POLL: When Did You Start Watching Formula One?
- Thread starter Liquid
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Quakebass
Premium
- 1,869
- Washington
- quakebass
I don’t remember what brought me to it, possibly a conglomeration of a few things in 2017, my first full season was 2018.
My first visit to my dad’s new place in Southern California had us visiting the Newport strip, and we had a cool encounter with a friendly employee during our stop at the Mclaren showroom, who went in depth about design philosophy and the racing history of the brand, despite us clearly being tourists and not bringing any income for them in any way. It was a really cool experience got me and my dad geeked on all things Mclaren. Heading to the start of my story I’d also heard about the Honda engine woes, modern Mercedes dominance, halo outcry, and conflict between Hamilton and Vettel at Baku over the course of 2015-2017.
One morning I accidentally woke up obnoxiously early, 3 or 4ish am (very unusual for me at the time) and ended up browsing Motorsportsstreams or some other replay reddit before work or class. It just so happened to be that Australia 2018 was either just starting or had just happened within the last 24 hours, and (probably due to influences from the last paragraph) I ended up watching it live or a stream replay. I’d known of Hamilton, Vettel, Ricciardo, and maybe Alonso through Top Gear or some other media and many of the teams as well, but just about everything else was pretty much completely fresh. Midfield vs top three vs backmarkers, pit rules, anything tire related, most was a blur but I stuck all the way through. I still remember seeing all the drama unfold with HAAS’s pitstops. I was confused but fascinated, and I found myself looking up when the next races were, and watched the next round. And the next. And the next, with qualifying. I watched (I think) the whole season and slowly started figuring out how everything worked (still learning, F1 is a lot
). I remember something from just about every race that year, except for Bahrain, so I may have actually missed that one.
So, I was hooked, and since at the time I was using pirated streams and my dad didn’t have any kind of access I was often sending him play-by-plays over text, and it got him hooked too. We eventually got to watch a race together the next time I visited California with my laptop, a few others in 2019 during family events, including Germany. We now share an F1TV Pro account and nerd out about everything F1 together, I’m actually sitting on some Mclaren team fan gear that I wasn’t able to get to him early “season” due to COVID canceling travel plans.
Not sure what purpose this story had but I’m really glad I hopped in on 2018, and I’m excited for 2020 to finally start, and to finally get my dad’s Sainz jersey and hat to him.
My first visit to my dad’s new place in Southern California had us visiting the Newport strip, and we had a cool encounter with a friendly employee during our stop at the Mclaren showroom, who went in depth about design philosophy and the racing history of the brand, despite us clearly being tourists and not bringing any income for them in any way. It was a really cool experience got me and my dad geeked on all things Mclaren. Heading to the start of my story I’d also heard about the Honda engine woes, modern Mercedes dominance, halo outcry, and conflict between Hamilton and Vettel at Baku over the course of 2015-2017.
One morning I accidentally woke up obnoxiously early, 3 or 4ish am (very unusual for me at the time) and ended up browsing Motorsportsstreams or some other replay reddit before work or class. It just so happened to be that Australia 2018 was either just starting or had just happened within the last 24 hours, and (probably due to influences from the last paragraph) I ended up watching it live or a stream replay. I’d known of Hamilton, Vettel, Ricciardo, and maybe Alonso through Top Gear or some other media and many of the teams as well, but just about everything else was pretty much completely fresh. Midfield vs top three vs backmarkers, pit rules, anything tire related, most was a blur but I stuck all the way through. I still remember seeing all the drama unfold with HAAS’s pitstops. I was confused but fascinated, and I found myself looking up when the next races were, and watched the next round. And the next. And the next, with qualifying. I watched (I think) the whole season and slowly started figuring out how everything worked (still learning, F1 is a lot
). I remember something from just about every race that year, except for Bahrain, so I may have actually missed that one.So, I was hooked, and since at the time I was using pirated streams and my dad didn’t have any kind of access I was often sending him play-by-plays over text, and it got him hooked too. We eventually got to watch a race together the next time I visited California with my laptop, a few others in 2019 during family events, including Germany. We now share an F1TV Pro account and nerd out about everything F1 together, I’m actually sitting on some Mclaren team fan gear that I wasn’t able to get to him early “season” due to COVID canceling travel plans.
Not sure what purpose this story had but I’m really glad I hopped in on 2018, and I’m excited for 2020 to finally start, and to finally get my dad’s Sainz jersey and hat to him.
- 4,237
- Indiana
- DolphDrago
My first full season of watching was 2017 when I moved into my own place and could DVR the races (yes, my parents still don't have DVR this day and age, and setting up the VCR to start recording at the right time was always a PITA, so I didn't bother
). The racing now is...okay? The Mercedes dominance is excruciating to watch, though at least Vettel somewhat put up a fight for a couple years before last season's implosion. In the meantime I found a site where I was able to watch or download full races going back to the 80's. So I watched a good portion of the 90's seasons. The biggest difference I see is the reliability of the equipment. Top teams actually experienced mechanical failures back then. You also didn't have 6 cars continuously lock out the top 3 rows on the grid and pull away from the rest of the field right from the get-go. The midfield cars were much closer to the top teams. This combination meant that you would routinely see midfield teams score podiums, and with a bit of pandemonium (think Monaco '96 or Nurburgring '99), one of those drivers could pull off a surprise win. I would love to see that kind of competition again.
With that said, I still really enjoy the sport. I've never been to an F1 race and it's something that's on my bucket list. It's incredible to see the engineering aspect and what these cars are capable of. Haas joining the circus certainly helped as well. I mean, who have us Americans been able to root for before they came around? No American driver or team has been successful since...Mario Andretti? A man who won the title 9 years before I was even born.
- 41
- On the sofa
I really like the sport. Around 8.5/10 I think. My favorite part is car movements. Drivers wrestling steering wheels to survive from some oversteer is... phenomenal especially in dirty air situation. Sound is pretty enjoyable too. (yes, literally everyone I saw prefer old V8/V10/V12s. Just a personal preference) Midfields battle is the other one that keeps me watching. I don't really care about the winner/podium that much, just enjoying the race itself.
For the bad, politics, Ferrari strategy, Big 3 dominance are my picks.
Honestly, Bottas yielding every position to Ham is disappointing for me. Of course only one driver can win race and eventually the title, but yielding for the first and crashing into each other are sometimes bad. Ferrari strategy is what everyone knows.
Big 3 dominance, as I said, I really don't care about the winner but every focus is on the winner who are nearly the same. As Sainz said TV sometimes intentionally ignores midfield battle for the race finish who was leading for an hour. This is my pick of the bad side of dominance sacrificing many enjoyable parts.
background info : My actual first year of watching F1 is around 2014 and the season was '13, '14 courtesy of LP2008. Although I watched nearly every race of 2013 I could not and didn't bother to understand strategy, politics, commentary etc. and eventually F1 2013 was forgotten and matters nothing to me. (I am not a English native, was pretty young, and primary interest was in NASCAR/IndyCar.) Time flew by and I studied the language, made some money to subscribe on-demand services. With F1TV, I watched full seasons of '17, '16, '15, '14, '13 in the order, loved them. As 2017 was practically the first season I watched with some understanding and maturity, I chose 2015-2020.
Anyways I hope my writing was understandable.
AshenGraey
Premium
- 1,279
- Canada
- AshenGraey
Started watching in 2012 mid-season. Seeing Vettel and Red Bull mopped the floor with everyone was intriguing as I wondered if no one else had what it takes to challenge him. Then he went on a total dominance in 2013 which was completely mind blowing to me. That season was the first ever season that I watched to its entirety. After the 2014 season, I was hooked and have been an avid follower of the series ever since.
- 2,979
- Dundee, Scotland
I started watching in 1996 but I can't exactly remember which race I came back to F1 but I have stayed with the sport since though due to my work I cannot see every GP in a year but the memories will always remain.
Interesting to see the poll indicating majority started watching in the 2000 era, a lot of changes in the sport and engines during that era so it makes sense.
Interesting to see the poll indicating majority started watching in the 2000 era, a lot of changes in the sport and engines during that era so it makes sense.
- 1,025
- New Zealand
- noshog
I was getting into F1 around that '95-00 era.... The only reason I know it was about that time was because I remember getting the F1 games for Playstation. Back in those days our TV coverage for pretty much all motorsport was pretty poor, from memory it was week late replays shown at midnight... so was pretty hard to be a 'hard core' fan... It was maybe mid 2000's until we got full live coverage of anything, I made up for lost time and pretty much watched every practice, qualy and race live from then on.
andrea
(Banned)
- 5,858
- Japan
- virtualnao
I was aware of Formula One when I grew up in the 90s together with other forms of motorsport like Rally and DTM touring cars. However, I lacked the attention span to get into it. Gran Turismo 2 was my gateway so to speak.
I started following Formula One when Vettel hit his stride at RBR. That was around 2010 and the year GT5 went on sale.
I started following Formula One when Vettel hit his stride at RBR. That was around 2010 and the year GT5 went on sale.
- 214
- United States
I loved Motorsports from a very young age but I never got hooked onto F1 because I didn’t like the cars. My deep love for it came from YouTube, funnily enough. I was bored and YouTube randomly recommended the Best 2018 Monaco GP onboards Video. I watched it because I had nothing better to do. I was instantly hooked. I watched every onboard video from the 2018 season, learned about the drivers and their stories. My uncle gave me his password to F1 TV and I watched the last 3 years of F1 races, as well as some classics sprinkled in. At first, I was drawn towards Lewis Hamilton for two reasons: One, he was the one that was winning, so as a new fan it was easy to like him. Two, at the time my favorite car manufacturer was in fact Mercedes-AMG so I obviously began to support them. The first season I watched live was the 2019 season. I watched the first few races as Hamilton fan and I was obviously very happy. Then came the Austrian Grand Prix. After the race, my mind did a complete 180 and I became a huge Max Verstappen fan. His style of driving and epic overtakes was exactly what I wanted to see from the sport. Coincidentally, after the Austrian GP I started to watch the off track action as well, where I learned that I didn’t like Hamilton’s personality very much. I don’t know, he just kinda rubs me off the wrong way. I also started to like the McLaren drivers and McLaren as a team. McLaren and Zak Brown seem to have a loyalty to the drivers that I don’t see from other teams, so they became my midfield team. 2020 was the next season that I was supposed to watch and I was so excited to see how the stories carry over, but we all know what happened. Still, I’m glad everyone is safe and the racing can continue.
- 2,194
- Isle of Wight, UK
Can't speak for the forum but I got a friend into F1 this year and it was quite strange all in all (in exchange, I yawned thru arsenal games).
I know he enjoyed it quickly becoming a casual Racing Point fan and lamenting the slow Ferraris ("since when were Ferrari rubbish?") But I was constantly saying "well, we don't normally race here, well, we're actually racing here twice, well, normally there'd be more development etc".
I really wish he could have seen how the Tifosi would have reacted to Gasly's win.
Barra333
Premium
- 6,447
- London, ON
- barra333
I know I was asking my parents to record races in the late 80's (they were on at 10:30pm). Watched pretty consistently through until the last couple of years. Finding 2hrs spare on a Sunday is tough right now. The 6-8min package that F1 put together is quite handy.
I've been lucky enough to attend 2 GPs - 2005 Monaco where Mark Webber's Williams expired from a podium position and 2012 Belgium.
I've been lucky enough to attend 2 GPs - 2005 Monaco where Mark Webber's Williams expired from a podium position and 2012 Belgium.
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- 12,752
- Seattle-ish
I read Road & Track magazine back in the 1970s (I used my lunch money to buy it). I read all the F1 reports by Rob Walker. When the brand new F1 races in Long Beach started airing on TV, I was glued to the box. I eventually saw an F1 race in the flesh when I attended the 1982 British GP at Brands Hatch. I watched Niki Lauda cruise to an easy 25 second gap win over Didier Pironi and Patrick Tambay in the Ferraris. My love of F1 has waxed and waned, but it's never completely gone.
- 5,885
- Canada
LeGeNd-1
Premium
- 7,253
- Australia
- GTP_LeGeNd-1
My first race was probably 2000 or 2001 Monaco GP. Looking back, it's amazing I managed to become a fan at all during that period's supposedly boring Schumacher dominance. I think I watched every race in 2002-2006, except for the American ones because of timezones. My interest waned after that, especially during the Vettel years and early Merc dominance. Then came back when the wider cars returned in 2017. 2020 was the closest I've followed the races since 2006, mostly because of how weird the whole season is with all the new and returning tracks.
- 19,429
- HSV
1987 Monaco was the first F1 race that I watched on TV.
F1 always has a lot of "moving parts" and that's what makes it interesting. Throw off 2-3 things, and it's chock full of chaos, which has always been a big part of the sport's allure to me. The 2020 season brought back a big dose of that weirdness, so probably would have appreciated it more if I was a teenager/twentysomething again.
F1 always has a lot of "moving parts" and that's what makes it interesting. Throw off 2-3 things, and it's chock full of chaos, which has always been a big part of the sport's allure to me. The 2020 season brought back a big dose of that weirdness, so probably would have appreciated it more if I was a teenager/twentysomething again.
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- 26,261
- Houston, Texas, USA
- JMarine25
For me, it was about maybe 1998 when I played "F-1 World Grand Prix" on the Nintendo 64 (EXCELLENT game, by the way). So while I don't watch or follow Formula 1 religiously, I do watch and follow from time to time. I began to respect and appreciate Michael Schumacher once I saw him keep winning races and championships. And in today's F1, love or loathe him, I grew to also love Lewis Hamilton. I guess since I followed F1 in the time of screaming V10 and V12 engines, I tend to resonate with that era of F1 more than I do today's F1. It still is the greatest motorsports category of all today.
