Tag: Darren Heath

Categories
Ferrari Formula 1

Going ice cold on the Iceman

2014 British Grand Prix

The return of Kimi Raikkonen to Ferrari has not gone well. In nine races the 2007 champ has qualified ahead of teammate Fernando Alonso only twice and and is yet to finish ahead of him on race day.

Kimi’s best result this year is P7, achieved in Australia and Spain. Alonso has finished sixth or better in all nine races to date. And while many are feeling for Kimi after his big crash in the British Grand Prix his lack lustre results haven’t escaped the eye of Darren Heath. It’s fair to say the F1 photographer has fallen out of love:

Sadly those days of daring-do on a Sunday afternoon followed by wild nights of well-deserved frivolity are long gone. The down-in-the-mouth look and the surly attitude are no longer cool, rather just tedious and old.

The Iceman legend may well be emblazoned on Räikkönen’s helmet and even tattooed large on his left forearm, but I’m afraid the winter is over for our chilly hero. A thaw has set in.

You can read Heath’s thoughts in full over at his blog.

Oh yeah, while Kimi is taking some time off to recover from his 47G impact, Jules Bianchi stepped into his car and set the fastest time in testing at Silverstone overnight.

While it can be folly to compare times from test sessions, Bianchi’s best lap of 1:35.262 was almost 1.3 seconds better than Kimi’s best across the British Grand Prix weekend and only 0.018s slower than Alonso’s quickest lap.

Jules to Ferrari in 2015 and Kimi to have his contract torn up? Stranger things than that have happened in F1 before.

[Pic: Ferrari]

Categories
Formula 1 Red Bull Racing

Darren Heath sticks up for Red Bull

2013 Singapore Grand Prix

After the Singapore Grand Prix a rumour, or story of sorts, emerged about Red Bull using a traction control system. The story came from the observations of former F1 team owner Giancarlo Minardi.

Adding intensity to the speculation was Minardi’s observation that Sebastian Vettel’s car sounded different to all other cars in the field, including Mark Webber’s. Perfect fuel for conspiracy theorists. Several outlets picked up on the story and good summary was published by Jalopnik.

Darren Heath, though, is having none of this conspiracy and savaged much of the coverage the story received, while taking aim at sites like AUSmotive along the way:

Tapping voraciously into their well-worn computers, F1 reporters – who really should know better – rapidly informed the world of the Italian’s ridiculous accusations, their words immediately jumped upon by that wonderful cabal of ill-informed fools so prevalent in society these days – the amateur hacks.

Give a man a keyboard and access to the internet and a whole world of pain is coming your way.

F1_know_it_all.com, grand-prix-expert.net, formula_insider.co.uk et al (names changed to protect the guilty) feed like a pack of ravenous dogs on this rubbish, telling their literally hundreds of readers how it was, how it is and how it shall be.

Sitting in their armchairs thousands of miles from the race track in question, and never having set foot in an F1 paddock, just doesn’t appear to matter to these goons. They’re going to tell you, me and the world what’s going on.

Ouch! That little rant aside, Heath returns to the subject at hand saying Red Bull is winning because they work harder than any other team and that young Vettel is actually a damn good driver. Moreover, the engine sounds which Minardi referred to have been audible all year and there’s nothing to see here, as Fernando Alonso pointed out.

Follow the source link below for the full article, it’s well worth reading.

[Source: Darren Heath | Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]

Categories
Formula 1 Red Bull Racing

Christian Horner is the best Team Principal in F1

2013 Singapore Grand Prix

Noted F1 photographer Darren Heath reminds us in his latest blog why his thoughts are essential reading. Heath starts off by giving an insight into the behind the scenes discussions over cost saving in the sport:

Laying a barely concealed trap for the hapless team heads, the F1 supremo’s tactical play ensures that the teams can hardly complain about having more races if they are quite prepared to spend many millions of dollars – which they supposedly haven’t got – on engineer-pleasing but essentially unnecessary testing. Agreeing with Bernie, Franz Tost – in his typically practical Austrian manner – argues well that having more races is preferable to testing. Far better to spend budgets on races, and earn money as a result, than to see no financial return from extended and lonely trips to Jerez, Barcelona, Bahrain, Dubai et al.

Before sharing an opinion on Christian Horner many will not have concluded themselves, declaring the Red Bull Racing boss is “streets ahead of the competition”:

He doesn’t harp on about money-saving measures. No – he gets on with doing his job, playing the game, walking a clever political path, ensuring that everything is as it should be for his mechanics, his engineers, his designers, his strategists, his multi-title-winning driver, and ultimately his Austrian paymasters.

Make sure you note the singular use of the word “driver” too.

[Source: Darren Heath | Pic: Red Bull/Getty Images]

Categories
Formula 1 Video

Darren Heath: What it means to me

Darren Heath

Darren Heath is one of the best known photographers in Formula 1. And with good reason; he is very good at what he does. This interview, recorded by Mario Muth, affords us an excellent opportunity to learn more about what makes Darren tick.

Heath speaks for around 45 minutes, discussing all matter of things. Of course, it mostly centres on his F1 career. At times, for the photographers among you, it’s almost as if he is delivering a master class in motorsport photography.

Make the time to watch this, you will enjoy it.

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