I agree shoot in RAW on a big, fast, DECENT memory card or a series of smaller cards to be really cautious. If the car has the sun behind it then RAW - most of the time and assuming you are using spot metering - will allow you to adjust the image to bring the subject up to the correct exposure, whereas in jpg you will be stuffed.
Also I don't see why to use manual - the Tv setting, as long as there is sufficient leeway on the aperture with your chosen shutter speed, will allow you to concentrate on the subject rather than worrying about manually adjusting the exposure when the sun comes out/goes in.
The one point that has not been stressed is that if your home GP is held at permanent circuit there will be other race meetings happening during the year that will have cheaper entrance costs. So go to an ordinary meeting and learn the circuit's layout and the best spots for photography and then practise, practise, practise until you know you camera and the circuit off by heart. Then when you go to the GP all you have to cope with is how much faster the cars are moving compared to the lower formulae. Don’t forget that F1 drivers have to start somewhere so a national single-seater formula race could contain a future F1 driver or two. Two years before he hit F1 I was watching Max Verstappen at a kart meeting – remember F1 isn’t the only motorsport!

Switch to servo autofocus, with focus set at center (or point anti travel direction with direct horiz pan - the 'room to move point) and shooting burst mode when panning vital when learning, and yield goes way up.

With a decent camera, RAW is not recommended, at least for this purpose. You will need to shoot a lot for decent yield and care space will factor, and additional write time will effect burst shooting on all but top cameras. Best JPEG setting Will suffice. For action. For crowd/atmosphere revert to RAW.

Points about lens importance cannot be overemphasized. Budget equal funds for lens(s), at least as was spent on the camera. Use kit lens to put back on camera when you sell it to move up. You will see the difference immediately.

Could add much more, but compliment the author (initial point not withstanding)

Again, the terminology was for people that don't get the finer details of cameras. You and I get it but most don't. Im not writing for the pros. Im writing so everyone can get something out of it.

Yes, could have been clarified that I was talking in basic terms, but didn't think it needed to be.

LOL, still I like those pictures a lot Steph!

LOL, actually it says "doporucit" for me, but that's just viewing from a Czech PC!

Storage is cheap. But yes there are many that shoot jpeg when shooting sport because of the amount of shoots taken but also because some cameras are not writing RAW files fast enough and start lagging on rapid firing. I prefer RAW because then I got better control in post and I rather loose on card containing 1/3 of my images then that one single card with all my images (I have had cards go bad so even I try not spread the "love" between multiple cards).

In some ways disagree shooting RAW for Motorsport. This is because they take up so much more room on your card. I have a 8gb card and at Brands Hatch for the BTCC i almost filled it with JPEG's, shooting on RAW i would have got only a 3rd of the amount of shots. However when i shoot over stuff (mainly do landscape) then yes, I always shoot RAW but at motorsport i wouldnt bother.

Jamey,

You could have added that the darkening (not to mention beautifying) effect of adding a polarising filter to the lens would help allow you to run with a longer shutter speed whilst still shooting with the aperture wide open, minimising the fence by reducing the depth of field. Basically, if on a sunny day you can't set a low enough ISO to shoot wide open, add a polariser or Neutral Density (ND) filter.

I find that even if you get horizontal lines from panning through a fence, with a smooth pan and a longer shutter, you can get quite a dramatic sense of speed, as if the picture has go faster stripes…

It's worth underlining that making the fence invisible is only going to be possible with an SLR, as non-interchangeable lens (and video) cameras have sensors far too small to create such a shallow depth of field.

Incidentally, your use of terminology is sometimes awry. I don't like this 'higher' and 'lower' aperture. Opening and closing would be clearer. Then yesterday you said the lower the number, the more depth of field, which is the wrong way round.

Anyway, I too love the Ferrari flag shot. Nice work. And thanks for writing the guide.

Agree both articles are good and have very good info in them. As a amateur tog serious about what I do and loving motorsport there wasn't anything I didn't know already but I'm a tog because I'm more creative with pictures then words so nice to see a good write up.

A couple of things I would like to add here, the camera is not what makes the picture, it's the photog tat makes them. You can get very good pictures with a lower end camera if you know how to use the equipment. I think in the first article it was mentioned (maybe I recall wrong) is learn your camera inside out. Pickup the manual and read it cover to cover, learn to do adjustments to the camera without having to really think about it. Start up a Project 365 (one picture a day for a year, can be everyday happenings and things around you, the key is practice with the camera every day, check out mostly365.com for more info).

If you have a DSLR and want better equipment instead of looking at upgrading the camera look at getting good glass. If you stay within the same camera brand you can when time comes to upgrade the camera always use the same lenses.
Good glass is very expensive, dump the kit lenses and upgrade your glass FIRST.
You can start with a entry camera such as the Nikon D5100, once you have a good set of lenses, tripod and monopod well then it might be time to upgrade your camera.

Things to look for with good glass is how fast the lens is (the F-stop). You want a lens that can do f/2.8 through the entire range. The holy trinity is 14-24mm f/2.8, 24-70mm f/2.8, 70-200 f/2.8. Then on top go with a 400mm f/2.8.

One thing that I don't recall reading in article 1 or saw in this one, when doing panning photos give the car somewhere to go. If the car is moving from right to left put the car on the right side of the frame so you have track infront of the car, this adds to it. With background blur and space for the car to "go somewhere" you give a real sense of motion. To add even further to the feel of speed give a slight tilt to the camera.

To be prepared when arriving at a grandprix weekend, go out practicing panning. Go to a intersection and take pictures of the cars going through, once you start getting things to work at slower speeds with distance then get closer and move to place with higher speed. Obviously you might not get a chance to practice on cars going at 200+kmph but more then likely the closest you get at a grandprix is 50-100m. If you can pan and get clear pictures of a car doing 100+kmph from 20-25m you can do the same on a car going 200+ at 50m.

Final words, SHOT RAW!!! Preserve as much as possible of the picture to allow you to adjust and make eye poping images in post processing. If you shoot JPEG your post processing adjustments gets limited but just keep in mind you can't recover a bad image in post so you want them as good as possible in the camera then enhance them in post…

I SHOT RAW!

Thats how I got the shots of Bruno and other drivers on my website. You will be hard pressed to get a shot of a big name driver but I walked right up to Bruno, Heikki and Jarno with no issues at all. The Ferrari boys were mobbed as I expected….

As you can see I am by no means an expert but one thing regarding fences - depending on where you are you can get above the fences to get your shots. Also getting by a corner is easier to get good shots as the cars are much slower - Luffield at Silverstone is particularly good for that.

I always tend to take most photos during practice and only a few during the race as you don't want to miss what's going on because you're looking through a camera lens. Also it's so much easier now with digital as you can snap away and just delete the rubbish ones later.

To be honest I only tried that a long time ago since these days every track has a double row of fences. You can stand close to the first, but the other one is still a bit further away.

But indeed if you find a spot where you don't need to pan (and with only a single fence) then it's probably easier.

Pics i took can be seen here: http://modusimages.smugmug.com/Motorsport/Formula-1/Petronas-Malaysian-Formula-1/16584672_Ck34m#1249418151_pZFwd

Friday Practice was access all areas, is this the same for Thurs practice at Monaco? Would be great if someone can share some info :)

A better link.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/liquidstereo/630645498/in/set-72157600483162136