Shooting Lewis Hamilton’s Champ’ winning 2019 F1 car

The few weeks ago I got the opportunity to photograph Lewis Hamilton’s 2019 F1 championship winning car at a secret location in the UK.

As is often the case there is neither the time or the funds available to bring the car to a studio so I built a studio around the car. When I say studio it is the bare essentials of what I need to capture the image.Lighting is by flash either direct through softboxes or bounced into a white sheet behind the car.

It’s not perfect and my technique relies on my 30 years plus of experience of knowing what’s important to spend time on and what’s not.My friend Rob came along as assistant and we wrapped up the shoot with minimum fuss in just under four hours.

Here’s the final retouched head on image. You may notice that the car is still quite dirty… actually it is uncleaned from the final race of the F1 season in Abu Dhabi. Lewis won it with Max Verstappen second in the Red Bull Honda and Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari taking the final podium spot.

I’ve featured the front 3/4 view in my cars portfolio see : https://www.jamesmann.com/portfolio-one/

In the studio with Fangio’s Mercedes W196

I cornered Bonhams boss Robert Brooks at the Goodwood press day and asked if I could photograph their most high profile aquisition for the July sale…..the ex Juan Manuel Fangio Mercedes W196 team car in which he won the Swiss and German Gran Prix of 1954 helping him to the F1 title that year.The car, which has been under the radar for a number of years, featured many innovative ideas for the day including in board brakes, fuel injection and desmodronic valve actuation and is in an fabulous un-restored stateĀ  remaining the only W196 on the open market.Estimate $15-20M

The incredible Audi R18 e-tron quattro

It was a great coup to get to shoot this year’s Le Mans winning Audi R18 e-tron quattro for the Legends of Le Mans book.In a grand tour of Europe covering 2500 miles ,James has been photographing the last few cars for his upcoming studio art book, including a stunning 1920’s Lorraine Dietrich B3-6, a Mercedes SSK once owned by Sir Malcolm Campbell, the 2005 winning Peugeot 905HDi and the stunning Audi R8 and R18 e-tron quattro.