F1 Photographer, Darren Heath, in conversation with Peter Windsor

Darren Heath, one of the world's foremost F1 photographers, talks in detail to Peter Windsor about F1 2023, race tracks, racing drivers and the changing face of his work. In this video Darren also selects three of his favourite images from the past F1 season.
With special thanks to Darren Heath
darrenheath.com
Images: Darren Heath
With thanks, too, to Jetcraft, the world's largest buyer and seller of executive jets:
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And to pitbox.io. Say goodbye to pitlane guesswork and hello to a new era of precision and efficiency. Pitbox.io provides the tools you need to optimize your performance and maximize your chances of victory:
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Visit our new podcast site - Short Corners - on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and Google podcasts
Discover Martin Tomlinson's fine motor racing art:
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Don't miss the great F1 memorabilia currently being auctioned for the Make a Wish Foundation:
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Images: Grand Prix Photo (Peter Nygaard), Alpine and McLaren
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Nick: you're always with us

[@therealBocaStudios]

Yeah we need more of these interviews

[@Jason-mx8dl]

I could not have enjoyed this any more. Thank you both.

[@Chopin1995]

Just when I thought about cancelling my subscription and reducing my time on YT, Peter Windsor uploads something like this. Here’s the reason why this is my favourite F1 channel, and Peter Windsor is my favourite F1 journalist. Absolutely brilliant interview with one of the greatest F1 photographer. Thank you so much Peter and Darren!

[@russtaylor385]

Fabulous interview. An expert who started with simple enthusiasm and determination. Prima photographer assoluta!

[@sibuhlubi]

As an aspirant audio visual artist, not just F1or motorsport, this interview is incredibly informative. Thank you, 🤩

[@davidearthling5123]

Wow, that shot of Fernando is incredible!

[@jameshull4340]

Love his work and used to sit refreshing his site after every race for his blog. Spot on Peter, great to hear from Darren.

[@tdavart9233]

This was great fun for all of us amateurs out here. Thanks to both of you.

[@Grand_inquisiteur]

Love Daren insights about his life in this fabulous sport, thank you Peter for this interview.

[@robertheymann5906]

Fantastic interview, thank you both

[@Mark.Brindle]

More with Darren, please. It was such an interesting discussion between two people who have been around F1 for a long time.

[@richardcunningham5540]

This was an absolutely brilliant insight into the work of a master artist. It is wonderful to have such glimpses into the 'other side' of F1. More of this Peter, please. So good.

[@MrMartinchristie]

Great interview thanks Peter and Darren

[@paulanthonynelson2733]

As an old F1 fan who loves Peter's videos and who recently started playing camera, i will just go ahead a give a like at the start. Thanks guys

[@HROM1908]

I am in agreement with 18 races per year. I suffer from viewer burnout ! I used to watch all the coverage. Now it is Quali and the race. Then 'Boom' you're at the next race !

[@Chopin1995]

I agree, it was and is the same for me.

[@Jackbyrne77]

Great interview with Darren. Well done Peter. He’s absolutely right about there being too many races and that you can have too much of a good thing (a lesson that the Sprint race format also proves).

[@valdezapg]

Very enjoyable interview, as a follower of f1 and also someone who has taken racing pictures in the past.

[@carlgevers2557]

Evening Darren and Peter, thx for yr time again

[@MrJmvision]

2 top men who sharing the same passion of the excellent work and passion at his best. 🥇🥇

[@petermooney2016]

Thank you. When the second photo flashed up, my immediate thought was Jean Alesi rather than Fernando.

[@moleracing]

Top imagery and nice down to earth bloke. Thanks for the interview

[@mwdrum]

In 1984 I attended Detroit G P with a $100 ticket. I could go anywhere, I had photos of drivers on the grid, them sitting in their cars, I’m 5 feet away, walking through the grid, garages, anywhere I wanted to go, it was unbelievable. No fence shots, all unobstructed views.

[@milosanrichard-robert1982]

Great video! Thank you, Peter!

[@gwbaker]

Brilliant interview, Peter! Fantastic perspective and insight. Darren has been there, just as you have, and he understands what works and what doesn't work. These are the interviews we need more of to provide context to the new fans coming into F1.

[@serrz8203]

I have been a great fan of Darren from the F1 Racing Magazine, Love his race art work. Will be mega if he goes to Le Mans in 2024. Also thanks to @peter Windsor for this interview!! Cheers from Mexico.

[@user-tp9rt3hr2x]

No way!! How cool Darren! Peter Windsor's videos are my go to after a race weekend - Max from Motorscience

[@Jackbyrne77]

The discussion at 16:00 about whether drivers appreciate being an F1 driver these days stems from the issue that, for the first time in the history of F1, almost every driver on the grid would prefer to be racing different cars that we’ve had in the past. That 2005 Renault R25 demonstration in Abu Dhabi a few years ago showed how current drivers don’t really like these cars.

[@sibuhlubi]

Is it not inability to beat Max that unsettle the rest of the grid?

[@Jackbyrne77]

@@sibuhlubi Oh there’s always been an awareness that as a driver, part of the task in winning the championship is putting yourself in the right team at the right time, so while there may be disillusionment with these cars amongst drivers due to the inability to win the title because of the talent/mechanical skill in the Verstappen/Red Bull combination, that’s not unusual. What is strange is that when asked, multiple drivers are on record as noting their distaste for these cars, with reference to cars that have come before it. In the past it’s usually been an admiration for the cars that have come before but an acceptance that those cars performance is inferior, or the enormously more dangerous than what they were racing. We’re now in an era where compared to today’s F1 cars, F1 cars from eighteen years ago are of similar performance (in many areas superior), are built with a high degree of safety, and are more exciting and engaging for the driver than today’s cars, and that in my view is a new age of F1 and what detracts massively from these current cars.

[@wskin17]

Great to have both of your insights; and echo Darren on having too many races, we need time to reflect on the races and deepen our understanding on the sport, I hope there’s no back to back races; and less caged street circuits which lack characters

[@Karma2Babylon]

Good catch, Peter. What chance in getting a sit down with Patrick Head and/or my main man, Ron ‘the boss’ Dennis?

[@floodo1]

Great and interesting answers!

[@luisdesantis6035]

Great interview. I relate about the F1 burnout. 2023 was the first season in my 40 years following the sport that I lost interest in F1. Too many! It’s like having a football World Cup every two years.

[@Jackbyrne77]

Final point to make. Why should comments stating that F1 cars of the past are fundamentally better than those we have today, have to come with an apology and a suggestion that “maybe we’re looking at it through rose tinted glasses”? Ask any WRC fan that the sport has never got better beyond 2003 and few will disagree. Tell someone that Indycar has never improved beyond the year 2000 and few will disagree. Current MotoGP on the other hand, that’s arguable whether it is as good today as it has ever been. Current F1 cars compared to those eras before it are rubbish, and Peter and Darren you shouldn’t be afraid to say it without reservation, because the sooner these cars are abandoned the better.

[@sibuhlubi]

I like Kyalami, corner 16, Ingwe, looking from above 👌

[@Dilemma1962]

What a terrific interview. I'd have bet the farm he was shooting MILC. Gear chasers should watch this. >

[@wraitheful]

I like the more interesting venues and I think they should swap location’s occasionally. Honestly though, as a fan - I can’t get enough races and would gladly accept more.

[@Jackbyrne77]

Question I would’ve liked you to ask Peter was “Have you noticed a distinct drop off in private sales of your photographs depicting F1 cars from 2018 onwards since the introduction of the halo device?” Would be interesting to hear the answer.

[@velocitaaa]

Great photographer, but extremely weird on Twitter.

[@jet688]

Question to Darren, the shot of Max’s in Vegas, was that a double exposure? One part slow shutter speed? And fast shutter speed for the subject?

[@dumiamara]

Probably used panning technique.

[@harrychalcraft6371]

I hate how every F1 camera guy watches a car in closeup and as soon as it passes the FOM TV director changes angle. We never get to see the car move away from the camera. Therefore we never get a true sense of speed on TV. WHY!? They're also really terrible at showing angles of undulation. There is so much more they could be doing in terms of camera angles and presentation it really pisses me off.

[@Shane_Marsh]

I really don't like street races, i want big open tracks like Suzuka and Portimao.

[@413TomaccoRoad]

It's not live, it's prerecorded

[@melesmeles1953]

Who cares?

[@413TomaccoRoad]

@@melesmeles1953 Not you?

[@TheChipMcDonald]

I like F1 races, the more the merrier. They can figure out logistics; you don't *have* to have the same personel at every race. The real issues should be F1 being subsumed by SA, FIA corruption, the tertiary "show" that has nothing to do with racing. Part of my enjoyment of going to a race is photography. A big part. But as a spectator, you're super restricted as they try harder and harder to corral the peasantry in a limited area. I miss Indy, where they let us wander through the stands where we wanted on Friday and Saturday.... but not being able to see anything but one very limited "portal" to the track - wrecks it for me. Way too $$$$$$$$$$_

[@carlgevers2557]

Aaaargh, signal drop. Not yr side SA service provider

[@Shawn-ii5oy]

Amazing video!

[@wpetersen1081]

I'm tired of these guys complaining about the amount of races. You're lucky to work in the F1 world. Otherwise you can quit. Nobody's got a gun to your head

[@TheChipMcDonald]

Sprint races wrecks F1 statistic history.

[@harrychalcraft6371]

When is F1 going to be good again, does anyone else think these cars look like a big bag of arse?

[@harrychalcraft6371]

F1 cars from 2011 got me watching F1 religiously but I had watched it a lot growing up as a child due to my father watching it. He used to say some controversial things I think about later in life as my dad was a fast driver, he still owned a record at a British circuit he made 30 years or so previous when he returned to it in the 2010's before he died. I find F1 to be in a terrible place right now for the died in the wool hardcore supporters, nowadays F1 is only catering to Americans, and no surprise Liberty Media, an American company is running F1. I don't like it. It's about time more of the media talked about it. I feel they're all too scared to.

[@harrychalcraft6371]

He said David Coulthard made the FIA put posts up at every apex because he couldn't see the corners and braking points well enough as an example.

[@Karma2Babylon]

I wish Peter had asked him the story around the brake steer pedal photo in the McLaren. Matt Bishop told the story but wanted Heath’s take.

[@Jackbyrne77]

Not only do they look bad, they move poorly. Watch a race in the early ‘00s and watch a race now and look how the car of the past pivots and changes direction on a dime. It is properly jarring!! They’re just waaayy too heavy now. They may be faster over the course of a lap, but they are sooo slow.

[@marianne1555]

Peter I suggest you watch F1XED about AD 2021. As I had the strange feeling you're not quite honest I unsubscribed myself of your channel some months ago. Of course you don't care 😂 as you have enough of subscribers and you can make money out them. Your praise about Vetstappen talent, that very guy who for 2 years didn't have to race and got a robbed 1st title seems not right to me so... It's clear to me that Verstappen is a dirty driver and it's time for people to realise it. One more thing Peter, popularity has nothing to do with talent on the track but it seems corruption has it all. In 2021 Lewis deserved to win as much Crashstappen too Peter ! Watch your after race video ! Bye...

[@Grand_inquisiteur]

Wow what a bunch of nonsense Are you sure you know Mr Windsor and watch his videos? He’s a big Lewis fan even before you knew who Lewis was, he doesn’t even hide it and he never misses an opportunity to talk about the shame of Abu Dhabi 2021 you just look like an extremist and I speak as a racing fan and Lewis fan