British Grand Prix 2019 - Formula Two - Chasing the Dream

This year at the British Grand Prix I had the pleasure of photographing the stills during the making of a four part documentary about the young and aspiring Formula 2 drivers called ‘Chasing the Dream’ due to air at the end of August on F1TV, it will then be available on other platforms which are to be confirmed.

The idea for the documentary is the brainchild of Martin Turner, former head of F1 Sky Sports and Sky Europe - keen to tell the story about the often forgotten Formula 2 championship and the journey the young drivers take to realise their dreams to become Formula 1 racing drivers and world champions - working with Rory Child from Golden Child TV, Martin is making this a reality.

I took part at Silverstone on the two pre-race days, the Thursday and Friday and the qualifying day the Saturday, photographing the 20 young drivers, behind the scenes, during their studio interviews, the track parade, races, press conferences, press interviews and on the podium. I’m sharing with you a few of the photographs I took during this time just to whet your appetite before you watch the programs.

The documentary also features action from the first three F2 racing weekends in Bahrain, Baku and Barcelona. Part one introduces us to these aspiring F1 drivers, with unique access behind the scenes of the most competitive and cutthroat racing in the world. With contributions from Ross Brawn, Formula 1 Managing Director of Motorsports and Rob Smedley technical consultant for Formula 1.

Current drivers who have made the transition from Formula 2 to Formula 1 are George Russell the reigning FIA Formula 2 champion, Charles Leclerc FIA Formula 2 Championship in 2017 and Lando Norris FIA Formula 2 Vice-Champion 2018.

Formula 2 has 10 teams each with two aspiring F1 drivers.

The team names, driver names and car numbers are shown below, there is not a number 13 as this is deemed an unlucky number, It was used in the early years of the sport but in the 1920s it was dropped after the Delage factory team suffered two fatal accidents with the number in the course of just a few months.

Carlin - Louis Delétraz #1 and Nobuharu Matsushitsa #2

Louis Delétraz

Nobuharu Matsushitsa

Art Grand Prix - Nikita Mazepin #3 and Nyck De Vries #4

Nikita Mazepin

Nyck De Vries

Dams - Sérgio Sette Cåmara #5 and Nicholas Latifi #6

Sérgio Sette Cåmara

Nicholas Latifi

Uni-Virtuosi Racing - Guanyu Zhou #7 and Luca Ghiotto #8

Guanyu Zhou

Luca Ghiotto

Prema Racing - Mick Schumacher #9 and Sean Galael #10

Mick Schumacher

Sean Galael

Sauber Junior Team by Charouz - Calum Illot #11 and Juan Manuel Carrea #12

Calum Illot

Juan Manuel Carrea

Campus Racing - Arjun Maini #14 and Jack Aitken #15

Arjun Maini

Jack Aitken

MP Motorsport - Jordan King #16 and Mahaveer Raghunathan #17

Jordan King

Mahaveer Raghunathan

BWT Arden - Tatiana Calderón #18 and Anthoine Hubert #19

Tatiana Calderón

Anthoine Hubert

Trident - Giuliano Alessi #20 and Dorian Boccolacci #21

Giuliano Alessi

Dorian Boccolacci

F2 cars are backed by a 500 horsepower engine, which is about half that of a Formula 1 vehicle. Formula 2 vehicles sport an rpm of 10,000rpm while F1 cars hit up to 18,000 rpm.

This gives you a small introduction into the world of Formula 2, the documentary ‘Chasing the Dream’ will tell you a whole lot more. I will be posting updates about the documentary on social media, please feel free to follow me on Instagram @stellascordellis and @stellasms.

A little piece of extra information, I’ll be using the images from this commission as part of a presentation I’ll be giving onboard luxury liners as I take on another role as a cruise ship speaker to educate and entertain passengers about the fascinating worlds my work takes me to. The F2 talk will sit very nicely alongside my talk about F1 featuring photographs from the British Grand Prix 2018.

If you happen to be cruising with Cunard, Fred.Olsen, P & O, Royal Caribbean, Marella or Viking check your speaker program and if you see me listed come and enjoy one of my presentations, I’d love to see you!

Thanks for reading, bye for now…

Stella

Silverstone Classic 2018

What an eventful day it proved to be at Silverstone Classic on Saturday 21st July, the morning started at the Media Centre to collect my media pass and Official Photographers bib which gave me access track side. Some very nice Tesla owners gave up their day to drive media people and VIP's to designated points during the event. 

The first 5 races took place at the National Paddock during the morning with the remaining 7races taking place at the International Paddock in the afternoon.

The variety of photographs from the days events show track side activity, World GP Bike Legends before an exciting demonstration. On the podium there was happiness and victory for the likes of Christophe D’Ansembourg, William Nuthall, Jake Hill, Steve Tandy and Nick Padmore amongst others. 

For those of you who are interested in my kit, I used Nikon bodies D750 and D700 with prime lenses 18mm and 50mm and zooms 70-200mm and 24-120mm with a Nikon Speedlight SB-910, I also introduced to the mix a Fuji XT-2 body with a16-55mm lens for when the other bodies became too heavy!

I hope you enjoy the photographs and the story they each tell of an action packed day, scroll down to see the link to further images and the results of the day.

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To view further images of the day please follow this link and to find out the results of the races please click here.

Thanks for reading.

Stella

British Grand Prix 2018

I gained accreditation to attend the pre-race days at the Silverstone British Grand Prix on Thursday 5th and Friday 6th July to photograph Sergey Sirotkin.

Sergey is the young Russian driver currently competing with Williams-Martini, one of the worlds leading Formula One teams, to give a behind-the-scenes look at what this up and coming racing driver does in the Paddock before a race. The photographs will feature in a Russian, London Lifestyle Magazine called Rutáge, which is due for publication in August, once this has taken place I will be able to share my blog about Sergey next month.

Whilst I was in between photo-calls I managed to capture other Formula One racing greats, including Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas from Mercedes AMG Petronas; Ferrari drivers Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkonen; Team Principal Christian Horner of Red Bull Racing and drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen; Vijay Mallya, Team Principal of Sahara Force India and drivers Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon. Others to look out for are Stoffel Vandoorne and Fernando Alonso from the McLaren Formula 1 Team, and Brendan Hartley and Pierre Gasly from Scuderai Toro Rosso, also George Russell currently competing in Formula 2. 

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The Paddock was a hive of activity with drivers, technicians, engineers, media teams and crews, Team Principals and visitors, including tours for small groups of school children and children from Great Ormond Street Hospital - there were racing heroes from the past including Damon Hill signing autographs.

The photographs above are a selection from my two days, showing the Sky Sports F1 live broadcast on the grid featuring fun and games in front of the fans in the grandstands, autograph signing and interviews. To see a wider selection of images simply click here to the events section of the website.

To obtain media accreditation to the British Grand Prix I had to apply to the FIA requesting permission, stating the nature of my intended visit, once permission was granted I was able to bring my ideas together for the feature on Sergey Sirotkin.

The scrolling photographs above show the different passes that all media accredited people are given for security purposes, and to make their time and workflow efficient, these include car parking, media room, Pit Lane and Paddock access.

It was a fascinating and fully engaging experience which opened my eyes to the wonderful world of Formula One. 

Thank you to the FIA for issuing me with a Paddock Pass, Williams-Martini for their hospitality and co-operation, Rutáge for commissioning the story, and the other people behind-the-scenes at my studio, but not forgetting a very big thank you to Martin Turner for steering me in the right direction, without him this would not have happened!

I interviewed and photographed Martin last month for an 'In Conversation with..' blog which can be read here. 

Coming in August my blog about Sergey Sirotkin 'Under the Helmet' ...

Thank you

Stella

Silverstone Classic 2017

The Silverstone Classic is firmly established as the world’s biggest classic motor racing festival. The epic event attracts more than 1,000 race entries and draws crowds of more than 100,000. The spectacular classic car celebration is staged at the famous Silverstone circuit in Northamptonshire, the birthplace of the FIA Formula One World Championship and home to the Formula 1 British Grand Prix. The three-day festival features the very best of classic and historic motor racing covering more than eight decades of motor sport, as well as live music from iconic rock bands and a wealth of family entertainment. In 2016, over 100 car clubs displayed more than 10,000 classic cars.

This is the reason why I look forward to photographing at Silverstone Classic, with accreditation to officially photograph - this blog shows a small selection of photographs I captured on the Friday and Saturday - to see more images from this prestigious event please click on each photograph to take you to the 'Events' section of my website.

Henry Hope-Frost on the screen before the Royal Automobile Club Woodcote Trophy for Pre '56 Sports Cars - car number 6 - 1953 Cooper Bristol T24/25 - Qualifying.

Friendly banter before the Kidston Trophy for Pre War Sports Cars - Qualifying.

Crispin Harris in a 1960 Austin Healy 3000 about to take to the track in the Gallet International Trophy for Classic GT Cars (Pre '66) - Qualifying.

Georg Kjallgren preparing to take to the track in a 1989 Courage C26S - Qualifying.

Engineers with Team Captain Anthony Reid's Austin A35 preparing for the Silverstone Classic Celebrity Challenge Trophy Race. 

Theo Paphitis, part of the Screen Stars team, owner and the driver of this Austin A35 in the Silverstone Classic Celebrity Challenge Trophy Race.

Ant Anstead, with friend and co-presenter Philip Glenister from Channel 4's 'For The Love of Cars' in a jovial mood before the Silverstone Classic Celebrity Challenge Trophy Race.

After the Maserati Trophy for HGPCA Pre '66 Grand Prix Cars. Wiliam Nuthall came 3rd in car number 10 - 1960 Cooper T53 and Julian Bronson drove car number 30 - 1960 Scarab Offenhauser.

Jonathan Kennard came 2nd in the FIA Masters Historic Formula One.

Ant Anstead (Screen Stars) with Olympic Gold Medalist Rower Mark Hunter (Going For Gold), before the Silverstone Classic Celebrity Challenge Trophy Race.

Brian Johnson lead singer from rock band AC/DC before the Silverstone Classic Celebrity Challenge Trophy Race (Rocking & Racing) - he didn't take part in the race following the qualifying session.

Andy Wolfe preparing in a 1982 Tyrrell 011 for the FIA Masters Historic Formula One Race.

Entrants in the pit-lane for the FIA Masters Historic Formula One Race.

Greg Thornton won the FIA Masters Historic Formula One in a 1976 Lotus 77.

Martin Donnelly (Rocking & Rolling), Steve Soper (Bike Legend) and Mark Blundell (Screen Stars) in a celebratory mood on the podium for the Silverstone Challenge Trophy - Pro Class.

The Screen Stars team won the Silverstone Classic Celebrity Challenge Trophy Race – a new addition to the action-packed programme on Saturday 29 July. Led by former Formula 1 ace and Le Mans winner Mark Blundell, the winning team included Dragon’s Den host Theo Paphitis, Wheeler Dealers presenter Ant Anstead, BBC Radio 2 sports presenter Vassos Alexander, Sky Sports F1 pundit Tony Jardine and former Top Gear anchor Tiff Needell. Between them, the speedy sextet helped towards raising £10,000 for the event’s official charity partner, Prostate Cancer UK.

Left to Right: Tony Jardine, Vassos Alexander, Theo Paphitis, Mark Blundell, Ant Anstead and Tiff Needell.

Thanks for reading - at the end of August I'll be photographing at Salon Privé Concours D'Elégance with a blog to follow later in September.

Bye for now.

Stella

Silverstone Classic 2016

The majestic Silverstone sign

On Saturday 30 July I collected my media pass, track side vest and then immersed myself in the world of motor racing, boy did I have fun! I'd like to share with you a few moments I captured from the day.

1955 Austin-Healey 100m pit stop - Royal Automobile Club Woodcote Trophy pre '56 Sports Cars

Christophe D'ansembourg before getting into his WilliamsFW07/C 1981 for the FIA Historic Formula One Race

Sam Hancock at the podium, a very worthy winner of the Stirling Moss Trophy for pre-'61 Sports Cars in the Ferrari 246S, 20 laps

Rick Carlino in 1975 Hesketh 308C

Winner Rob Hall's 1974 Matra MS670B/C in the Can-Am 50 Interserie Challenge

Chris Wilks in a 1960 Deep Sanderson FJ in position to take the track

Ant Anstead interviewing racing legend Mike Beckwith for Channel 4's 'For The Love Of Cars'

Ant Anstead having a moment of reflection before taking the recently restored 1958 Lotus Elite Series 1 out for the next race

FIA Masters Historic Formula One back in the pit lane after the race

Thanks for reading, I'll be back soon with more news from my world of cars and photography.

Bye for now.

Stella