from the FIA, but they didn't give it to me. FIA is very strict with accreditations, but even if it annoys me I recognise that I understand it. If they gave an accreditation to every photographer in the world applying for it, there wouldn't be space enough for the cars in the pit lane. I don't have a big media behind supporting me, so even if I had a recommendation letter from the Director of Lunwerg (the publishing house supporting my project), I ended up without a press pass.

What I did, two weeks before the race, was going to Sepang circuit to talk with the Media Relations Manager (who I already knew from the last year) and I told him my story (again). He told me that FIA gives only a few accreditations, they just have 12 accreditations for Malaysian photographers, and Sepang circuit already has 2 photographers. For the rest of photographers that can not get the accreditation, what they do is giving them a pass to access all the areas of the circuit so they have more chances to take pictures. He told me to send him an email with my data and they would prepare one of those passes for me.

That day in the evening I sent him the email with my data and the next day I sent him another email with the recommendation letter from Lunwerg and asking if everything was correct or they needed anything else. They didn't reply, but since then I started to receive all the media release from Sepang circuit, so I consider it done.

The weekend of the race come and on Friday I go to Sepang to see the two first practice sessions. When I get to the accreditation office my name is not in any list. I talk with the man who is in charge and after explaining him everything, he asks some people through his walkie with no result, we try to contact the Media Relations Manager but we can't get him through… so what he does is taking my business card and go into the paddock to find him and ask him about my pass.

After a while he calls me on the phone telling me that the Manager didn't receive my data and my picture. I tell him that I didn't send them the picture but that they did receive my data, that I had tried to contact them several times to confirm if everything was correct but that they didn't reply me. Finally he tells me that the Manager said that I should send him an sms with my picture and my name and they will make the pass.

Just after hanging up the telephone I tell one guy in the accreditation office, who has a mobile with camera, that I have to send to the Media Relations Manager an sms with y picture and my name. He takes the picture, we write the message and he sends it. After a while the man in charge comes and tells me that I will have the pass but that I have to wait until the next day.

That day the entrance to the main grandstands was free, so I didn't really mind. I went there and I started to take photos. I was taking some panning pictures of the cars from different places. I took hundreds of them but all of them very similar. To be able to take many of the pictures we are used to see, you have to be at the track level, from the stands there are not many options.

In the evening, before going back home, I went again to the accreditation office to confirm that this time everything was right and on Saturday morning it was not going to happen again the same thing. I talked again with the person in charge, who couldn't get through the Media Relations Manager again and told me to call him later.

When I arrived home I called him again. He told me that he could talk with the Manager, that he hadn't received the sms and that I should send him again an email with my data and picture. I sent him the email and I also sent him an sms to be sure that he would read it. And then, I called again to the man of the accreditations office to tell him that I already sent the email, just in case.

On Saturday morning I went again to the accreditation office and the man in charge tells me that my pass is ready but that it is still in the office of the media department and I should wait for about half an hour. During that time we talked about photography, he is also photographer and shots weddings to get some extra income. At that moment Ralf Shumacher gets into the office to get his accreditation. There is a small stir in between the guys working there and in the end I take some pictures of him with the guys.

This is Dean, the man in charge for accreditations.

Alter a while my pass arrives. It is a pass which allows to access the public areas of the circuit. No access to the pit lane (as I knew) and no access to the paddock (I recognise that I had some hope). Anyway, it is not so bad, I can access to any of the stands of all the circuit, from the cheapest one to the most expensive seat.

I decide that I am going to check different areas of the circuit to see from which one I can take a good picture. The first place where I go is the grandstand in front of the first curve of the circuit (K1 in the map).

The day before I had been in almost all the areas of the grandstands in front of the two main straights of the circuit (marked as Mall Area in the map, the V-shaped building in orange) and I found this stand much more interesting than the other ones.

I stayed there waiting for the beginning of one of the races which were going to take place on Saturday: the first race of the GP2 Aisa Series. While I am waiting there, I started to pay attention to the big screen that you can see from there, which was showing at that moment a image of the curve in front of me. But… the view of the curve on the screen was not as I was seing it, it was much better on the screen. Where is that camera?

I started to look for the camera all around, behind me, at the back end of the stand... until I looked up. There, at the end of the structure of the roof I could see two small platforms. I took a look from the edge of the stand and it seems that yes, the camera seems to be there.

I waited for the begining of the GP2 Asia Series race, I took some more pictures during the first laps and afterwards I went to the main area to take more pictures.

From the main grandstand I checked that the camera was exactly where I thought. And I also checked that besides to the platform where the camera is, there was another platform, lonely… sad… abandoned… poor platform. That was going to be my place.

I took some more pictures during the race. In this race there were also some Spaniards. This is Roldán Rodríguez, who finished in fourth position on Sunday, in the second race.

After this race there was another race, the Formula BMW Pacific, and later on the qualifying session for the formula 1 in which, for a change, I kept on taking pictures. I have pictures of every colour under the sun, from here, from there, from far, from close… but all them from the stands.

That was all, alter the qualifying session I went home to have a rest for the next day.

On the evening, I burned a CD with the pictures of the guys of the accreditation office with Ralf Schumacher to give it to them on the next morning. And I thought that then, I could also ask them about the platform of the camera. I was almost sure that it was not going to be a problem, but it is always good to be able to turn to somebody from the organization when you are going to do something which is not allowed to everybody.

On the next morning I went to the circuit with time enough before the races. First I went to the accreditation office, I gave them the CD and they told me that there was no problem if I wanted to go to the platform. Even one of them told me that he would be around there half an hour before the race to open in case the stairs were closed.

Very nice these people from the accreditation office. Here people like very much taking pictures, so after being with them for a bit of time during the three days, when was about to leave, one of the girls working there said that she wanted to take a picture with me. After a second we ended up taking pictures all together with all the cameras around, you know, this thing of "wait, wait, now take it with mine". And of course I was not going to be the only one without the picture, I also wanted to have a memory of all that time spent with them in the accreditation office.

Then I went to the main area again, and you know, more of the same: more photos. The first race was the second race of the GP2 Asia Series and, before it could start, it began to rain. The start was delayed for almost half an hour and in the end it started when it was still raining.

The rain stopped later and the second race of the day, the Formula BMW Pacific, could start without problems.

It was the time for the Formula 1 race. The people were arriving, the stands were starting to be full and it was possible to see the ambient already.

When the VIP arrived, the drivers came out for the track parade, which means that they get into a double deck bus and they are driven all around the circuit while they are waving. In the meanwhile a group of people appeared to make a beautiful performance with drums, flying Chinese and people running with big flags.

After all this, the preparations for the race began and I started to walk towards the first curve to climb up to the platform. The pass I had was nothing special by itself, in fact it is the same one that all the people working in the main area have, it doesn't matter if they are cleaning the windows or selling hot-dogs. But apart from that pass, I also had the pass that Tourism Malaysia gave me in August for the Independence Parade. Do you remember it?

Having that pass (the one on the right) helps, people usually make things easier for the media. When I arrived where the stairs were, the man there told me that the media should enter trough the other side, and I replied "no, no, I am going up to the platform", while pointing out to the stairs, and then the man said "ah, ok, ok… you can go". I waited for a while to the man of the accreditations to come, but when I saw that he was not coming (something I thought it could happen) I called Dean, who told me that they couldn't come.

The staris were open, so I told the man there "I am going up", and I went up.

Mi idea was being there for the beginning of the race and the first laps. Then I would go in front of the pit lane for the laps 15 to 25, when the first pit stop was expected, and then I would go to the end of the last straight, to be in front of the entrance of the last curve before the finish line. And also ,at that point there is another big screen, so I could see the race in other areas of the circuit.

But no way. When I reached the platform and I saw what you can see from there I thought "where am I going to go better than here". I could see almost half of the track. Definitely better than any seat that you can buy.

Besides, I had already been thinking about it the day before. I don't need "the photo" of the race, an overtaking or something similar. If I can take it, great, but what I need is a picture of the formula 1 for the book I want to publish, a photograph representative of the circuit. The most representative image of the circuit is from the tower in the last curve before the final straight, in between the two main straihts, with the structure of the roof. It is very similar to this one.

But I can not take this picture, for that I would need to be in the outside of the curve with the wide-angle to take the picture with the cars and the tower, and if it si possible with nice blue sky and white clouds. Since I can't take that picture, I think that the most representative picture I can take is from up there in the first turn of the first lap, although the cars were not so big in the picture.

So there I was, ready to take the picture and looking at all the official photographers below, who where in front of the fence ready to take their pictures.

There should be all of them but one, who also had the happy idea of going up to the platform and at that moment was on my left. But something was for sure, no blue sky and white clouds for us this time. At that time, even if the sun was still shining, you could already see what was coming, and from up there you could really see it coming, from far.

The race started and I took the picture I wanted to take (well, better said a couple of them). I stayed there taking pictures of the cars arriving to the end of the straight and also enjoying the race. I found it quite interesting, specially from there, that I could see many parts of the track.

A bit later I started to think on going to the main grandstand to take pictures of the pit lane, but it was starting to rain and I though that I was not going to have time to reach there before getting soaked, so I'd better stay there.

And yes, it started to rain, as it rains here from time to time, it rains as if it was the end of the world for a while and then it stops. And of course, with all the cars dancing around the track or going out the track to enjoy the meadows, the race was stopped. That is how I "saw" the moment when they stopped from where I was.

And that was it, we were waiting there until they decided that they were going home. A bit disappointing, I would have liked to see the end of the race, maybe next time.

What I was worried about at that moment was if they were also going to cancel the concert that Sepang circuit had organised after the race, and that I really wanted to see. It was not raining, but here you never know.

It rained again a bit before the concert and during the first groups, but then it stopped. I didn't know that there were support bands, in the advertising campaign Sepang circuit only announced the main artist. First there were a Malaysian DJ and then another Malaysian group called Maliq & D'Essentials, they played ok. But then, it was amazing. Seven black guys that I had never seen before came out to the stage and they started to sing a capella in a really wonderfull way. Their name is Naturally Seven. Maybe you already heard of them, but for me it was really a wondereful surprise.

And then the concert that they had announced so much started. I recognise that it is a concert which I would have gone even if I had to buy the ticket, but like this… even better. When the concert finished I went back home, after a long weekend, taking the bus to the airport and then the train to Kuala Lumpur. I had been really worth it.

So, here you are, two of the pictures of the concert that I took. It was not allowed to the media to enter into the area in front of the stage, but I got a good place. I guess there is no need to say that the concert was great, I would have liked to enjoy it with you, I know some of you like him, but nothing is perfect.