I've got the chance to attach some GoPro's to a Formula 1 race car next week.

What's the best and most secure way to attach it with out damaging paintwork etc?

Thanks

What's the situation? Mounting a camera for a commercial shoot is a bit different than mounting one for a race. For a commercial shoot I would trust the standard double sided tape on the regular mounting bases. They're strong enoung to hold against the vibrations and yet they'll peel off the car (pry off would probably be a more accurate term) and won't damage the paint.

I won't offer any advice on how to mount one for a race, that's not an area I have any experience with.

Thanks.

It's not a race, just some demonstration laps on a circuit.

I'll give it a go and see what happens.

Thanks again.

updates?

:D

F1 cars already have multiple camera connection points. Hopefully, somebody on the team can let you know what's available. With only a handful of tubs produced per year, I doubt that they'd let an AV guy mount just anything to the car.

One thing for sure, it will need to be a rock solid mount. F1 cars (I'm a fan; never driven one) are absolutely violent. They crash over curves, yet the suspension is near rock solid. Most of the compliance comes from the tire sidewall, not the suspension. They can pull five Gs on a hard lap. If there is any play in the mount, it might oscillate. If so, the car will record as a blur, rather than a solid object.

Even for plates shot at city speeds for "24", DP Rodney Charters noted that the mounts have to be super solid to get the job done.

Sounds like a fun shoot!

The 'paint' is usually vinyl wrap - I wouldnt worry about damaging it.

Ask the team, depending on their setup, they would recommend certain mounting points.

I would also assume that you wouldn't want you to mount it in a way that would compromise the aero dynamics. At those speeds, even something as tiny as a GOPro would intro significant drag. Again, the best answer is consult with the team, and they will likely know what the best solution is. Sounds like a great opportunity. Be sure to let us know how it goes!

Errr... I mean, let us know how it went. Just checked the OP date...

As Jon rightly says all the F1 cars have camera mounts built into the design so you best talk to the team as they will be able to use the camera that is designed to give pictures from the car during race conditions.

All of the car's also have dummy mounts so that all the cars are balanced the same if they have a camera on board or not.

Would be very surprised if they let you bolt anything onto it so best let them handle such things.

Sorry all for not updating this thread.

The whole thing ended up as a bit of a mess.

On the day of filming at Brands Hatch everything became last minute and we were not sure if we could actually stick GoPro cameras on the cars. By the time we were told we could, I didn't have enough time to stick them on and only managed to stick one on top of a Ferrari Enzo and one inside.

Here's a quick vid I did a while back. Haven't done the proper version yet. that's me hanging out the back of the Range Rover.

Benetton F1 & Ferrari Enzo together on a race track - YouTube

Best way is to use only the camera naked without the housing. Remove the rubber skin on the base of the camera body and use quality double sided 3M tape to fix to the F1.

GoPro was mounted on the front wing on the RHS tip and was naked - no waterproof case.
Shot in R5 Mode 1080p, almost no jello. This will show you what the GoPro is capable of.
The original footage is clean and almost artifact free considering the car was doing 300kmh.
These F1 cars run very smooth, hence the lack of jello in 1080p, 720p @60fps would have been better again

Mounting position outside front wing tip

http://img716.imageshack.us/img716/5384/65306947.jpg

The 720p video clip can be downloaded from here. It's only 2000kbps but the detail at 300kph is amazing.
Full Onboard Camera Lap of Bathurst with Jenson Button!.mp4 (http://www.mediafire.com/?ifvigespdsqswtc)

jenson button bathurst on Vimeo

Thanks for that Ian.

Will test it out with the 3M tape.