Your First Season

[TK421W]

I cant remember the exact year, but it was somewhere around the mid to late 80s. at the time, i didnt manage to catch most of the race programmes and followed mainly via the daily rags the next day.

The first full season i was properly able to watch was around 1990 or 1991. To be honest, my memories pretty poor, i can only really remember F1 from about 1993.

 

[Muddytalker]

Not sure if we have done this before but I thought it worth revisiting - what was the first season you took a serious interest in F1?

As a boy I remember seeing seeing some of the BBC Grand Prix programs (including Gilles Villeneuve's 3 wheel exploits at Zandvoort) but my interest in Grand Prix racing was really captured watching the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch in 1980. The two blue Ligier's formation flying round the Hatch until they ran into trouble and Alan Jones coming through to take the chequered flag and the British crowd cheering him as if a Brit had won.

From that moment on I was hooked...

That's my first GP memory too, although I must have caught the race part way through as I can only remember Jones leading. The next year or so is hazy, but I watched what was shown (races were often joined mid-race, and sometimes made way for horse-racing back in those days), and can remember Villeneuve at Jarama in '81, Piquet crashing at Monaco (also '81 I think), and being allowed to stay up late and watch Jones' swansong victory at Caesar's Palace.
Once Jones retired, I took on Keke as my hero, and was rewarded with another WC, as well as some stirring drives.

My first attended event was the '86 Birmingham Superprix, (we went again in '88 when it pelted it down, again!) and my first GP was Silverstone in '87 followed by Monaco in '88 (and back to Silverstone in '88, soaked wet through again!). For '89 and '90 we just went for the qualifying days, and I can still hear the Lambo V12 screaming down the Hangar Straight. Also, was never a fan of Nigel Mansell, but you could see he was so much faster through Club corner, than even Senna.

 

[cider_and_toast]

My Uncle used to go to British GPs during the 80s and he used to give my mum the programmes for me to keep. I think I've pretty much got every British GP programme from about 1981 onwards. That was my first real contact with the sport and of course most of the early 80s British races were the "John Player GP of....." so of course they were important because they had some cars in the race as well and so they by the logic of an 8 year old were the best cars on the grid...... wonder which team that was?

I vaguely remember watching some of the coverage / highlights from about 1984 onwards but the first race I remember vividly was the 1986 British GP when Jacques Laffite had his horrendous crash. If I remember correctly the race was shown live for once and it held the coverage up for about an hour while the cars were sorted out and they went for a restart.

 

[Feckless]

I started watching in the early '80's, I think. I remember Piquet get knocked out by a back marker and jumping out of his car and attacking him.

The first season I remember in full was 1986. I followed every race from there till I left for Uni in 1993. Spring and Autumn Sundays when the seasons overlapped were great back then: -

10am Sunday Grandstand
2pm F1
5pm Ski Sunday
6pm Rugby Special
7pm A-Team

After Uni and Schumacher making a complete mockery of sporting achievement (Which considering his achievements is a feat in itself.) I never got back into it until Lewis and Alonso got right up each others nose a couple of years ago.

 

[FB]

That'll be Piquet vs Salazar then Feckless. What a great moment

 

[Brogan]

They don't make 'em like that any more

 

[Feckless]

Thanks for the post FB.

Seeing it again I think it explains alot. The clip of Bernie rubbing his head, you can see him thinking. "Right, Im taking over and this sort of thing wont happen again!!"

 

[Bleu]

First full season I can remember is 1993. But I started really watching in mid-1992. Before that I have some small memories. Senna giving win to Berger at Suzuka 1991 and also a crash involving Senna at the first corner. I didn't know what race it was at that point but that must have been 1990 Japanese GP.

 

[MCLS]

My first season was 2002, and the reason i stuck remains a mystery really with Scumachers dominance, but i was more interested watching the likes of Jordan and Sauber and the other midfielders scrap for points. But i started following Hamilton in the junior formulas and have been supporting him since he came into F1 (and got me to go to my first F1 race Spa 2007 and then Silverstone 2008) because of the price of it i dont get to go to many f1 races, but i am going to Hungary this year which im really looking forward to.