An 'F1 Lens' basically means you want a Telephoto lens of a good length, because getting close to F1 cars is nigh on impossible, even for most professional photographers shooting it.
I've been shooting the F1 every year that I've been to Silverstone and this means that nearly all my photos are taken looking down from the Grandstand. The others, which offer a much better perspective are those taken at track level, however you will be shooting through the fence, which you can eliminate somewhat, but it's just getting a nice clear position with so many other people about that is the problem. Only time I had the chance to do that this year was when it rained when the cars were released from the pits before the race and most of the people on deck chairs were trying to hide from the rain.
You are going to want something that gets you to at least 300mm shooting from the Grandstands. This is where a crop sensor actually comes in useful, because something like a 70-200 becomes a 112-320, giving you extra reach.
I personally used to shoot with a relatively cheap Sigma 70-300 f/5.6 lens, which gave me about 480mm maximum, which is enough to get right up close to frame the driver and cockpit.
The trouble is though, most of my shots were throwaways for a couple of reasons:
- The Auto Focus isn't that quick.
- No Image Stabilisation means it's difficult to get a shot that's sharp.
I upgraded this year to a Canon 70-200mm with IS that costs about £1,800.
This made a world of difference, firstly the auto focus is so quick that it means it keeps up that much faster, it also is less likely to hunt when it looses focus.
Secondly, with IS it allows you to use a much lower shutter speed which you can use to create the background blur as you pan with the car. This is pretty difficult to do handheld without IS, as most of the shots on my old lens, the car wasn't that sharp and I couldn't go as low.
Obviously you can use a telephoto and use a high shutter speed and it will stop the car and give you a sharp picture, but it will have no motion and so will look quite boring, especially given that you will likely be shooting from the grandstand.
What I'm trying to say is that you really need to stump for a decent telephoto if you want to take good shots of Formula 1. I got some acceptable ones with my old lens, but it was a lot more work to get them and ultimately if you go to see Formula 1, you also want to spend some time enjoying the race too.
You could always rent for the F1 weekend. But bare in mind, you want to book it a long way in advance. I actually had a look on some of the rental sites before Silverstone and pretty much all the long lenses and convertors were gone.
