What is the best Era of Formula 1 ?

samletigre · Jul 29, 2015

Just a simple poll to know what is the best Era of Formula 1 from you ?

For Me, Early 80s to Early 90s are the best..

1981,1982,1985,1986,1987,1988,1989,1990,1991,1992,1993,1994 and 1996,1997 are the best seasons

(81' Gilles Villeneuve at Jarama - Gilles last victory)

(86' Senna vs Mansell at Jerez - Taking the chequered flag almost side by side, Senna only 0.014 in front of Mansell in one of the closest finishes in Formula One history)

(88' Senna vs Prost - Battles with the famous McLaren-Honda MP4/4)

(89' Senna vs Prost at Suzuka, The most greatest rivality of F1)

David Wright · Jul 29, 2015

What happened to the 50s and 60s?

The pre-Bernie era.

Jake Fangio · Jul 29, 2015

My first choice would of been 50- 70 but had to go with 70-80 and 80-90.50-70 should of been an option. But it's still a good poll.Give us back low down force and massive power!!!

Arne Dopudja · Jul 29, 2015

80-90 was proper becausebof the rivalry and technology. Drivers were full of persona and lived (and died) for the sport. However, for my taste, 90-00 was the best era due to the level of proffessionalism. Proper serious top level sport, no womanizers and cocktail parties. After Alonsos wins around 2005, it started to go down the drain and started selling bling bling faces. But you cannot sell stories without womanizing and cocktail parties.

I imagine 80-90 as Rocky, person focused way to the top, 90-00 as Ivan Drago (from Rocky), highly sophisticated team effort way to the top and nowadays, it's pretty hipster.

Dan Allen · Jul 29, 2015

70's. James Hunt was the best!

Edit: Mid to late 60's were pretty cool as well, what with Graham Hill and Jim Clark too

WOKOWEN1 · Jul 29, 2015

I enjoyed everything... but F1 is dead since Schumacher left Ferrari!

P*Funk · Jul 29, 2015

I live and die by the Jean Alesi death grip.

Darren Bentley · Aug 1, 2015

so my question is why was the 88 battle between Prost and Senna in a Mclaren that won all but one good for F1, but the 2014 battle between Hamilton and Rosberg in a dominant mercedes bad even though that went to the final race as well

the_sigman · Aug 1, 2015

Darren Bentley said:
so my question is why was the 88 battle between Prost and Senna in a Mclaren that won all but one good for F1, but the 2014 battle between Hamilton and Rosberg in a dominant mercedes bad even though that went to the final race as well

There were no paydrivers (guys like Nakajima took top seats because of talent), level of the teams was good (teams like Rial, Minardi, Lola, Dallara, AGS, Osella were very good), there were no team orders (except the "who ever is in the lead in the first corner wins the race"), tracks were fantastic (see Detroit for example) and finally the engines were spectacular, V6 Turbos ftw.

Darren Bentley · Aug 1, 2015

Manolis Sigoulakis said:
There were no paydrivers (guys like Nakajima took top seats because of talent), level of the teams was good (teams like Rial, Minardi, Lola, Dallara, AGS, Osella were very good), there were no team orders (except the "who ever is in the lead in the first corner wins the race"), tracks were fantastic (see Detroit for example) and finally the engines were spectacular, V6 Turbos ftw.

what has that got to do with the battle between Prost and Senna and Mclaren Honda domination compared to the Mercedes domination and the "crap" battle between Hamilton and Rosberg
also how do we really know about team orders?

P*Funk · Aug 1, 2015

Well the cars actually drove in a manner that made Prost vs Senna exciting. So far Rosberg vs Hamilton isn't even close to the drama of the other two.

the_sigman · Aug 1, 2015

Darren Bentley said:
what has that got to do with the battle between Prost and Senna and Mclaren Honda domination compared to the Mercedes domination and the "crap" battle between Hamilton and Rosberg
also how do we really know about team orders?

I talked about the era in general

The rivalry between Prost and Senna started like that:

McLaren brought team orders into play, and I have to guess that this happened before Imola as well.

F_B · Aug 3, 2015

You can’t really compare the rivalry between Senna/Prost with Hamilton/Rosberg.

Hamilton is far better than Rosberg, Prost and Senna were quite similar (not speedwise, but all in all). If we had more races like Bahrain 2014, where Ham and Ros were fighting hard against each other, I'd probably watch the races again, but right now it’s kind of obvious, that Hamilton will take the 2015 championship and I'll bet he will also be first 2016.

samletigre · Aug 6, 2015

why fans like the late 70s to late 90s...because the drivers were able to say what they really think..they were not robots like today....Just Watch Lauda,Hunt,Villeneuve,Mansell,Piquet,Prost and Senna interview..I remember a after race interview with Berger,Senna and Mansell in 92..when Senna call Prost a "Coward"

the drivers of today are to much "constipated"... compare to 70-90s guys.

The cars were very nice, no electronics or gadgets just a steeringwheel,shifter and 3 pedals !!

--> Senna said during a interview in 1994 , that the electronics war gonna kill the F1 and he was right since 1999 the F1 is no more a drivers championship but a engineers championship...

The Tracks were just amazing.

All theses guys are now called Legends, fans have some much respect to theses guys because every races , they were putting their lives in danger, they knew that if during a battle they "were driven dangerously, they gonna crash and hurt each other..and the drivers of today ..they will never be called like that..

samletigre · Aug 6, 2015

Darren Bentley said:
so my question is why was the 88 battle between Prost and Senna in a Mclaren that won all but one good for F1, but the 2014 battle between Hamilton and Rosberg in a dominant mercedes bad even though that went to the final race as well

The Senna/Prost battle has put the F1 to a other level, the rivality on and off tracks.

they were dominant but isnt wasnt boring to Watch like today..they were fighting each other, not so far there was Ferrari, Lotus...etc.. We were able to predict the winner like today but there was not a big gap between drivers in race or in qualifying (just in Monaco when Senna put 1.400 to Prost

).. and the race wasnt over after the first corner..

The Williams-Honda have been dominant in 86' and Prost in a underpowered McLaren-TAG won the championship in the last race in Adelaide..Nigel rear tyre blow up and Piquet was fighiting against Prost for the championship.. they was also Senna in the John Player Lotus-Renault 98T

..

Watch some 1986-90 races on youtube , you will see !

Darren Bentley · Aug 6, 2015

samletigre said:
why fans like the late 70s to late 90s...because the drivers were able to say what they really think..they were not robots like today....Just Watch Lauda,Hunt,Villeneuve,Mansell,Piquet,Prost and Senna interview..I remember a after race interview with Berger,Senna and Mansell in 92..when Senna call Prost a "Coward"

the drivers of today are to much "constipated"... compare to 70-90s guys.

The cars were very nice, no electronics or gadgets just a steeringwheel,shifter and 3 pedals !!

--> Senna said during a interview in 1994 , that the electronics war gonna kill the F1 and he was right since 1999 the F1 is no more a drivers championship but a engineers championship...

The Tracks were just amazing.

All theses guys are now called Legends, fans have some much respect to theses guys because every races , they were putting their lives in danger, they knew that if during a battle they "were driven dangerously, they gonna crash and hurt each other..and the drivers of today ..they will never be called like that..

F1 has ALWAYS been an engineers championship, I don't buy for one second that it has never been about not being in the best car and the best car hasn't won the championship except on a rare occasion. Like 2005 when Mclaren was fastest but blew up every race or 2007 Mclaren again were best but had 2 drivers who well we all know that story. And also do you not think the drivers want to speak their mind but can't because their team has them by the balls because how corporate F1 is, its not the drivers fault, plus if they say anything people call them out depending on what driver it is, Hamilton says one thing wrong everyone loses their ****, Kimi says one thing, oh classic Kimi how we love you, or Vettel, oh that guy is just annoying.
Also in the Race's theory, I watched all the season reviews since the 70's on this dailymotion channel (awesome channel to check BTW) and half the time other than the top 2-4 the rest of the field was a lap down in the races in the 80's and 90's
http://www.dailymotion.com/user/Pure-Racing/1
Also this was the 1989 San Marino GP race results (just a random race) nothing special apart from Berger's crash. If you really want I could do every race to really very much disprove your theory on it being closer in the race and qualifying

Although I accept one thing, the races were more fun to watch, we weren't bombarded with data everywhere and we didn't know when the drivers were not going flat out because like Brundle has said a lot of times, they were also doing the same amount of managing as today's drivers we just didn't get told it, plus some of the battles for first when there was one was probably more exciting than most of today's in 2014 whenever Ham was behind Ros I knew Ham was going to overtake and in 2015 I know almost nothing will happen to whoever is in first

Dan Allen · Aug 6, 2015

samletigre said:
The Senna/Prost battle has put the F1 to a other level, the rivality on and off tracks.

they were dominant but isnt wasnt boring to Watch like today..they were fighting each other, not so far there was Ferrari, Lotus...etc.. We were able to predict the winner like today but there was not a big gap between drivers in race or in qualifying (just in Monaco when Senna put 1.400 to Prost ).. and the race wasnt over after the first corner..

The Williams-Honda have been dominant in 86' and Prost in a underpowered McLaren-TAG won the championship in the last race in Adelaide..Nigel rear tyre blow up and Piquet was fighiting against Prost for the championship.. they was also Senna in the John Player Lotus-Renault 98T ..

Watch some 1986-90 races on youtube , you will see !