Formula 1 Testing Silverstone 2006 (revised)

Joe T · 23 Jan 2006 at 17:51

This is a revised thread, since Silverstone decided to re-arrange most of the dates

As already mentioned in the 2006 Events Calender thread, there is F1 testing at Silverstone a number of times this year.

I have already booked a number of days off work to go to this. Its a great day out, mostly cos tis free

and you can get into reasonably good postions to shoot the cars from.

Anyway, the dates I am going are as follows:

27 February 2006 (Monday)

25 April 2006 (Tuesday)

26 April 2006 (Wednesday)

There is another session in June just after the GP, but I havent booked time for that yet.

If any of you want to come along, that would be really good. The more the merrier!

The full (revised) Silverstone calender for 2006 can be found here

My pictures from the last time I went (back in September last year) are here

Looking forward to seeing some of you there!

Apologies for messing some of you about with dates that got changed. I hope no-one booked holiday with work and cant change it now.

Richard T · 23 Jan 2006 at 21:04

Hi Joe

Gonna be taking my grandad to one of them. Maybe the summer one as It'll be warmer as Silverstone is soo open!

Dont they normally have a test BEFORE the British GP?

Gamefreak501 · 23 Jan 2006 at 21:14

Fantastic!

Looks like I will be going on the 27th of February and possibly 26th April too!

Should be great fun - but will my 70-210mm Minolta glass cut it?

I am thinking I might have to buy that oh so good 70-300mm Sigma for my Canon for then!

Thought I will add; do we order tickets for this, like for a place - or do we just turn up?

antc · 23 Jan 2006 at 21:14

thanks for the heads up on the changes joe t, me and a mate are planning to go to some of these so nice to find out about change of dates now before booking time off

Joe T · 23 Jan 2006 at 21:17

Gamefreak501 said:
Fantastic!

Looks like I will be going on the 27th of February and possibly 26th April too!

Should be great fun - but will my 70-210mm Minolta glass cut it?

I am thinking I might have to buy that oh so good 70-300mm Sigma for my Canon for then!

Thought I will add; do we order tickets for this, like for a place - or do we just turn up?

You can see the focal lengths in the text info to the right of the images I shot in September (see above for link - remember the crop factor is on top of that). I do try not to use the 70-300 APO much above 200mm due to softness. You may find the 70-210 on a film body doesnt really cut it Im afraid. Thats not to say you wont get any good shots though.

You can just turn up. For free you can access a decent section of the track. From what Ive heard, you can pay £10 to get into the rest of the track, but Ive never done it myself.

JET_PILOT · 23 Jan 2006 at 21:19

Looks like I'll be going , got a nice shiny new 1.4x EF II to go with my Canon 70-200

Joe T · 23 Jan 2006 at 21:21

JET_PILOT said:
Looks like I'll be going , got a nice shiny new 1.4x EF II to go with my Canon 70-200

Looking good mate.

Joe T · 23 Jan 2006 at 21:21

antc said:
thanks for the heads up on the changes joe t, me and a mate are planning to go to some of these so nice to find out about change of dates now before booking time off

No probs. See you there!

Gamefreak501 · 23 Jan 2006 at 21:23

Joe T said:
You can see the focal lengths in the text info to the right of the images I shot in September (see above for link - remember the crop factor is on top of that). I do try not to use the 70-300 APO much above 200mm due to softness. You may find the 70-210 on a film body doesnt really cut it Im afraid. Thats not to say you wont get any good shots though.

You can just turn up. For free you can access a decent section of the track. From what Ive heard, you can pay £10 to get into the rest of the track, but Ive never done it myself.

Cool okay - I presume my Minolta glass may just cut it then! It does 70-210mm @ f/4 across the whole focal length and there is no softness as far as I know. The Macro facility may help too. I just need to plan my route there now

Joe T · 23 Jan 2006 at 21:24

Gamefreak501 said:
I just need to plan my route there now

Do you drive? I wouldnt know how to get there by any other means myself.

Gamefreak501 · 23 Jan 2006 at 21:27

Joe T said:
Do you drive? I wouldnt know how to get there by any other means myself.

Unfortunately not, I'm still learning. Although, I may be able to get a friend or my dad to take me

They may just enjoy it!

chez · 24 Jan 2006 at 00:32

lol - I have the same problem - I don;t drive.

Last time I went with a friend... I only live 15 minutes away, but as Joe said it's sort of in the middle of nowhere in terms of public transport..

Deleted member 11679 · 24 Jan 2006 at 16:39

I'd like to think I could make the testing in April Joe but who knows with me and my busy weeks at the mo!!

Reidy · 24 Jan 2006 at 17:00

I'm gonna go on the 26 April 2006 (Wednesday) i might try get time of the work for the February event.... but i cant see that happening

ranarama · 24 Jan 2006 at 21:52

Looks like a good chance to learn some new techniques. I'll be there with my Canon 100-300 (internal dust included

) hopefully on the 27th Feb.

I've got a cheapo monopod and an expensive tripod (manfrotto 55PROB) with a joystick head. What do people recommend out of those two or should I think about a different tripod head?

Gamefreak501 - I'm not sure exactly of the route but if I take the M1 route I could pick you up on the way if you haven't got any other way of getting there. You looked reasonably trustworthy when I met you at Kew

.

If anyone else is going from NW London I'll have spare seats in the car.

Gamefreak501 · 24 Jan 2006 at 22:29

ranarama said:
Gamefreak501 - I'm not sure exactly of the route but if I take the M1 route I could pick you up on the way if you haven't got any other way of getting there. You looked reasonably trustworthy when I met you at Kew .

If anyone else is going from NW London I'll have spare seats in the car.

That sounds like an idea ranarama! The only other ways I would get to Silverstone is if I ask my dad (but he'll say no, he doesn't like racing cars) or friends - but between them, my friends are at Universities and have full time jobs. One of my friends is between jobs...but I am not sure he'll want to go, I'll have to ask him I guess.

But you have a lot better equipment then I do - I have a cheapy tripod and just acquired a Minolta 7000 body in full working order - so no more messing around with that black tape. Shame I can't afford the 055PROB or a head for it! I shan't bother bringing the Canon to this event though...it only has a 28-80 on it, not worth bringing really.

Deleted member 11679 · 25 Jan 2006 at 12:27

Gamefreak501 said:
But you have a lot better equipment then I do - I have a cheapy tripod and just acquired a Minolta 7000 body in full working order - so no more messing around with that black tape. Shame I can't afford the 055PROB or a head for it! I shan't bother bringing the Canon to this event though...it only has a 28-80 on it, not worth bringing really.

Definately don't bother with the Canon, I would say where the F1 testing is open to the public, probably looking at needing around 300mm for good closeups.

Silverstone is generally bad for photo's, unless its the national track in use and you can go both inside and outside

Gamefreak501 · 25 Jan 2006 at 21:05

TomWilko said:
Definately don't bother with the Canon, I would say where the F1 testing is open to the public, probably looking at needing around 300mm for good closeups.

Silverstone is generally bad for photo's, unless its the national track in use and you can go both inside and outside

300mm

Ah well, hopefully I can afford something that will be good at 300mm!

TRiP · 26 Jan 2006 at 17:53

im going to try and get to the feb 27th practice day. sounds like it should be a good.

Joe T · 26 Jan 2006 at 17:57

TRiP said:
im going to try and get to the feb 27th practice day. sounds like it should be a good.

Excellent.

Formula 1 Testing Silverstone 2006 (revised)

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