109 replies to this topic

[Graveltrappen]

Got up this morning in the early hours, made a bacon butty, lit the coal fire and made a nice brew before settling down on the couch to watch F1

I remember getting up for Suzuka in 1998, the first full year I followed F1, and the mix of the early start, the championship going down to the wire, schumi being thrown to the back of the grid.... It was exciting. Throw in a couple of spectacular moments and some mechanical retirements.... Tyrell and Goodyears final race. It sticks in my memory, and whenever I think of Suzuka, it's 1998 I think of. Whether that's because I was only 14 and have rose tinted specs on, perhaps...

This morning I've got Sky and the amount of coverage with online added into the mix is impressive. I used to rely only on F1 Racing mag, the back pages of the newspapers and also there was a sort of satirical f1 magazine that I can't remember the name of now.... (Bernie Ecclescakes rings a bell)

Today Whether it's all the regulations or whatever stifling the competition, something is definitely missing. I remember looking for news on technical developments, and the '3rd pedal' or other innovations... As Ron said today, It's a shame f1 is smothered in regulations at the moment. It's a great place to help innovation and development given the chance.

I've loved F1 for 18 years and this isn't a 'hate on f1' topic at all... I'd miss it terribly if it were to disappear.

When would you pick out as your 'golden era'?

[Wheels23]

I guess 2009-2013 and 2003-2006. I guess I liked refuelling and also 2009-2013 had some pretty damn good championship battles with 4 drivers in 2010 and Alonso v. Vettel in 2012 where we had so many different winners. 2003-2006, had some good moments but I was younger, so I remember them more fondly. 

[superden]

1986-1996

[Graveltrappen]

I guess 2009-2013 and 2003-2006. I guess I liked refuelling and also 2009-2013 had some pretty damn good championship battles with 4 drivers in 2010 and Alonso v. Vettel in 2012 where we had so many different winners. 2003-2006, had some good moments but I was younger, so I remember them more fondly.

See I wonder the same thing... But with the scope of access I now can follow f1 closer than I ever could as a kid. There was only the ITVF1 coverage, whereas now there's sky's f1 channel, plus things like YouTube, Twitter, all the websites and blogs.

I also wanted to collect all the diecast cars and caps and stuff as a kid. Now that I can afford it, I don't want to bother any more. But when it comes to the actual following the sport, it's easier now than ever before for me... Yet I still hark back to the times when it was more difficult to follow.

Perhaps it's to do wit getting to an age where I'm older than most of the drivers, haha. I remember thinking f1 wouldn't be able to cope without Hakkinen, Hill, Irvine and the 2 schumachers... But it quickly moves on and the new names arrive. We're at that stage now where the 'old guard' changes over as Button, Alonso approach the end of their careers... I remember Buttons first race at Willian's and how young he was... But he was still older than me!

[RedBaron]

My first season was 1997. I think 1997 and 1998 were immense. 2000-2008 were also great years (2000 to 2004 as a Schumacher fan for sure), 2000 and 2006 especially.

 

I used to get my fill from F1 News not F1 Racing. In fact I still have every copy from 1997 until bust.

 

 

I sometimes wonder if it's simply because I am older and my hero is no longer driving that the excitement has softened and as a result things seem less spectacular. Other times I think it's because the excitement has softened. I miss the noise, seeing the cars pushing pushing pushing to the limit. Splash and dash strategies. Tyre wars.

 

Back in my day there used to be so many factors that could decide the race and change the order throughout the season. There doesn't seem to be that many now.

 

[Graveltrappen]

A superb wee article I just found whilst trying to locate the name of the 'Funny' f1 magazine from the late 90's

http://doctorvee.co....d-f1-magazines/

These magazines used to be gold-dust for me, loved reading through them... Even the free ones that were basically adverts for the engine manufacturers!

I remember walking down to WHSmith on a Saturday morning to get the latest F1Racing mag, and I'd read it cover-to-cover. Nowadays I only buy it if I'm going on a plane... At the time all the news was 'hot off the press' for me

Used to have all the F1 season review hardback books with the technical drawings, and the VHS and DVD reviews... I sold them all at a car boot a few years back 😬

Edited by Graveltrappen, 27 September 2015 - 09:28.

[Wheels23]

See I wonder the same thing... But with the scope of access I now can follow f1 closer than I ever could as a kid. There was only the ITVF1 coverage, whereas now there's sky's f1 channel, plus things like YouTube, Twitter, all the websites and blogs.

I also wanted to collect all the diecast cars and caps and stuff as a kid. Now that I can afford it, I don't want to bother any more. But when it comes to the actual following the sport, it's easier now than ever before for me... Yet I still hark back to the times when it was more difficult to follow.

Perhaps it's to do wit getting to an age where I'm older than most of the drivers, haha. I remember thinking f1 wouldn't be able to cope without Hakkinen, Hill, Irvine and the 2 schumachers... But it quickly moves on and the new names arrive. We're at that stage now where the 'old guard' changes over as Button, Alonso approach the end of their careers... I remember Buttons first race at Willian's and how young he was... But he was still older than me!

 

It's just that you watched them when you were younger and that sparked the interest. So you remember fondly. It is what it is. 

[ensign14]

Brands Hatch 1985 until Suzuka 1987.  Senna v Prost v Piquet v Mansell.  Hakkinen taking it to Schumacher in the late 90s and 2005-7, Alonso dethroning Schumacher and being dethroned in turn by Hamilton, are pretty close.

 

I think we could have been with a similar set of talent now had Kubica not been such a selfish ****. 

 

Looking back through history, the greatest golden ages seem to be the late 1930s (Rosemeyer v Varzi v Nuvolari v Caracciola in those brutes) - and even then the fields were often minute, even compared to today - and the absolute best; the mid 1960s (Clark v Hill v Surtees v Brabham v Gurney v Stewart, with Ferrari, BRM and Honda all building their own cars and engines, and the GP teams taking the money off the Americans at Indy).

[djonas79]

Technically, the second half of 1999 (without Schumacher) was by far and away the worst part of F1 since... since at least 1980.

 

That grid was lousy, with three underperforming champions and many second tier drivers who wouldn't make the grid of today.

 

As for the interesting part, I would say 1994-1995, 1997-2000, 2003, 2005-2010 and 2012 were all pretty fine years in the modern era.  

Edited by djonas79, 27 September 2015 - 09:39.

[ElJefe]

Late 90s, early 2000s. Schumacher vs Hakkinen is what I grew up with. 

[Heisenberg]

The golden era for me, certainly 2000-2004, I used to collect all kinds of magazines (including F1 Racing). And although it wasn't overall such an exciting period with all the Ferrari domination (even though I was a fan of both Ferrari & Schumacher), I still have certain nostalgia about those times and how drivers pushed the cars to the limit. I later started to watch the earlier races from 90s and some from the 80s too, everything I could get my hands on, from GPs to documentaries...

[DS27]

Peak: 1976 - 2006

Okay: 2007 - 2012

Poor: 2013 - 2014

Life Support: 2015 - ?

[chunder27]

It just has to be better.

 

The sport right now is an appalling spectacle, the cars sound like commuter cars, the drivers are totally hidden and treated like deities despite being very over rated.

 

the tracks are dull and uninspiring and the sport looks drab.

 

The tv coverage is again uninspiring but they can only work with what they have, and let's face it that is not a great product at the moment!

[Claudius]

The 90s for me. Tension and excitement. Great cars and drivers.

Didn't miss a single race back then.

[FredF1]

I've been watching the classic races on Sky F1 - mostly ones from the 1980's to early 1990's. While they're entertaining in their own right, the coverage is appalling - being told that there's an almighty scrap over 4th place, for example, while never seeing a bit of it. The other thing that I find interesting is the "official narrative". I was watching Monaco 1984 last week and, it struck me that the past 30 years of being told about the race seems to come from the race footage - as in journalists watching that alone and telling us that this is how it happened so there - no actual context at all. So, I'd be wary about any sort of nostalgia comparing past seasons of F1 and claims as to which one was the best.

[Imperial]

This again?

There never was a golden era, just good races amd races like today.

I hate rose tinted glasses, they not only make the good stuff look better but also magically filter out the dross.

[TheManAlive]

My first season was 88, seems a long time ago.

 

I think one of the issues with F1 (and lots of things in the internet age) nowadays is the over saturation. Back then seeing an issue of Prix Editions (before F1 Racing!) or an article in the newspapers was amazing and I would read every word as that was all I would see outside the BBC live coverage (and it was literally just the race) or the highlights. I never had arguments or discussions about F1 as none of my friends or family followed it.

 

Now I can read the latest update minute by minute online, spend hours reading opinions here and engage in debates to my hearts content. Coverage last for HOURS and the race is just the bit in the middle. Or go to youtube and see highlights of just about every over take that has ever happened and think that that was how F1 always was.

 

It waters down the magic.

 

Is the racing any better now than then. Nope, but nor is it any worst. Are the drivers better now, nope. There were boring drivers and exciting ones back then as there are now.

 

I fear that the over saturation of the media means that the product can never live up to the hype. Just watch the coverage before the race and the are saying how exciting it will be, but our expectations are set way too high. That is not to say F1 isnt great, we're just building it up in our minds to something it never was. 

 

I remember seeing my first baseball match on a trip to the STates. I had only seen it in movies and it looked exciting. The first match was the world series Yankees vs Red Socks (so as thrilling a match as you can get). I was soooooooo bored, I really felt bad for wasting the seat. Reality didn't live up to my expectations.

 

With F1 I love all of it, strategy, balls to the wall racing, the wet, the dry, the technology etc etc. The saddest things in F1 right now are the lack of teams (due to many reasons but mostly due to the inequality of the money distribution) and the constant moaning about the bloody 'show' by the fans and the media alike. If you say it enough, you start to believe it.

 

But that is just my views.

[Graveltrappen]

I remember all of these moments from 1998 as if they were yesterday:



They seemed quite crash happy back then... Lots of poor driving actually.

One thing I never knew until recently, was that in the Suzuka crash Tuero hurt his back so badly that he was forced to retire from racing. I didn't realise this back in the day, possibly down to the lack of coverage (especially in the off season... It seemed to go on forever back then).

The old launches were the highlight of the post new-year time of year. Proper fanfare had for each!

Edited by Graveltrappen, 27 September 2015 - 10:26.

[RedBaron]

I raise you...

 

 

Then I raise myself with 1997.

 

Edited by RedBaron, 27 September 2015 - 10:28.

[SCUDmissile]

Suzuka 2006 was my first one. Heartbreaking but still a really good race.

[Pete_f1]

I miss the local standard to PAL which would give the Japanese vGP a particular look

[Retrofly]

You should watch Midnight in Paris by Woody Allen

[krea]

It lost the reputation and feeling of being the pinnacle of engineering and racing.

 

Not sure how you could get back it.

[Graveltrappen]

I think we miss a 'proper' rivalry these days. Alonso vs Hamilton should have been amazing, but it never really came to fruition.

Montoya vs Schumacher was superb, loved that.

All the drivers get on too well these days, tweeting each other and suchlike... I'm hoping Verstappen will be a ruthless so-and-so and have a schumiesque pro/anti effect on fans.

Schumacher was good because he polarised fans so much, and because a hero and pantomime villain which was lots of fun, especially as most of the 'antis' would privately admit that he was in fact superb and without equal on the then-current grids.

[Graveltrappen]

1999 was good, especially as Barrichello in the Stewart kept threatening to win! This was in his pre-lapdog days of course.

[learningtobelost]

The kids that grow up with this era will say the same.

Plenty of People moaned in the early 2000s about how bad f1 had become, yet most of the people in this thread thus far have included that within their golden era. Different frames of reference, different preferences and thankfully a plurality of opinions prevail.

2015 is far from brilliant, but in every era there are poor years. F1 keeps evolving, but it's fans seem to stay the same in one crucial way... We're all miserable bastards with a healthy dose of selective memory of the past. Long may we continue to be so!

[Graveltrappen]

You should watch Midnight in Paris by Woody Allen

Sure, I know there are probably kids today that in 20 years will look back and say 'it was much better in 2015 when we still had teams like Williams, Sauber and Force India before they went bust'... 'There's never been another era like the Hamilton, Vettel era'...

I get all that. I was sitting in front of a log fire reminiscing about my old F1 memories... but given the choice I probably wouldn't swap back to ITVF1 and the pre-Internet age (then again... Maybe I would!)

[Massa_f1]

1998 was such an epic season. It had everything a F1 could want from a season in my opinion.

 

F1 misses proper rivalry's these days Senna vs Prost, Hakkinen Vs Schumacher, Hill Vs Schumacher. Not only did these drivers have close championship battles points wise, but also had battles on the track for position as well.

 

These days championship rivals never seem to get near each other on track. Even Alonso Vs Vettel in 2012 despite the very close title showdown lacked the 2 of them in wheel to wheel action on the track.

 

Now with all the complicated technology, and engines that I am really not interested in combined with the lack of championship battles just makes me wish for the golden era again.

Edited by Massa_f1, 27 September 2015 - 10:44.

[YoungGun]

Good thread. 1978 seems like so long long ago, but the names on that starting grid in Montreal remain etched in my mind forever.

[Graveltrappen]

1998 was such an epic season. It had everything a F1 could want from a season in my opinion.

F1 misses proper rivalry's these days Senna vs Prost, Hakkinen Vs Schumacher, Hill Vs Schumacher. Not only did these drivers have close championship battles points wise, but also had battles on the track for position as well.

These days championship rivals never seem to get near each other on track. Even Alonso Vs Vettel in 2012 despite the very close title showdown lacked the 2 of them in wheel to wheel action on the track.

Now with all the complicated technology, and engines that I am really not interested combined with the lack of championship battles just makes me wish for the golden era again.

Yeah, there was scandals (3rd pedal), Williams and Villeneuve downfall... Schumacher being a total villain after the 1997 season close, there was Spa which was a superb spectacal, and there was drama with DC colliding with Schumacher and their public spats... The championship went to the wire... It was brilliant. Plus the Arrows and Jordan liverys were gorgeous!

[Force Ten]

Right now it's weird time, the sport feels like it should be really good on paper with lots of position changes, good coverage, possibilities of different strategies et all. Yet actually WATCHING it one feels incredibly indifferent as the general order of the race is decided pretty much before the cars go to full stop before the 5 red lights. Like today, when Rosberg dropped to 4th on the 1st lap, hell a year back when he came second from dead last at one race, also today Verstappen and Kvyat started from the back and got in the end their usual finishing positions.

 

When was it good? Well our personal preferences regarding the drivers cloud it allot but the last time it was this bad was I suppose 2002 and 2004 where the only question about the race order was "will Schumacher let Barrichello ahead of him in the last lap or not?"

 

Started watching 1991 btw and cannot really pick years that particulary stood out, just that most of the time there has been something to get exited about, right now... Not so much.

[ElJefe]

Right now it's weird time, the sport feels like it should be really good on paper with lots of position changes, good coverage, possibilities of different strategies et all. Yet actually WATCHING it one feels incredibly indifferent as the general order of the race is decided pretty much before the cars go to full stop before the 5 red lights. Like today, when Rosberg dropped to 4th on the 1st lap, hell a year back when he came second from dead last at one race, also today Verstappen and Kvyat started from the back and got in the end their usual finishing positions.

 

When was it good? Well our personal preferences regarding the drivers cloud it allot but the last time it was this bad was I suppose 2002 and 2004 where the only question about the race order was "will Schumacher let Barrichello ahead of him in the last lap or not?"

 

Started watching 1991 btw and cannot really pick years that particulary stood out, just that most of the time there has been something to get exited about, right now... Not so much.

Vettel's dominance in the RBR was also incredibly boring to watch. 

[Knowlesy]

The golden era for anyone will usually be that time in life when the obsession is at its peak. Often this is when one is very young and relatively new to things, without the cynicism that develops as you age.

I got into F1 when I was 4, thanks to my dad, and my obsession reached its height in my teens-twenties (1998-2008 was probably it for me).

I think if I was to watch all those seasons now, as if they were live, I wouldn't find most of them half as exciting or tense as they seemed as a youngster.

In terms of a proper golden era, I suspect I was born too late! I wish I was thirty years older.

As for today I still really enjoy it, people moan about it way too much, but it clearly is flawed in some ways. People tend to focus on the wrong things (the sound, the drivers media personalities) than the proper issues though.

Edited by Knowlesy, 27 September 2015 - 11:26.

[chunder27]

I tend to think there is a golden age for drivers. And that was probably the 60's, lovely cars, pure cars, tracks with no limits and the chance for a driver to shine over and above his equipment at times.

 

the 70's was perhaps closest to a golden age for the sport as a whole. money started to come in, superstars were now on your telly more, great rivalries and a basic power unit that meant you coulod make a difference as a driver or clever designer.

 

The 80's was the age of engineering and power, my favourite era, cars that were hard to drive, engineering overcoming everything. Lotsof ways to get there but the racing was often poorer.

 

90's was about money and aerodynamics, but the racing often excellent and the cars loked perhaps theri best in this time. Easy to see why it is a favourite era.

 

00's was utterly forgettable, dominated by a fag packet  and a driver who had his tyres made for him aswell as his car and the 10's was dominated by the worlds favourite provider for insulin manufacturers and a rather embarassing finger!

[DampMongoose]

I'd have to go with the mid to late 80s with colourful tobacco sponsorship, qualifying engines, single car teams, pre qualifying, Mansell, Senna, Prost and Piquet. Exciting cars still on some decent tracks before they were cotton wooled and where the personalities were still allowed.

[Peter Perfect]

I'd have to go with the mid to late 80s with colourful tobacco sponsorship, qualifying engines, single car teams, pre qualifying, Mansell, Senna, Prost and Piquet. Exciting cars still on some decent tracks before they were cotton wooled and where the personalities were still allowed.

 

  That was when I started watching and nothing has really come close to that since. In fact in terms of attraction my love for the sport has been on a very slow decline ever since.

[pdac]

We've eaten the fruit from the tree of knowledge. The whole circus is now so finely tuned to money and marketing. The innocence of youth has gone.

[Wheels23]

My favorite three seasons were 2003, 2010 and 2012. Which shows that this decade hasn't been awful as many fans put it. 

[RealRacing]

I started watching in 1985 I think. Had no idea of drivers but liked the color red and I think I already had seen posters of Ferraris, especially the 328 GTB. Then I found out that red car was the same brand as the ones appearing in the posters and I instantly had my favorites (cars that is, I did not care who the drivers were). Then came 1988-1990 where I hated the McLaren domination but started to get into the Prost-Senna feud. Opinion here was so polarized that even the commenting was fun to hear as they verbally fought throughout the race. There was a column appearing on the sports section of the newspaper after every race called "Letter to the World" or something along those lines, written by Alan Prost and apparently syndicated to interested newspapers around the world. Of course the column gave his side only but it made for great reading as he aired his grievances with Senna. This biased feed of information of course influenced a young lad and Senna became the villain. This position was not going to be reversed until 1994...1990 was probably the peak of excitement for me, with the feud continuing, but now with Prost in a different team, with what was, retrospectively, one of the most beautiful F1 cars ever made. By then, Mansell had also become a favorite with his crazy overtakes and of course he drove the other red car. So then I wanted him to win and was happy when he finally did in 92, albeit in a very dominant car. And then, of course, the turning point of an era in 1994, with a new young driver challenging Senna and the duel, sadly, never materializing.  From then on it would become the "who can challenge Schumacher" era and it was all good fun with Hill, Villeneuve, Hakkinnen and Montoya and the return of the Silver Arrows, Alonso and the revival of Renault taking turns.  Another great year for me was 2007, with the unexpected duel between Alonso and Hamilton and the Kimi win in the end. The Vettel vs. Alonso years, when they were close, were also good; Ferrari, though, became the villains thanks to their cheating ways. 2014 was initially ok thanks to the HAM-ROS duel but afterwards HAM got that under control and we are left with the horrible train ride that are 2015 races.

[superdelphinus]

Be sure that the kids just starting to get into f1 now (all 15 of them) will be posting in 2035 along pretty much the same lines as this.

[Spillage]

I think it's the lack of competition that's stifling things. 2012 had DRS and degrading tyres, get it was one of the best seasons I've seen. Similarly, Hungary this year was such a great race that I ceased to notice the sound.

The thing is though, that even when we used to have dull races, the cars would at least look spectacular. Nowadays they're too quiet and too slow. I accept that F1 has to be relevant to the road and so hybrid technology is probably the way to go, but I'd still like to see these problems addressed. Instead of V6s, why not have V10s? Why not have engines that produce double the power? F1 would be green and spectacularly fast and noisy once again.

[4Wheeldrift]

I think every era is special at the time, and if you look back - genuinely without the rose tinted specs - then you'll be disappointed.

 

For example, the Beeb recently showed their highlights from Monaco 1988.  Senna had pulled out a spectacular lap over Prost for pole, but the gap was 1.5s.  The gap to third was 2.6s - the gap between the fastest car and the next one was 1.2s.  The gap between the two Ferraris was  0.6s and so on.

 

Senna crashed from leading by about 6 months, there was no footage of it.

 

and so on.

 

I started following F1 probably mid 80s - not sure exactly.   I think part of it was a bit like watching World Cups, where you had the commentary down the phone line it was exotic and special.  There was no coverage of qualifying for example, Seeing Senna's pole lap had to wait until the internet came along!

[George Costanza]

It's easy for me. Schumacher vs Hakkinen era. 1998 and 2000 seasons are two of my favorties.

 

1997 and 1999 was good too but nothing like 1998 or 2000.

 

Of the current era, I loved 2012. Seeing Fernando do amazing things in a poor Ferrari was awesome.

 

2007 was great too, aside from 2014 and 2015, 2007 was one of Lewis's finest seasons. 2008 was very good too, probably the last great Ferrari car.

 

But for me, 2000 was stunning.  The years of 2002, 2004, 2011 and 2013 were all examples of driving perfection. (Hmm, two Germans in those years. heh). Though the years 1988, 1992, 1993, 1996, 2001-2002, and 2014 and 2015 were examples of team domination and that can be boring to watch.

 

I think the issue is lack of fight between teams......

 

2012 we had a big fight, 4 teams to be frank were right in the title hunt.  

Edited by George Costanza, 27 September 2015 - 14:54.

[maximilian]

1975-1983.  Somehow I like that period, before these long "domination" eras began.  Entrants could still appear freely, buy a car and/or hobble one together.  A team like Wolff could come out of nowhere and shake up the grid.  Lots of unpredictability, lots of different winners.

[August]

Since 1998 F1 was my favorite series. Retrospectively, 1999 should have been one of my favorite seasons, McLaren-Ferrari duel for the title and strong campaigns from midfield teams Jordan and Stewart. Though, every year I was getting more and more into F1 when my knowledge increased. Probably I was most intensely following in 2007-2010. Back then my English was already good enough to start following foreign press. And 2008 is one of my favorite seasons, great McLaren-Ferrari duel for the title and very competitive field. (Five winning teams plus the top 17 of Q1 and top 14 of Q2 at season finale were within a second.) 2009 was cool too, it was nice to see new teams on top. 2010 was still a great title battle, though somehow I don't remember the season so positively. The departures of BMW and Toyota showed the series is in crisis and the new teams performed worse than expected.

 

Since 2011 I've been losing interest in F1. I didn't like the impact of DRS and rapidly degrading tires, and 2011 really wasn't such a thrilling season. And I had become tired with all the unnecessary drama. 2012 wasn't so bad, the other day I was thinking how Williams won a race in '12, Sauber came close to a win, and FI had a strong campaign. It was the most competitive season since 2008, yet because of DRS and bad tires it's not one of my favorites. 2013 was a dull season, 2014 was exciting only to see if Williams could win, in 2015 Williams winning is such a distant possibility that it doesn't anymore keep you excited. I though Rosberg today on pole might create a fight for the win, yet the race of over after T1 and I could just wish I had been sleeping. I'm probably anymore gonna watch Brazil (usually interesting), maybe Mexico to see the new track, and maybe USA if there's a boring NASCAR race going on.

 

Still, I'm probably enjoying motorsports more than ever. Getting bored with F1 made me watch other series and I could find what I was missing in F1.

[Mart280]

80's and 90's for me and I will tell you what we had in abundance in those days and is almost totally missing from todays races.......Attrition, it was exciting watching cars drop out left right and center and Teams like Minardi all of a sudden are in the points. No attrition equals boring processions.

[Pits]

I've been following F1 since the early '90.

Also some races in the '80 with my grandpa, who was a enormous Mansell fan...

 

But I really got hooked when Schumacher entered the competition and never let go since...

I have to say that the element of show has gotten bigger in the last years and pure hardcore racing like in the old days is difficult to do with these reg's and spec's 

 

 

https://youtu.be/9_a6YnIJmkc

[P123]

I don't think any era has been bad, they all have their good and bad seasons, although like most my preference goes back to when I first started watching, which was in the mid '80s. F1 was still a bit raw then- the tracks weren't overly manicured, we had one car teams, the cars looked a handful, we had pre qualifying, qualifying tyres, pretty rotten reliability... it all felt that it was on the edge. Since the late 90s/ early noughties it was all a bit stale with cars on rails and Ferrari's perfect reliability, matched by all in the present day. The introduction of grooved tyres was the beginning of F1s spiral of increasingly daft technical rulings. Only Montoya provided a degree of entertainment in the early noughties, until Alonso came along as a threat to Schumacher's dominance, and then Hamilton and Vettel in quick succession and since we've had some very strong seasons- '06, '07, '08, '10, '12.

I don't think the on track action over the past 10 years has been any worse than before, but everything is more perfectly managed these days. It has to be because of the restrictions on engine usage and gearbox usage, and the ensuing penalties breaching these brings.

[MargaretM37]

My first memory was the Piquet v Salazar fight in 1982 when I was five. Then throughout the mid eighties I would watch parts of the races with my dad, interspersed with going outside to play in the garden for a short while, coming back and asking my dad who was winning. Like most kids I supported whoever was winning that season (and didn't understand the concept of the warm up lap)! Particular memories include Australia 1986 (of course!) ,  three starts at one Austrian GP (1987?)Mansell's epic victory over Piquet at the British GP and Berger's horrific crash at Imola 1989. There were A, B, C and D compound tyres and the Jim Clark Cup for normally aspirated engines. Murray Walker and James Hunt provided the soundtrack to my childhood and I still "hear" their voices now commentating on today's races. In 1988 I became a major McLaren (and in particular Senna) fan , but in this case kept my allegiance to Senna. I was an absolutely diehard fan by 1991, in the days when getting up in the middle of the night to watch GPs was easy! As my friends and brothers became interested in F1 we used to have some epic debates (arguments?!) about the merits of Senna / Mansell. Spending nearly half my week's paper round money on Autosport on Thursday mornings was a particular highlight.

 

The eighties were my favourite era - in motor racing and probably in life. Senna, Prost, Mansell, Piquet - they were epic times.

[superden]

It all felt that it was on the edge.

Bingo.

That was one of the things that attracted me to F1, way back when in the mid-80's. Now it's just a well oiled marketing machine, running at 85% of capacity, more interested in VIP facilities, profits and brand image.