When did you first start following F1?

Some of my earliest memories involve watching F1 with my grandfather on an old black-and-white TV set. I remember Lauda's crash at Nurburgring - not the crash itself but rather me being worried about him and pestering my mom and dad about any news on his recovery. At that age i truly believed racing drivers being superheroes with superpowers, just like Spiderman or Batman or something.

But the first season that i really remember was 1982 (Lauda's return, Villeneuve's crash, Piquet-Salazar box match, Keke winning the title with only one win), everything else before that is just scattered bits and pieces.

I was to the left, just outside your shot. Here are some of the pics I shot that day. You in Austin?

 

 

 

No...I've been in the DMV (D.C., [Southern] Maryland, [Northern] Virginia) area for almost 10 years.  Prior to that, I did live in Houston for about 5 years....made a couple trips over to Austin back then.  Originally born and raised in Mississippi.  

Cool shots man ....had to have been pretty hyped to be that close!  I ripped the shot in my post off the interwebz    My wife's 40th birthday is during the USGP weekend, but she wants to celebrate earlier in Hawaii.  This may free me up to make the trip down...I still have family in H-town and could easily make the trip over for race day - but the Mrs. would have to give me permission   .

Edited by dn12005, 06 April 2019 - 22:51.

Forums like this are quite dated in the online world. If you were to conduct the same poll for the F1 community on Reddit, for instance, the demographic would be much younger and consist of more recent followers of the sport.

I vaguely remember pictures from a late sixties / early seventies race my father watched with a few friends I think. Must have been a Nürburgring GP, only german raced were broadcasted here at the time. I was fascinated (aged 6 to 8 I think), but nothing much came off it immediately. Properly hooked I became in 1977, one of my first memories is Andretti and Hunt having that tangle in Zandvoort. Became an Andretti fan mainly because of those gorgeous Lotuses... promptly the first season I followed start to finish my childhood hero became champion .

But it was tough being a fan those days behind the iron curtain (east Germany). I had access to west-german televison, but books and mags were almost impossible to come by. Attending races was literally impossible, of course.

Edited by as65p, 06 April 2019 - 23:11.

1978/79 

Juan Pablo Montoya brought me to watching F1, but I've stayed watching after he moved on to other racing series.

There's a worrying trend developing now that numbers are coming in. There are only 5 members on here that have started watching in the last ten years.

Worrying for F1 and Autosport.

I seem to remember Bandini at Monaco 1967, and I remember the names Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart, but I really became interested when I came across the Car and Driver that covered the 1973 South Africa GP.  Within weeks I found an R&T.  Keep in mind that there was at least a two-month lag between a race and Rob Walker's coverage.  I would have known about a race occurring but had to wait to see why.  

This is something I've always found strange since Reddit comes across as so old-fashioned and 90s. Facebook is also useless for discussion. Forums like this are still the best the internet has to offer.

Edited by Murl, 07 April 2019 - 07:55.

This is something I've always found strange since Reddit comes across as so old-fashioned and 90s. Facebook is also useless for discussion. Forums like this are still the best the internet has to offer.

Worrying for F1 and Autosport.

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.

Interesting! I started in around the same time but have a few years in the bag. For me it was by total accident. Teenage men back then would make the pilgrimage from Toronto to experience the night life St. Catherine's had to offer and I happened to be there during the GP weekend, where this young vibrant friendly French Canadien woman introduced me to F1 and the art of romance.

From the point forward I was never the same person.

1978. I am unsure which race it was but I clearly remember my dad sitting me down beside him on the couch to show me this programme "Grand Prix"....this was the first year in the UK that the BBC had the contract to show every race - albeit many were highlights only. And the first year of "The Chain" being used as the opening music. The race wasn't even especially exciting (likely Belgium) but I remember those black and gold Lotus 79s circulating at the head of the field....Mario Andretti clearly faster but Ronnie Peterson looked just sublime in the way he drove. Even at the age of five I could see that. As the season went on I developed fondness for Lauda and Depailler too. 

I'm pretty sure my dad just didn't watch Monza...it would probably have upset me to see the accident, indeed I didn't watch it until the 90s. I think I asked what happened to Peterson and dad didn't really tell me he'd died. 

So....1978....41 years give or take. Apart from Monza 1978 I didn't miss a broadcast, to my knowledge, until the last few years....even when I moved to America 1997-99 I made sure to watch. The last few seasons I've been less interested, though I do appreciate the sheer skill of Hamilton and have my favourite drivers as always.....the sport just isn't in good health. 

Nah, Reddit has a huge advantage over forums like this in that there's a forum for any subject you can possibly think of, so instead of maybe visiting 3 different forums for the sport you like, the music you like and local news, you have it all in one place. The downside is that it's more impersonal, as there's no avatars and signatures and there's so many people you don't build a connection with anyone, you don't build an history on your mind of how someone else debates. Also the way their system works, promotes less critical, deep discussion and a hell of a lot of clickbait.

But I think the lack of young fans in here is very connected to the fact young fans don't join forums like this and go to Reddit instead. F1 fanbase might be aging a bit but not to the extent the poll suggests. They're just not here to vote.

It would also be interesting to cross reference this poll with one asking how old people were when they started watching.

Worrying for F1 and Autosport.

Sometime around 1996 and 1997.

Forums like this are quite dated in the online world. If you were to conduct the same poll for the F1 community on Reddit, for instance, the demographic would be much younger and consist of more recent followers of the sport.

True, the F1 folks on Reddit had a poll on this last year: https://www.reddit.c...rt_watching_f1/

Over half the 1500+ respondents started watching after 2007.

Somewhat shockingly, almost a third started watching after 2013. Who knows why, but ... ok.   

Nah, Reddit has a huge advantage over forums like this in that there's a forum for any subject you can possibly think of, so instead of maybe visiting 3 different forums for the sport you like, the music you like and local news, you have it all in one place. The downside is that it's more impersonal, as there's no avatars and signatures and there's so many people you don't build a connection with anyone, you don't build an history on your mind of how someone else debates. Also the way their system works, promotes less critical, deep discussion and a hell of a lot of clickbait.

But I think the lack of young fans in here is very connected to the fact young fans don't join forums like this and go to Reddit instead. F1 fanbase might be aging a bit but not to the extent the poll suggests. They're just not here to vote.

I tried reddit last year and I have to say I thought it was ghastly, I'm far happier here and with people I consider friends.     reddit for me was just 'noise'.

Nah, Reddit has a huge advantage over forums like this in that there's a forum for any subject you can possibly think of, so instead of maybe visiting 3 different forums for the sport you like, the music you like and local news, you have it all in one place. The downside is that it's more impersonal, as there's no avatars and signatures and there's so many people you don't build a connection with anyone, you don't build an history on your mind of how someone else debates. Also the way their system works, promotes less critical, deep discussion and a hell of a lot of clickbait.

But I think the lack of young fans in here is very connected to the fact young fans don't join forums like this and go to Reddit instead. F1 fanbase might be aging a bit but not to the extent the poll suggests. They're just not here to vote.

Another thing is that the current young crop is truly (and perhaps somewhat superficial) eclectic: they like all kinds of sports, all kinds of music, all kinds of clothing, crisscross through each other. The past three weeks I had the pleasure of being in close quarters (study-trip, then a project) with students between 19 and 23 and they baffled me with what they mixed in music, movies and series. In my youth, for example, if you were a vegetarian, you also voted left, you hated any kind of sport and as a girl, you only wore make-up to create a bleak appearance. My students are able to mix veganism with liking F1 and mix-martial arts... and Gucci-bags, that too.

My point is: younger people have much less the tendency to have an fascination with ONE thing. The delve less deep but broader. Why indeed would they bother discussing with a couple of blessed-myopic anoraks?    

Edited by Nemo1965, 07 April 2019 - 14:31.

It would also be interesting to cross reference this poll with one asking how old people were when they started watching.

Edited by Alan Lewis, 07 April 2019 - 14:42.

Possibly no interest in forums?

It strikes me that if a new fan wishes to start following and discussing the sport with other fans online, they'd most likely do so on social media (Twitter/Facebook) or Reddit, rather than a traditional forum like this one. Unless you know about it, it's probably not as easy to find - based on the thread for new members, it seems common that a lot of people who sign up have read the forum for a while before doing so. I know I did.

Worrying for F1 and Autosport.

I tried reddit last year and I have to say I thought it was ghastly, I'm far happier here and with people I consider friends. reddit for me was just 'noise'.

In my youth, for example, if you were a vegetarian, you also voted left, you hated any kind of sport...

1992 I think. Kyalami maybe. Not sure. But definitely around that time. 

Edit: do remember races before then but I wasn't a 'follower' 

Edited by BRK, 07 April 2019 - 15:53.

Around 1985. My uncles were motorsport mad.

There's a worrying trend developing now that numbers are coming in. There are only 5 members on here that have started watching in the last ten years.

I started in 1994. Senna's and Ratzenberger's deaths (and Barrichello's huge crash into the fencing) are some of my earliest F1 memories. My earliest memory though is of my dad and me taking his car up the highest mountain near our home on top of which there's a radio tower, hooking up an old black and white tv to the car's cigarette lighter, folding over the back bench and watching an F1 race in the back of the car. don't remember which race it was but must've been in the late eighties. fond memories.

Edited by Sndr, 07 April 2019 - 19:26.

Started watching in 1996, because of my dad. Didn't start to follow it seriously until 1998, when a certain finn dEsTRoyeD M. Shoemaker. I became a fan of Hakkinen and McLaren.

Then, as fate would have it, Kimi would join the grid in 2001 and I became an instant fan and started watching the sport religiously. A lot of it comes down to Kimi. Watching your favourite driver under-deliver year after year has given me Stockholm Syndrome and I'm all in for the disappointing ride that is a typical F1 race (with Kimi in it ;) )

Edited by Fallout, 07 April 2019 - 20:10.

First image of F1 was this:

Likely on Dutch evening news of Sunday 21 October 1990.

Edited by Henri Greuter, 08 April 2019 - 08:48.

I was always into toy cars as a young boy. On holiday in Spain in 1973, the local packaged bread had a simple plastic F1 car in a blister (just assemble chassis and wheels) so as a cunning 6 year-old boy, I would eat the entire bread in a day so my mom would have to buy another bread the next day. Got the entire series!

Then got into the Michel Vaillant comics but what really started my interest was Heinz Pruller’s Grand Prix Story 1980 which I devoured in 1981. Loved the background information which made everything so much more enjoyable. F1 reading now became a must.

Grand Prix on TV were a bit of a hit or miss in the early 1980s in Holland but by 1985 they were more regular so that I have only missed watching 5 Grand Prix since 1986.

Watching or following?

Watching, as long as I can remember so probably early 90's with my dad. We both got a bit disenchanted during the Schumacher ear of domination and trailed off watching it.

I actively started following F1 in 2007, I'm sure you know why.

My parents thought television would get in the way of 'family life' (looking back: kinda funny when you realize your father was always working anyway...), so they refused to buy a TV, before they finally caved when I was 17 (1988). Before that, I saw some races at my grandmothers, but because of the infrequency of 'exposure' didn't get really into it. I do remember playing with my Lotus 78 model car when I was about 7 or 8 years old though, can't remember who bought it for me though. With access to television it was a bit easier, and I watched as many races as I could till about 2005, when I stopped watching the races (did follow the sport online though). Since the arrival of Max on the scene in 2015, my wife and daughter started taking an interest, so now I'm watching the races with them.

Funny thing that my son, who kinda grew up watching F1 from the floor since before his first birthday, has no interest in it at all.

Mmmm, looking at the poll I am not the oldest here, but I am in the top 10.

My parents (and thus I) used to go on holiday in Zandvoort in the 60's. We rented a house across the street of the garage where during the grand prix week the cars were prepared and I have strong memories of (as a five year old) standing by the entrance looking at the cars. Friday evening the cars were driven to the circuit from the garage through Zandvoort and my uncle and father took me out to look at the spectacle. So about 1963 is the time I got interested in F1 and in any case I strongly remember my emotions when the death of my then favourite driver Jim Clark was announced on the television in 1968. So the real following of F1 started somewhere between '63 and '68. And I have been following F1 ever since.

Edited by rodnet1, 08 April 2019 - 11:06.

87

That's nonsense, unless I broke the mould.

A right wing vegetarian?

I watched a few odds and sods of races in 1989, 1990 was my first season of watching many of the races. Probably a lot to do with me kart racing at the time.

2008 Turkey. Well F1 was coming to Singapore that year so I tuned to the first race that I saw. Saw this exciting guy in yellow helmet driving a Mclaren, and have been a supporter of him since.

Mmmm, looking at the poll I am not the oldest here, but I am in the top 10.

... (as a five year old) standing by the entrance looking at the cars. Friday evening the cars were driven to the circuit from the garage through Zandvoort and my uncle and father took me out to look at the spectacle. So about 1963...

If you were 5 in '63, you're nothing but a mere yoof.

I recognise 1965-1968. It was a long time ago - I have a clear memory at 7 of hearing Jim Clark had been killed and having the thought - that's it I don't like motor racing anymore.

Of course following grand prix/motor racing in those days was virtually impossible as a child.