Director’s Diary: Motor Racing - Sebring to Le Mans 2023

07:30: With just eight cases of camera gear, (which believe me, is travelling very light) my trusted DOP Mark Hammond and I meet at Heathrow airport. As a veteran of many motorsport campaigns, I'm excited about this year's Goodyear/Eurosport film, as it focuses on the future of motorsport tyre technology and it is both Goodyear's 125th and Le Mans 100th anniversaries. Everyone agrees that this season is very special, so we are travelling to The World Endurance Championship’s at Sebring, USA to film the drivers and their teams as they look to get off to a flying start and build momentum to the legendary 24 hours of Le Mans race in France.

14.00: It's the first race of the season so the atmosphere at Sebring is electric, with fans and teams gearing up for the three-day event. Our film crew connects with the drivers, race team managers and officials on the ground, and starts filming B-roll footage of the teams preparing for their practice sessions. As part of my prep, I had loosely storyboarded some special effect / post produced graphic shots that would see the drivers racing in animated wire frame cars, so I spend the next hour scouting locations for these shots. 

15:30: As this is the first race of the season, there is a ‘prologue’ - the first time all WEC competitors can hit the track and measure themselves up against the competition. This provides an excellent opportunity for B-roll.

18:30: We head to our hotel, where we'll be interviewing the drivers the next day. We set up our temporary studio in a conference room, pre-light the set and hang the drapes that will become our infinity backdrop. Then, we review the shot list and plans for the first day of filming.

20:45: Over dinner, we discuss the filming schedule for tomorrow. We will be interviewing Doriane Pin, who is a driver for the Prema race team, followed by Will Stevens for Jota Sport and Filipe Albuquerque for United Sports. The challenge will be to get them to talk about technical detail and innovation in an entertaining and accessible way, for two of them in their second language. 

06:30: First thing, I review the timing plan. The drivers' tight schedules mean we have to move quickly. Doriane Pin is up first and she’s only 19. It amazes me that someone so young can be so proficient on the track, holding their own against seasoned drivers. She has some intriguing thoughts about the potential future of 360 racing tyres.

10:45: With the interviews in the can, I’m inspired by the level of insight and knowledge each of the drivers had on race tyres. One challenge which presented itself was that two drivers were not wearing their official race suits, causing me some continuity issues with my special effect shots. I quickly arranged a pickup shoot (in a track side location) to solve the problem. 

11:15: We head to the Sebring Racecourse to capture B-roll. Although none of our drivers are officially racing today, they’re practising pit stop changes, tweaking their individual car setups and doing a track walk. This involves walking around the entire 3.741mile track so that they can familiarise themselves with it, spot any hazards and work out their strategies. Sebring race track is the oldest US track with a 12 hour racing stint over a 17 turn course with long straights and several high speed corners as well as some very technical slower corners… It’s a hard course to race and win.

20:00: As we pack up and de-rig, we look forward to shooting the drivers in action tomorrow as they put their cars through their paces. The weather will be lovely, so it should be a good day!

06:15: It’s the first race of the season and our last day here. You can feel the tension, excitement, and anticipation in the air. 

I’m hoping to get a perfect shot of the sun going down across the magical Sebring course at the end of the day. We've got some epic angles to get from our main cameras, some elevated shots and some angles from the chicanes and some tight corners. There are some specific shots I want to shoot for the graphics and animation transitions too. 

11:40: This year, I have permission to put one of my camera team in race fire suit, in the pit lane. This gives us the chance to get action shots, close up to the drivers, and also allows us to capture one of our dynamic post produced animated graphic plate shots. We capture a great one of Will Stevens coming into the Jota pit stop.

13:00: We have ten minutes to have a break. It's all happening around us so we eat on the fly by the Prema garage. I don’t want to miss Doriane Pin coming to the garage to inspect the car. I want to get a close up of her pulling down her visor ready to race.

15:00: The day is quite frantic and we have split the camera teams up so that we can maximise and get as much coverage of the action as possible. There are a few minor crashes and spin outs, but we are getting great race footage for the edit. Working in 35 degree heat, with the constant noise of the track is a challenge in itself, especially coordinating the team. 

16:50: I have a window to check my shot list and notice that I have not been able to capture Filipe Albuquerque suiting up for the last stint of the day. We camp out at the United Sports pit lane area and wait for Filipe. Perfect timing. Filipe has three minutes to give us. I ask him to discuss his race tyres with his Goodyear engineer. Finally, we’re ready to capture Filipe gearing up for the last stint of the race. He looks focused and knows what he needs to do.

18:00: It’s been a formidable shoot, but the work is not done yet. There are some final shots I’d love to get very early the following morning, plus an iconic, straight-on angle of the driver’s face mid-race which I’d like to capture from all our drivers.