In 2018, Autosport did a poll on what was the greatest era of Formula 1. I have defined the eras in the same way that Autosport did but changing the more recent years as I wanted every season to be included.
1950-1960 was an era of heroism in Formula 1. The tracks in the 1950s were certainly the best in the history of Formula 1, when ‘street circuit’ meant Rouen-Les-Essarts or the old Spa-Francorchamps rather than Sochi or Valencia, but they were extremely dangerous and there were a lot of deaths in the era. We had some all-time greats in the 1950s in Fangio, Ascari and Moss, while the likes of Farina, Gonzalez, Hawthorn and Brooks were good too, but there were plenty of amateurs on the grid and the average level of an F1 driver was at its lowest at the very beginning. However, the best were just as good as in any other era and Fangio’s drive at the Nurburgring in 1957 was one of the all-time greatest. The lack of footage of the racing also makes it difficult to rate as the golden era, and even those alive at the time would have been able to see relatively very little of the races. But with the little footage available the cars are more exciting. Dominant victories were also common, and in 1952, Alberto Ascari won every race of the season. The shared cars rule was also quite ridiculous and should never have been allowed. But there’s just something beautiful about the 1950s, even if the racing wasn’t as good. The old-fashioned and less advanced technology of it makes it somewhat charming, and they were indeed heroic times.
The 1960s were a better era, in my opinion. The cars were far better, and probably my favourite in Formula 1 history. It was an era of serious innovation, and most of the great tracks remained. The best drivers of the era were as good as those of the 1950s, in this case Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart and Graham Hill, but there were more other good drivers than there had been previously, including champions such as Jack Brabham, John Surtees, Denny Hulme, Jochen Rindt and Emerson Fittipaldi, as well as Bruce McLaren, Jacky Ickx, Dan Gurney, Jo Siffert and Chris Amon. It was easier to get a chance in F1 than it is now, with more seats available and generally less wealth required to make it up the ladder. But the drawbacks of the era are the same as those of the 1950s, namely safety, as the number of lives claimed in F1 was similar. Perhaps the danger of F1 added a level of excitement, but there is no doubt that far too many people were being killed in accidents. The lack of footage of the racing is also a problem, but there were some great drives such as that of Jim Clark in Spa 1963 or Jackie Stewart in Germany 1968, and some great races such as Silverstone 1965 and Monza 1971.
1974-82, chosen by readers of Autosport as the greatest era, was perhaps the most competitive era, as Niki Lauda was the standout driver as one of the elites of history, but there were plenty of other very strong drivers including Emerson Fittipaldi, James Hunt, Ronnie Peterson, Mario Andretti, Alan Jones, Carlos Reutemann, Giles Villeneuve, Nelson Piquet, John Watson and Keke Rosberg, and Lauda was the only driver to win more than one championship, while there were 11 different winners in the 1982 season. This was another era of innovation, but the last era dominated by it, and involved the likes of the six-wheeled Tyrrell and the Brabham fan car. The era included perhaps Formula 1’s greatest ever season in 1976 with the incredible title battle between James Hunt and Niki Lauda. Footage of the racing was improving by this time as well. The loss of great tracks, either just before or during this era, such as Spa, Rouen, Reims and the Green Hell were a disappointing yet necessary feature for improving safety and while it was better during this time than it had been in the previous two eras, there were still a few deaths. The era had some improved racing, and included the legendary scrap between Giles Villeneuve and Rene Arnoux at Dijon. It also included the crazy end to the Monaco GP in 1982.
The next era was 1983-1993, and a big positive of this era was further improvements to safety, with Elio de Angelis the only F1 death. It included the infamous rivalry between Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, while the controversy between the two was exciting but of course had its drawbacks, while Nelson Piquet and Nigel Mansell were the other stars of the era. The race starts were particularly thrilling during this time due to the difference in speeds and the jostling about, with Jean Alesi taking the lead in Portugal 1993 one that sticks in my mind, and the cars looked extremely fast and were great to watch, playing a large part in why the likes of Senna, Mansell and Alesi are considered some of the best drivers to watch in F1 history. There was now far more footage of the racing, making the racing easier to follow. 1986 was another contender for the greatest season with an incredible championship battle and finale, and 1984 was another classic. The main problem with the era, in my opinion, is that reliability played too great a part in deciding the races, and championships, and that is a big problem for me. The innovation of the cars was also less compared to previous eras.
The era that followed was 1994-2005, and I would probably say this was the worst era of Formula 1. It may always get the majority vote in fan surveys, but refuelling was terrible for the racing, and there was not as much overtaking as there could have been at this time. The era was dominated by Michael Schumacher, and while this was very much a positive for the first half, when he was not in the best car but putting in heroic performances such as in Spain 1996. But in the second half, when he did have the best car, it made the championship duller as Schumacher and Ferrari utterly dominated at times. But amongst the worst era was one of the best seasons in F1 history, 1997, a battle between a good driver in a fantastic car against a fantastic driver in a good car, which ended in controversy but with the right outcome, and the season also included almost-wins for Damon Hill with Arrows and Jarno Trulli with Prost.
2006-2013 wasn’t really an era of Formula 1. It is defined only by the V8 engine, and I included it more as an in-between time. It shouldn’t have been the best era, as it started with more refuelling and ended with the unnecessary use of DRS, but somehow this era produced some great championships. 2006 was a great battle between Schumacher and Alonso, the king versus the young upstart. Then 2007 was a good battle between Ferrari and McLaren and almost a rookie champion. 2008 saw better races, and the greatest ever championship finale, decided at the final corner. Then 2009 was one of the great team stories for Brawn, and 2010 was the only four-way championship decider, and was good as the one season between the refuelling era and the DRS era. 2011 included the Canadian GP, the greatest race of all time. Then 2012 was seven different winners in the first seven races, and a great season performance from Alonso. It also had the continuation of improved race footage and graphics to be able to follow what was going on throughout the race.
Really, the modern era should be the best ever. We have the greatest crop of drivers, everything that happens is filmed and the graphics are far better than ever before, so you can follow everything that goes on in an F1 race, there is more overtaking than ever before. But the biggest issue is the dirty air effect that means the cars can’t follow closely at all. To counter this, DRS has become too powerful and means that overtakes are too easy once you get close enough, but the difficulty is getting close in the first place, which just isn’t good racing. The tracks are also not as good as they have been in any other era of F1. Most seasons of the era were not great, and 2015 was the dullest I’ve seen, but it did end with one utterly incredible season in 2021, with a championship scrap between Hamilton and Verstappen that lasted the entire season, and almost every race being a contender for best of the season if it had occurred in any of the previous eight seasons. But it all ended with huge amounts of controversy, and this was made far worse by the fact that every moment of it was followed by unthinking and unpleasant outrage on social media, putting F1 in a bad light. But the priority of show over sport in the finale has created fears that it could become the new norm to prioritise the show, and that would be terrible for Formula 1 as a sport.
Looking at it objectively, I believe 1983-93 is probably the best era, but personally I look with most fondness at 1961-73. But every era has its merits, and I just wish I had been born in 1940 and could have lived through them all. Hopefully the era beginning with 2022 will be as good as the rest of them, but I confess I currently do not have high expectations, although it is good that the cars can follow more closely.
I know most people will choose the time that they first started following Formula 1 as the golden era, but I thought it would be an interesting discussion point nonetheless.
Edited by F1Frog, 01 July 2022 - 17:23.
