Have Your Say: Your Favourite Era of Formula One Racing

[Paul Jeffrey]

In this weeks edition of 'Have Your Say' we would like to know what you considered to be the golden age of Formula One racing...

Be it personal preference, age, driver allegiances, personal memories or simply because you like the look of the cars, every racing fan has a personal favourite era / season / year of Formula One that they consider to be the ultimate peak of what the sport is capable of achieving.

Some of us like the rivalries of years gone between the likes of Clark vs Hill / Prost vs Senna / Hill vs Schumacher or even Rosberg vs Hamilton, and some of us find the technological advancements made in the sport over the last few years the biggest draw that makes you want to sit down and give up several hours of your Sunday afternoon to follow the action unfolding out on the track.

Picking your own preference as to when Formula One was at it's peak is an entirely subjective exercise and they are no right or wrong answers, but I'm hopeful the conversation this will generate should make for an enlightening discussion, and maybe even help some of our less experienced race fans appreciate this great sport many of us love and follow.

So for this week my question is:

What era / season / year of Formula One do you feel Formula One was at it's very best?

By this I don't mean the greatest technology or best corporate presentation, I simply mean when did it give to fans and drivers the best experience, the most enjoyable product and produce an on track product that makes you want to keep coming back for more.


Please feel free to leave a comment in the comments section below, with a bit of an explanation as to why you have chosen that era / season / year and what it means to you.

Happy debating people (oh and watch out for a (hopefully) nice article I'm going to publish soon on how I think Formula One could be made awesome again... I'm sure that will "encourage" plenty of heated opinions

 

[Paul Jeffrey]

Difficult question and one that needs plenty of consideration in my opinion.

I've always thought Formula One should look difficult. Should be a case of men (or women of course) doing something on track that a mere mortal couldn't possible achieve. The cars should sound loud and impressive, the drivers should be able to follow closely and overtake and the grid should have depth and variety of teams and engines etc.

So with this in mind, and boy was this a close one, I'd have to say the early to mid 1990's would be the pinnacle for me, probably around the 95 season.

With Ferrari running the V12 screamer, Williams, Benneton, McLaren with powerful V10's and Tyrell running the compact little Ford V8 the field was full of variety. The cars looked and sounded the part, the driving was brutal, slides were possible and the racing was for the most part pretty good.

Then I think back to the 60's and 70's and suddenly I'm not so sure...

Agh this one is hard!

 

[felippekiss]

80's, begin of 90's V12 era and v10 by end 90's early 2000's

 

[Glaurung]

Early 90s, still cars with full manual transmissions, and drivers doing furious heel&toe on downshifts, sadly the very last years before electronics changed F1 forever.
And note video above at 10.35

 

[Andrew Harper]

Difficult question and one that needs plenty of consideration in my opinion.

I've always thought Formula One should look difficult. Should be a case of men (or women of course) doing something on track that a mere mortal couldn't possible achieve. The cars should sound loud and impressive, the drivers should be able to follow closely and overtake and the grid should have depth and variety of teams and engines etc.

So with this in mind, and boy was this a close one, I'd have to say the early to mid 1990's would be the pinnacle for me, probably around the 95 season.

With Ferrari running the V12 screamer, Williams, Benneton, McLaren with powerful V10's and Tyrell running the compact little Ford V8 the field was full of variety. The cars looked and sounded the part, the driving was brutal, slides were possible and the racing was for the most part pretty good.

Then I think back to the 60's and 70's and suddenly I'm not so sure...

Agh this one is hard!

Interesting I was thinking the same thing. Ok I started watching F1 in the early 90's and that may have something to do with it but what I loved then is still valid now and that's the diversity of the cars. Different engines, V8's, V10's, V12's. You had more cars on the grid, you had real diversity in the tracks. Some fast, some slow. The old Hockenheim, Phoenix street course (I know not the best circuit in the world but it was certainly different) even the '91 version of Silverstone is regarded as a classic super fast circuit. Of course there were the drivers. Admittedly they weren't so hindered by the world of corporate speak like today but Mansell, Senna, Prost, Alesi, Berger and so on. One more thing that made it truely magic for me, a very quiet commentor called Murray Walker. A great time to be a fan of F1.

 

[Shaun Clarke]

When Senna was driving....nuff said, like when Alli was boxing..nuff said LOL

 

[CC]

When Senna was driving....nuff said, like when Alli was boxing..nuff said LOL

I Watched that live on TV that crash ,
F1 Does not seem the same since , Back then just felt more raw and more natural .

 

[Shaun Clarke]

I Watched that live on TV that crash ,
F1 Does not seem the same since , Back then just felt more raw and more natural .

I saw Senna Crash live as well, it didn't seem a lot then, when you look at others crashes, but it was a pivotal point in motor racing, same as Micheal Schumi, although he wasn't racing......and like Billy Monger as well..

 

[shimon.ifraimov]

definitely 60's! so sexy and dangerous.

 

[slingshot64]

Past : Prost senna mansell , burger , era for wheel to wheel racing
Today : The data we receive as viewers now is a great thing.

 

[samcar304]

I really love the 1968-1973 Era, The cars were just in the infancy of aerodynamics and there was still a finesse to almost sliding through the corners. Most demonstrated by drivers such as Ronnie Peterson and Jochen Rindt (Two incredible talents gone too soon.) I also grew up watching the race highlights on the ESPN Classic channel a little under ten years ago. the Cars, the Style and the Music of that time period has always intrigued me and Formula 1 at that time looked to be really awesome.

However it did not come without its risks... Sadly safety back then was awful and many drivers lost their lives. But its still my favourite Era of F1. The first Lotus 72, The Rindt car that won the championship is probably my favourite looking F1 car of all time. Then they had to stick that silly airbox on it

Bonus! This picture was taken at Oulton Park! One of my favourite tracks... Also happens to be my local.

 

[JeffL]

80's early early 90's, more hp than sense.

 

[Wolf_XII]

Well I like the V10 Era, as that is when I first noticed F1 racing and went to Monza once with my father when we were in Italy.

Cars sounded good, and in the mid-to-late nineties you had some good fights for the championships with first Williams-Renault being good, the Mclaren-Mercedes with the second Silberpfeile and the Ferrari.

You also had classic Hockenheim pre-2002 before that hideous rebuilt, it was a track that ate engines for breakfast and shook up things, and then there is the forest part of the track where in the old F1 games you felt more like in a low-flying fighter than in an F1 car.

 

[Davide Nativo]

1967

Why?
Well because it was the first proper (I know the first was '66) season with all entries on actual and competitive 3 litres engine. It was the only time in F1 where all teams were on their own specific engine. And oh my, what engines they were:

- Brabham, 3 litre v8 Repco (simple, light, compact, reliable; after all, it came from road production; nontheless a very nice engine which did it's job fairly and probably would have had some eyebrows rise even in endurance racing)

- BRM, 3 litre H16 BRM (let's cut the bullsh*t: this engine was crap and Rudd knew it; this engine blew up more frequently than Honda's current season one; Stewart was the Alonso of '67; Hill left the boat for Lotus because of this engine; but hey, what an engine! Can you even imagine from a tech standpoint? An H16 engine? and the sound, oh the sound..)
- Cooper, 3 litre v12 Maserati (the least interesting; an updated version of the old 2.5 litre from the '57 250F; yet a memento of the classic era of F1, when Fangio was still in the business)
- Eagle, 3 litre v12 Weslake (do I need to say anything else?)
- Ferrari, 3 litre v12 Ferrari (this was too an updated version of an engine that goes back as far as '47, but it is a classic; the v12 60°, which powered the crême de la crême of Ferrari road production and last used in the Ferrari 412 [a road car which value has not yet rised nowadays, so go buy one now!!]; not to count all of the actual Ferrari race cars powered by this totem; when you think of Ferrari v12, you think of this; it is Gioacchino Colombo's heritage)
- McLaren, 3 litre v12 BRM (the prototype version of the engine the official team would use from '68 onwards, beautiful piece of engineering)
- Lotus, 3 litre v8 Cosworth (simply a legend)
- Honda, 3 litre v12 Honda (an heavy and not very reliable engine, but just listen to the sound it makes; go on youtube! tell me if I lie; the very best japanese tech could gift our ears with)

And the Matra 3 litre v12 was also brewing up. Heavily based on Ferrari's v12, a truly amazing piece of technology from the french. It's 6 exhaust pipes seem like an organ for us pious devotes to the motor-racing gods.

Then there were still skinny bias-ply tires (fatter would only come in '68); no aero; no pit-stops (if you were making one it meant something was going very wrong); no sponsors (national colors only); racing in the rain without safety at the start the list goes on and on..
It was THE year.

 

[pjlee1998]

Bonus! This picture was taken at Oulton Park! One of my favourite tracks... Also happens to be my local.

1970/1 Gold Cup?

Staggers me that Oulton Park has changed so little - just a few barriers and 2 chicanes (it's also my local national circuit (though Aintree is closer)). There's some great video's on YouTube from the Gold Cup of the late 1960's, definitely a pinnacle of F1.

 

[pjlee1998]

Either:

Late 60's - little aerodynamics, ballsy drivers and beautiful circuits.
Late 80's/ Early 90's - Pre qualifying, experimentation in engines and manual shifting
or Early to Mid 00's - V10's, traction control and much downforce.

 

[samcar304]

1970/1 Gold Cup?

Staggers me that Oulton Park has changed so little - just a few barriers and 2 chicanes (it's also my local national circuit (though Aintree is closer)). There's some great video's on YouTube from the Gold Cup of the late 1960's, definitely a pinnacle of F1.

Yeah it would have been 70, Rindt was driving in that pic and he died in September that year And Funnily enough Aintree is about 3 miles down the road from me haha

 

[Nevini]

Simple for me late 80's early to mid 90's. Hell my era, that's why
Nigel, Damon, Prost, Senna need I say more.

 

[aka2k]

1980's till 1994. F1 died with Senna in San Marino.

 

[Prometheus1701d]

For my the best championship 1992 whit Williams-Renautl fw14-b the best car of all times whit supension active!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Williams_FW14