There’s a wealth of knowledge on these forum, and some real oracles of the sport. When did you first start following F1?
For me it was 1998.
Edited by FirstnameLastname, 06 April 2019 - 10:14.
Posted 06 April 2019 - 10:12
Edited by FirstnameLastname, 06 April 2019 - 10:14.
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Posted 06 April 2019 - 10:22
Yep, Tim Murray is a one stop shop.As an add-on to the ‘1000 races’ thread.
There’s a wealth of knowledge on these forum...
Posted 06 April 2019 - 10:23
1967......I had just started working at a newspaper, and did the editing of the South African GP report.
That got me started and hooked.
Posted 06 April 2019 - 11:08
Edited by Nemo1965, 06 April 2019 - 17:11.
Posted 06 April 2019 - 11:25
2006 Monaco GP was probably the first F1 race I watched. I can't say for sure because my early F1 memories are so vague, I knew so little about racing so I weren't able to encode much to my brain through various information connections.
Then, as a Pole, I watched the Kubica's debut. I'm pretty sure it was only 2nd F1 race I had ever watched. Then maybe 1 or 2 other races in 2006. Monza was one of them.
Then I started to watch every single race since Malaysia or Bahrain 2007. Around the summer of 2007 I started becoming obsessed with F1 and Kubica was no longer my main focus during a race. Around 2014, my interest has started to fade a bit. I think I watched every single race from early 2007 to the end of 2013 but since 2014 I started to skip some.
Posted 06 April 2019 - 11:39
1995-1999 for me. I was born in 1993, and can't say when for sure I started "following" the sport, but just know I was brought up watching it, thanks to my dad. I remember eating Sunday lunch in front of the TV, or pushing my toy cars around on the carpet acting out my own race while Murray Walker shouted excitedly in the background, or getting up at some stupidly early hour in a morning to watch races like Australia and Japan.
The race that really sticks out for me, though, is Japan 2000. My dad was a diehard Schumacher/Ferrari fan, and I still remember him making me jump as he excitedly yelled "YES!" as Schumi came out the pits ahead of Mika...
Posted 06 April 2019 - 11:52
Posted 06 April 2019 - 13:15
Edited by Reddington, 06 April 2019 - 13:17.
Posted 06 April 2019 - 13:34
1997, San Marino, Frentzen won it I think.
Following that the odd race - Nurburgring and Jerez 1997....then from the start of 1998 I just couldn't miss a race.
Posted 06 April 2019 - 13:35
Posted 06 April 2019 - 13:36
1994 i was 8 years old and had seen a few bits of races Brazil and Aida on TV. I had liked what i had seen and decided to watch in full the next race which was Imola. I know out of all races to first watch was that weekend but over that year i became a massive Hill & William's fans i watched every race and taped them. Got all the season reviews
It was the car's that got me hooked the sound of them they how fast they went, Sadly since the move to Sky back in 2012 i have lost interest in F1 still read up on it. See race highlights on YT or have on background for bit on TV but this current era F1 is not for me. I have got into Sportscar racing more and follow that more then F1 these day's.
Posted 06 April 2019 - 13:49
As a kid, I first started watching races on TV with my dad in the mid-1970s. My interest at the time was pretty casual, but I clearly remember Ligier's arrival on the scene with their odd-looking JS5 sporting a gigantic airbox. I then followed Renault's early efforts with their turbocharged engine.
But the virus truly bloomed when my family moved to Monaco in late 1979. My dad's office was organizing every year during the local Grand Prix a buffet since it had balconies overlooking the harbour. So my first exposure to the Monaco Grand Prix came by witnessing this...
I saw this from roughly the same angle this picture was taken, and with the roar of the engines reverberating on the mountains around town, it left an indelible mark on my young mind. From then on, I was truly hooked.
It looks like your father's office was pretty close to my student flatmate's mother's house. He had the surname 'Burgess' and they lived in the same block as Anthony Burgess. They used to get his mail from time to time.
I first started following in 1987, aged 8.
Edited by TennisUK, 06 April 2019 - 13:50.
Posted 06 April 2019 - 14:26
For me it starts 1975 age 13 where is the time going ?
Posted 06 April 2019 - 14:30
I voted for 2000-2004 but that's more because that's when I started following full season and watch pretty much all-grand prix races. But I started ocassionaly watch F1 somewhere around late 90's. Cant remember much, but my first recollection memories of F1 are of Schumacher in red Ferrari before he won championship with Ferrari. I just distinctively remember that car and name on track.
Edited by Neno, 06 April 2019 - 14:31.
Posted 06 April 2019 - 14:35
It looks like your father's office was pretty close to my student flatmate's mother's house.
Posted 06 April 2019 - 14:36
Posted 06 April 2019 - 14:59
Haven't missed a gp since Melbourne '97
Posted 06 April 2019 - 15:13
Posted 06 April 2019 - 15:27
1970, to be exact Monaco 1970, I saw the race highlights programme on the BBC and I was instantly addicted for life and also a Rindt fan.
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Posted 06 April 2019 - 15:53
Posted 06 April 2019 - 16:09
I watch since I remember, was obsessed with F1 as a little kid. Voted 1990-1994, but vaguely remember the Suzuka 89 accident. I'd have been 3, so not sure how much of that memory is correct or revived by later images...
Posted 06 April 2019 - 16:19
I watch since I remember, was obsessed with F1 as a little kid. Voted 1990-1994, but vaguely remember the Suzuka 89 accident. I'd have been 3, so not sure how much of that memory is correct or revived by later images...
Same (1975-79 though)... I remember Gilles Villeneuve being on the nightly television news after breaking his leg in a FAltantic crash in 1977. I was 3 years old.
Posted 06 April 2019 - 16:23
Posted 06 April 2019 - 16:46
1965-ish. Earliest racing memory is actually watching very grainy live TV pictures from Le Mans - possibly in 1963 or 1964. But by then I was already car-obsessed, with an encyclopaedic knowledge of then-current and recent models - and even knew most of the geographic areas for number plates (no mean feat in those days, although I was always a bit hazy on the Irish ones). Probably stemmed from long holiday trips from Berkshire to Cumberland, Devon and Yorkshire.
Posted 06 April 2019 - 16:50
Started watching in 1992 and following in 1996 Liked Mansell and Hill a lot.
Posted 06 April 2019 - 17:00
Edited by MikeV1987, 06 April 2019 - 17:01.
Posted 06 April 2019 - 17:06
As a young teenager I remember having been vaguely aware of Stirling Moss, Tony Brooks, Vanwalls & Jim Clark winning the Indy 500.
But when I started a paper round, my interest was well and truly aroused one morning, by seeing a copy of Motor Sport magazine. Don't remember the exact month but the front cover photograph was of two F2 McLarens, with red bodywork.
(1966/67?)
I had a glance through & from then on it was my biggest interest.
Posted 06 April 2019 - 17:08
I voted for 2000-2004 but that's more because that's when I started following full season and watch pretty much all-grand prix races. But I started ocassionaly watch F1 somewhere around late 90's. Cant remember much, but my first recollection memories of F1 are of Schumacher in red Ferrari before he won championship with Ferrari. I just distinctively remember that car and name on track.
This pretty much describes my situation as well. I got hooked for good by the great Alonso/Schumi battles of the early 2000s.
Posted 06 April 2019 - 17:15
1970. I recall a late Sunday night on TV, La Domenica Sportiva following Ickx on pole at the Glen.
Then during the following summers watching GPs on Swiss TV, before the passion took hold in 1974, with Autosprint every week.
The first ever book on F1 was a Swiss one, available in the three main national languages, my copy was in Italian, on the cover the start of the 1974 Swedish GP. I still got the book.
Hunt winning at Zandvoort seems like yesterday, jumping on the sofa for the red car immediately behind - I was a kid...
Then, of course, Monza 1975. Unforgettable.
Posted 06 April 2019 - 17:23
San Marino 1998. Accidentally switched on to the race while surfing the channels and that was the moment when Schumi started chasing down Coulthard. I think it was my fate to become a diehard F1 fan slowly thenceforth.
Posted 06 April 2019 - 17:25
Posted 06 April 2019 - 17:33
jp reminding Grand Prix, I actually saw that at the cinema, late '60s, with my aunt we used to go every weekend.
I didn't get much of it, but the image that stuck was a red car flying off track, the driver ending up on a tree, or some such, Haven't watched it since decades..
Posted 06 April 2019 - 17:57
Rather like Nemo, my induction seeped in from toy cars. Had two Dinky Alfa Romeo 159s and a Ferrari type 500 in the early fifties, read an illustrated hour by hour account of the 1953 Le Mans race over and over again, and was given a Boys Book of Motor Racing for (I think) Christmas 1955. Was taken to an Oulton Park meeting in 1956 where I saw an up-and-coming Graham Hill in one of his early races. That was it: I was hooked and still am.
I make no distinction between being a motor racing enthusiast and following F1. Didn't understand such a distinction then, and still don't now.
Posted 06 April 2019 - 18:02
Posted 06 April 2019 - 18:08
Interesting to see the peak of the 90’s... was that the high point for F1? Or is it that the Internet + F1 message boards were getting traction in the 90’s and that’s where the bulk of members found these boards. Do modern/younger f1 fans know of/use forums or are they ‘of their day’?
Still quite a small sample I guess.
Posted 06 April 2019 - 18:11
Posted 06 April 2019 - 18:12
Early 90s, I remember Mika in a Lotus. I haven't missed many races since 1995. Hated Schumacher back then because he was so much better than anyone else.
Posted 06 April 2019 - 19:39
Here in Buenos Aires they repeated the full race of the 1967 Italian GP, and I saw it with my father, and I remember vividly when the reporter began to shout that Clark was coming at a man's pace without fuel, and how Surtess and Brabham inherited the first places of the race. That year (1967) they had also repeated the Indy 500, with the Parnelli Jones turbine and the triumph of A.J. Foyt. I was 11 years old. Then the first complete live race was the 1970 Italian Grand Prix. And I remember when Saturday afternoon the promotions changed because of Rindt's death. At that time I had been following F1 for 2 years race after race through the magazines that were published here...
Posted 06 April 2019 - 19:39
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Posted 06 April 2019 - 19:49
Started seeing an increasing number races from 1996 through 1997, and actively followed all the races from the start of the 1998 season onwards.
Was sold on the narrative that The Best Driver would win the title for Ferrari, and while it took a while longer than anticipated, that certainly stuck.
Edited by Nonesuch, 06 April 2019 - 19:50.
Posted 06 April 2019 - 20:00
wasn't F1 Racing, it was another, shorter lived one that was a f**cking brilliant, massive, thick, glossy thing only available for a couple of years, can't remember what it was called
Posted 06 April 2019 - 20:13
Posted 06 April 2019 - 20:14
Do you mean that Rubython one that was obsessed with the Jaguar team?
Posted 06 April 2019 - 20:22
Posted 06 April 2019 - 20:39
I selected 2015-19. But my first race I watched was the 2014 Canadian GP. INFINITI brought me to F1. I heard about this FX50 Vettel Edition in 2012...never heard of the guy or Red Bull Racing before. I wanted to learn more about them but F1 was never my thing, so I didn't learn enough to want to follow F1. Then, in January 2014, INFINITI introduced the Q50 Eau Rouge Concept car.
So I found out what Eau Rouge really meant and thought, "how interesting". I told myself that I would start watching/following F1, but did not remember til the Canadian GP. I was utterly pleased in that race as also found a new driver to root for in DanRic - that smile drew me in! Unfortunately, F1 still wasn't cemented in my psyche enough as (American...college) football season starts heating up in the summer with practices and pre-season leading to opening weekend kickoffs in late August....so I missed a good deal of the remaining F1 season. That was, until the USGP in which, INFINITI brought the Q50 Eau Rouge to run the streets of Austin alongside of an RB8:
Needless to say, I haven't missed a GP weekend since and in addition, F1 has overtaken football (except USM football...they are co-equal) as my number 1 sport.
Edited by dn12005, 06 April 2019 - 20:47.
Posted 06 April 2019 - 21:01
I selected 2015-19. But my first race I watched was the 2014 Canadian GP. INFINITI brought me to F1. I heard about this FX50 Vettel Edition in 2012...never heard of the guy or Red Bull Racing before. I wanted to learn more about them but F1 was never my thing, so I didn't learn enough to want to follow F1. Then, in January 2014, INFINITI introduced the Q50 Eau Rouge Concept car.
So I found out what Eau Rouge really meant and thought, "how interesting". I told myself that I would start watching/following F1, but did not remember til the Canadian GP. I was utterly pleased in that race as also found a new driver to root for in DanRic - that smile drew me in! Unfortunately, F1 still wasn't cemented in my psyche enough as (American) football season starts heating up in the summer with practices and pre-season....so I missed a good deal of the remaining F1 season. That was, until the USGP in which, INFINITI brought the Q50 Eau Rouge to run the streets of Austin alongside of an RB8:
Needless to say, I haven't missed a GP weekend since and in addition, F1 has overtaken football (except USM football...they are co-equal) as my number 1 sport
I was to the left, just outside your shot. Here are some of the pics I shot that day. You in Austin?
Edited by AustinF1, 06 April 2019 - 21:02.
Posted 06 April 2019 - 21:18
Australia 1998.
I can vaguely remember some important thing happening in 1994 (Senna). I also know I've seen a Williams chasing a Benetton at Imola. Either 95 or 96 as it was a Rothmans Williams and raised nose Benetton. Strange how one remember strange things.
However a couple of weeks before I turned 7, I was allowed to get up in the middle of the night to watch the 1998 Australian GP. After that I've only missed a couple of races in 03 and 04. Often Canada and the US, as I was racing karts almost every weekend myself, and we got home late on Sunday, and I had to sleep for school the day after.
Sadly F1 is more a habit these days. I watch it because that's what I am "supposed" to do. Quite often many hours after it actually finished, as I work quite a few Sundays.
Posted 06 April 2019 - 21:40
I watched intermittently in the early 1970's, the British GP was on the TV live but I don't think the other races were (maybe Monaco was I have some memory of watching those live too). I just looked and the oldest copy# of Motorsport in my library is May 1974, so I guess I must have been hooked by then.
# Actually I have a few older copies including one from 1966 but I'm pretty sure I didn't buy it at the time because I would have been four.
Posted 06 April 2019 - 22:08
1958
Posted 06 April 2019 - 22:39
Edited by milestone 11, 06 April 2019 - 22:39.