Tag: British GT

The GT Media Day is an event I have been going to for a good few years. Free to attend, entertaining to watch with state-of-the-art Gran Turismo cars thundering around the track. It’s a great way to start off my motorsport photography season. 

For the past few years, the GT Media Day has been held at different circuits. Last year, I was at Donington Park photographing the event. This year, it was the turn of the self-styled home of British motorsport, Silverstone, to be the host.

Last year, I have no idea how many people turned up for the Donington GT Media Day, but it was a lot. I don’t think Donington Park could tell me exactly how many fans turned up on the day. There were no tickets required, and there were no checks on the gates, just a few staff directing traffic.

Silverstone GT Media Day 2025

Silverstone could not have been much more different if it tried. Only 2000 fans would be allowed into Silverstone for the GT Media Day. It was still a free-to-watch event with the only requirement being to book your ticket on the Silverstone app.

A few days before the event, tickets appeared in the separate Silverstone ticketing app. Online, a map and timetable were available to download, but not much more information.

The map basically had what grandstands were available to use and where you could watch the event. To be honest, I was a little disappointed as it was somewhat restrictive. Only a very few good photographic locations seemed to be available.

Copse

After parking inside the circuit, I headed for outside of Copse. This was the main viewing spot shown on the Silverstone GT Media Day map. Most of the 2000 fans had also migrated here as well. Some inside the track, some like me used the tunnel that takes you to the outside of the track.

Just before nine in the morning the rumble of high performance engines could be heard from the National Pit garages. The first cars started joining the track in front of us from the pit lane exit. I stared to excited, it takes quite a lot to get me excited about anything on a cold Friday morning but GT cars will do it.

As the first few cars circulated around the full Grand Prix Circuit I took my pictures. Moving to slightly different spots around Copse to get different angles. A red flag brought a temporary holt to proceedings which gave me the opportunity to review my images. I was quite happy with them, nothing outstanding but not a bad start at all. 

Looking around I noticed the crowd had thinned out. From Copse you can see all the way to the Luffield complex, some of the fans seemed to be watching from there. With my shooting buddy in tow we took the opportunity, while what ever had caused the red flag to be cleared to walk up to Luffield.

Luffield

It didn’t take long for the cars to reappear so we didn’t quite make it to Luffield before the entertainment started again. Not a problem, as it’s a media day, the cars were only testing not racing. Walking to a different location meant you were not missing anything. However, the sight and sound of exotic race cars pulled me back track side. 

This is on aspect of a media day that I like as there is not much of a schedule. You are able to take the opportunity to explore more of the track. At a regular race meeting you wouldn’t want to be walking to a different location while there was racing happening. 

Arriving at Luffield it was obvious that there had been quite a lot of changes. My last visit was during the 2024 season. Higher safety fences have been erected all of the way around Luffield. Previously you could shoot over the top of the wire fence, unfortunately you can’t now. You can still shoot through the fence, not ideal but there is no other option. Unless you go high up in the grandstand, which wasn’t open on the day. 

Silverstone Kart Track

The other change is quite significant, a new kart track with associated buildings were under construction. I was told that the works would be completed by May of this year, 2025. I don’t think it will have much impact on the access to the viewing area at Brooklands. We will check it out after the building works have been completed and update our Silverstone photographers track guide.

The only scheduled event of the day was the media guys getting out on the track with the cars for some tracking shots. This is basically a slow moving convoy to get some rolling shots of the GT cars. I have watched and photographed this event many times track side and never got any interesting images. I headed back to the Silverstone cafe to meet a few friends and refuel. Preparing myself for the much more interesting pit walk and afternoon session. 

Silverstone GT Media Day Pits

We spent quite a while at the cafe. When we did move towards the pits the queue to get in was quite long. Doing the British thing we walked to the back or what we thought was the back, it just kept going and going. The good news is once the queue started moved it moved quickly.

The chance to get up close with any thoroughbred  race car is a privilege. The pit walk gives you that privilege and the opportunity to chat to the drivers. If you like, take a few selfies and get an autograph or two.

As you walk round the pits you can watch the teams preparing the cars for the next session. It’s a bit hit or miss if your favourite team car is ready to race or in a hundred pieces.  Nonetheless it’s well worth doing the pit walk.

All too soon the tannoy burst into life announcing the end of the pit walk. I had plenty of time to see the majority of the cars. However, if you had taken the time to stop and chat to the teams you wouldn’t have been able to take in all of the garages. 

Silverstone the Loop

Back out trackside there was none of that “you can’t stand there” that you can get at Silverstone events. Most of the National end of the Grand Prix circuit was open for the fans to walk round and watch the cars. For the many photographers that had made the journey to the GT Media day there were loads of great locations to photograph the cars. 

Here is the interesting part, as a media day for the GT Championship it seemed to be successful. As a social media day for the fans it was very successful. The amount of coverage the event got on the World Wide Web with content supplied by the fans was considerable. 

There were lots of good quality pictures of the cars out on the track posted up on all of the social media channels I looked at. This not only helps to promote the series in general but sets the scene for the many fans that couldn’t get to Silverstone. 

Seeing the new liveries and some new cars like Nick Jones and Sven Müller in the Porsche 911 GT3 R has wetted my appetite for the season ahead. I presume, looking a the comments on social media that the fans are too. Can anyone take the number one plate from the Barwell Motorsport Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2?

You can see lots more of the British GT Championship in 2025. The first round will be held at Donington Park April 5-6.

Photographic equipment used for this motorsport event.

I used the Nikon D500 with a 200-400mm f4 lens and a 1.4 teleconverter. RPW also used the Nikon D500 but with a 200-500mm f5.6 and a Nikon 18-140mm as I also did round the pits.  David used the Nikon D850 with the 24-70mm F2.8 on the pit walk. 

Thanks to RPW and David Harbey Photography for helping out with this report. You can see more of Davids work below.