It is not difficult to work out why Olympus has been involved in Formula 1 Grand Prix racing for almost thirty years. The sport provides a challenging environment for photographic equipment, capturing fast moving cars in a variety of lighting and weather conditions. Added to that is the glamour and excitement that surrounds the highest level of motor racing in the world.
Olympus’ first F1 foray dates back to 1978 - 79 when it sponsored Team Lotus, who took the Drivers’ Championship title that year with famous American racer, Mario Andretti. In 1985 Olympus renewed it's association with Team Lotus after a gap of fifteen years. Highpoints of the relationship included an historic maiden Formula 1 win for Ayrton Senna in that year’s Portuguese Grand Prix, a prelude to a career total of 41 victories for the mercurial Brazilian champion.
2005 marked the end of a highly successful three year relationship with the most famous team in the sport, Scuderia Ferrari. In 2003 and 2004, the Olympus-backed team won the Constructors’ Championship and, with seven-times world champion Michael Schumacher, the Drivers’ crown. 2005 proved tougher, with the team and its star driver having to settle for third in both championships.
Whereas Olympus’ previous F1 adventures were more of a straightforward sponsorship arrangement, the link with Ferrari could more accurately be described as a technical partnership. The engineers at the Ferrari factory and at the race track made extensive use of Olympus endoscopes, which proved invaluable for assessing the condition of internal engine components and for looking inside carbon fibre parts. In addition, the team’s press officers all came to rely on Olympus digital voice recorders for interviews, while its photographic department were enthusiastic users of the Olympus E-System which was launched at about the time the partnership began and generated a great deal of interest among the professional F1 photographers.
Learn more about the Olympus E-System. |
