Your first F1 race

[Jeroen Krautmeir]

Depeche Mode

Awesome!

[stupot94]

Depeche Mode

Awesome!

+1

[Priceless]

The first F1 race I watched... I'm sure it was 1986, but I can't remember exactly what race as I was only 4 back then... Estoril I think. Can't be sure, I only have a faint memory of it... the whole family gathered around the TV, rooting for Ayrton Senna. The most vivid image I have of it is the black #12 JPS Lotus car.

That was what got me hooked... went so far as running entire F1 seasons (1992 to 1994, as far as I can remember) with a friend using beer bottle caps on F1 tracks he would draw with chalk on the pavement from a newspaper clip - much like what people do here in the Perry McCarthy forum, but as computers weren't for just anyone back then we'd use what we had. We would even triage the bottle caps, so that the flatter caps (which slide better) would represent the faster cars and the not-so-flat caps would make for the rejects. Good times...

[AndreaModa]

That was what got me hooked... went so far as running entire F1 seasons (1992 to 1994, as far as I can remember) with a friend using beer bottle caps on F1 tracks he would draw with chalk on the pavement from a newspaper clip - much like what people do here in the Perry McCarthy forum, but as computers weren't for just anyone back then we'd use what we had. We would even triage the bottle caps, so that the flatter caps (which slide better) would represent the faster cars and the not-so-flat caps would make for the rejects. Good times...

I used to do that kinda thing with the little model cars I used to have! Pedro Lamy always used to be a green Land Rover Defender 90 with a white roof, Riccardo Rosset used to be a hideous pink thing in the rough shape of an F1 car, and Damon Hill used to be Nigel Mansell's '92 Williams! That's about all I can remember, considering it was 15 years ago, but as you can probably tell, I used to try and base the drivers on the colour of the cars they used to drive, mostly based on the '96 season!

[CoopsII]

Damon Hill used to be Nigel Mansell's '92 Williams!

As he was the primary Williams test driver in 1992 that was a pretty good choice!

[AndreaModa]

Damon Hill used to be Nigel Mansell's '92 Williams!

As he was the primary Williams test driver in 1992 that was a pretty good choice!

As my favourite driver at the time, he had to have the best toy car I had!

Schumacher and Irvine were the only two teammates I had with the same coloured cars if I remember - Schumacher had what looked suspiciously like a BT55 painted red with some of Ferrari's sponsors on, and Irvine had an Indycar, again painted to look like a Ferrari...! Those two and Hill's Williams were the only three that actually resembled F1 cars!

[CoopsII]

I do remember building 6 wheeler F1 cars like the ones I saw on the telly out of lego as a kid, although what races I watched gawd only knows.

[AdrianSutil]

I was lucky enough to find a pair of Ferrari, McLaren, Jordan, Jaguar and BAR toy cars in Toys 'R' Us when I was about 10. That was half my 'grid', so the other half were made up of other cars which nearly resembled teams. I remember doing seasons from 1995/96/97 with them, so the Jaguar would be Sauber and the BAR used to be Footwork

[DemocalypseNow]

I picked up Hakkinen's McLaren and Schumi's Ferrari in a Happy Meal once

Predictably, the plastic track that came with it was not Monza, but a full (upside down) loop. This isn't Speed Racer guys

[FullMetalJack]

I picked up Hakkinen's McLaren and Schumi's Ferrari in a Happy Meal once

I had Mika's McLaren too.

[AndreaModa]

Ahh yes the Happy Meal cars, they came a bit late for my racing exploits on the carpet, think I still have a few lying about somewhere though!

[minrdi]

The first race I watched on TV was the 1989 Monaco Grand Prix, I was six years old, and I haven't missed watching a race since.

I lived in South Africa at the time, and we had moved house on the day of the race. My father got the T set up and plonked my brother and I in front of it while my folks did the rest of the box unpacking etc. I was taken with Senna's sheer brilliance, while my brother (being all of four) like Gerhard Berger because of his surname!

The first race I ever went to was the Friday qualifying session for the 1992 South African GP. I remember the ticket attendant (who told me he used to be a track marshal back when the races were held on the old Kyalami) pretended he didn't see me on account of my short stature and age, and he let me into the grandstands to watch the session. I still remember Giovanna Amati having one of her countless spins in the hopeless Brabham right in front of where we were sitting!

[Alianora La Canta]

Ooh, carpet racing! I had absolutely no model racing cars when I was little (there was lots of Lego but no wheels), so for the races the few road cars I had were used, alongside a model white van, Lego bricks, shoes off Barbie dolls and any other toys of roughly similar size. They'd be gently pushed round the carpeted track, one at a time, and have to miss a turn if they hit any competitors or moved the track boundaries (as opposed to merely touching them). There were only two "works" teams (Benneton and one I made up called Glahica) but there was a concept of multiple series, the highest one being the "Phantom Series" for invisible cars.

One of the more memorable ones had a Benneton leading until getting disqualified for making a bad pun about a rival (which happened to be a white van independent entry).

[Pamphlet]

Dad used to keep me with him whenever a race was on. Still don't know why, but hell, I didn't mind it at all. And I still don't.

The first race that I remember anything about was Jerez '97. Yeah, that one. And I probably only remember it because of dad's reaction to Häkkinen winning that race. I think I was 3 at the time.

[The Passenger]

I remember bits and pieces from the 1990 season, including Martin Donnelly's horrible accident at Jerez, but the first full race I recall seeing was the 1991 San Marino Grand Prix where JJ Lehto finished third and Mika Häkkinen was fifth, and the Finnish commentators -- Matti Kyllönen and Keke Rosberg -- went suitably mental. (MK: "JJ is in 4th! This is amazing, a Finnish driver has never been this high up!" KR: "Well, I did win the World Championship...") I was four years old at that point, and I must have watched the race on tape dozens of times.

Incidentally, I'm watching this very race right now, having found it on the internet. I was delighted to find out this particular VHS rip actually has the Finnish commentary!

Edit: Well, apparently that above exchange between Kyllönen and Rosberg never actually happened. I was actually paying attention and looking forward to that, but it never came. My world is ruined. (Granted, this broadcast seems to have been an edited version, so perhaps that explains it)

[wmetcalf68]

I remember, I was about 3, and I saw the German GP in 2005, 3 days after my birthday. I immediately was addicted. I have rarely missed any races since that race.

[good_Ralf]

Time to reuse this thread.

My first F1 race and how I got into the sport.

I had first heard of F1 when ITV had the commercial for "Grand Prix", but then I had no idea what it was about. As many of you were doing, I was flicking through the channels on TV in early 2007 and I decided to watch a Grand Prix. As it turned out, I was watching the 2007 Australian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton's debut in the sport. I remember being told by the ITV crew that Hamilton had finished third in his first ever race. I think I could remember the Coulthard/Wurz collision, but not much at all.

A few months later, I watched the US Grand Prix and as an intellectual 10(almost 11)-year old, I thought it was fitting that Indy hosted the race for that country. All I could remember was that Hamilton won. Little did I know that a German teenager who made his debut in that race would become the man to beat very soon...
By now, my deputy head at my primary school (who taught Lewis Hamilton at his school, I was told!) was often talking about Lewis Hamilton in assemblies and even suggesting Hamilton was the greatest driver in F1 history and by the end of 2007 Lewis became (and still is) one of my favorites.

I then watched Brazil to see if Lewis would win the title as a rookie and ITV came out of a commercial break to show Hamilton recovering from his gearbox problem. Kimi Räikkönen won the race and beat Hamilton to the title and that is how Räikkönen was virtually introduced to me.

A full year later, I watched only my fourth Grand Prix (I'm getting carried away, here!) again in Brazil to see if Hamilton could win, Felipe Massa being his adversary this time. Mid-way through, my brother wanted to watch an audio episode of Doctor Who on the TV and as I thought Hamilton had the title easily sewn up, I handed the remote control over. By the time that episode had finished, the race had done the same and guess what, Lewis was champion. But not in the way I had expected and I therefore had missed one of the most dramatic episodes in Formula One history.

I didn't watch any F1 in 2009 once I learnt that Hamilton was losing due to that fundamentally flawed McLaren and for most of 2010 (but not for the same reason) I did that too. I also remembered hearing about Massa's life-threatening accident and Button winning the 2009 title.

When I learnt that Singapore had a Grand Prix in 2010, I decided to watch the race on TV. It was a disappointment to see my favorite Hamilton out and I recall that Alonso won. Then I watched a repeat of Korea and then Brazil and Abu Dhabi too. From there, my interest, then obsession, took off.

Sorry if my story was a bit too long.

good_Ralf

[Alextrax52]

I built my life around F1 and no one will ever take that away from me not even my parents. My first F1 race was somewhere in 2002 but i don't know which one

[wsrgo]

The first race I saw was the 2006 (I was 12 at the time)Brazilian Grand Prix. Considering that I live in a cricket-crazy country, and that I began following before an Indian-owned team came into the sport, or an Indian race came into the calendar, it's not bad is it? I began following F1 from 2005.

Also my grandfather died in a car crash, so I guess I wasn't too interested in racing when I was younger.

[girry]

It's honestly impossible to name my first ever F1 race I watched because it was probably when I were one or two years old and rarely missed any races every since. My mother has told me that the first sensible sentence I could construct in my language was (would translate to something like) 'Mika Hakkinen is dwiwing a fowmula caw'

[johnnyCarwash]

Though I can't remember much of the event (I was 4) except lots of rain, I attended the European GP of 1993. But the earliest race I can remember I would say is the Italian gp of 93 because we had the highlights on VHS and I'd watch that over and over on our tape player. Then I can remember taping everything from the 95 and 96 season which are the two seasons I started to really follow F1 more. I'm very fond of that 95 season which includes my favourite rejects Pacific GP

Speaking of toys one had when I was younger, I had a slot car set (not scaletrix) of Nigel Mansell's 92 F1 car and his 93 indycar, Then a collection of indycar models my dad brought back from the states when he went for business trips, with those there were plenty of carpet races including one where I recreated the Hill/Schumacher 94 incident (breaking one of my cars axles in the process )

[I forti sopravivono]

Suzuka 1996. Damon may have won the championship but apparently I was more interested in the McLaren in 3rd place...

Last race for them in the red and white Marlboro colours as well wasn't it?

I remember searching for the red and white McLarens at the first GP of 1997.
But discovered they where grey with a red tip on the nose what made them look like a burning cigar (in my childish fantasy )

[I forti sopravivono]

Somewhere in 1993 my dad was watching F1 but I wasn't taking much attention of it, I rather played with Lego.
But in 1994 (I was 8) the first race got me by the big crash of Verstappen.
I laughed and enjoyed the replays of flying wheels and other car-parts, I also remember Senna spinning and the Brazilian crowd moving home after his retirement.

I also remember hearing Senna was killed, when I was at the camping and seeing a picture of his car which didn't look as much as damaged as Verstappens car.
So I found it strange he was dead, not knowing that the suspension tragically had pierced his head..

After I saw Brazil I played with potato croquettes at the sunday dinners, every croquette was a driver and I crashed them into eachother leaving a pile-up where from Spa '98 got it's inspiration.
Sometimes using more croquettes than I could eat

My first full race must have been Monaco 1996, where we had a good laugh about Jos Verstappen crashing out in the very first corner and Schumacher also crashing in first lap.
In those times I only watched F1 to see crashes, but in 1997 I decided to watch every race and not only for the crashes.
First I liked Villeneuve (before I discovered what an overrated driver he was) and Mika Hakkinen because I found him very cute and a gentle driver.
Until Monaco 2007 I didn't miss a single GP, but my interest in F1 faded slightly away.

I still like the old F1, without DRS and all the reliability-rules.
I often watch old clips on youtube and am also used to see many cars retiring in races, a safety-car as a rarity (only in crazy races like Canada '98/'99, spa '98) and overtaking as an art, not as artificial (I was shocked by seeing GP Canada 2012, it was similar to standing on a viaduct and watching the traffic on a highway for 2 hours ).

[AxelP800]

Somewhere in 2004 or 2005. I should be around 6/7 years old back then. My first cheer is Ferrari, whose that year was going un-competitive. I started to watch races fully in 2006, again, cheering Ferrari. Such a dissapoinment Schumacher loses. Usually back then, I would miss the races in Americas due to it's midnight here.
I even tought that F1 never allow to change tyres . Proved to be wrong. Still being Ferrari fan now and I also developed interest for reject teams since 2007 when Sato finished 6th in Canada driving for Super Aguri

[roblo97]

It started when I asked my dad some random questions when I was 7 and one of them was what is your favourite sport on tv and he said F1. One afternoon I decided to watch the f1 with him as he told me that I had relatives working in the sport. I remember Scumacher winning and from then on I was hooked and the rest is history.

[Julien]

My earliest vivid memory of an F1 race is from the 1991 Portugese Grand Prix, although it was only a short report of the race. But it was at the end of one of our video tapes, so it burned into my memory
I know I watched some races later, but the first one I can 100% sure I watched was the 1996 Hungarian GP won by Jacques Villeneuve. I was very sad because I was cheering for Hill and I hoped that he would win the race. For some reason I knew he was a Hungaroring specialist, scoring 2 victories, a 2nd and his season best in '92.

[andrew2209]

My earliest memories of watching F1 are from 2002, with the "yellow-box" graphics. I vaguely remember the 2002 French GP, as my dad talked about M.Schumacher winning the championship, and the commentators were talking about Arrows. I remember the 2003 Brazilian GP well, as IK was annoyed ITV cut off the show during the after-race confusion, and because we had to write a report on something in the weekend in school on Monday, and mine was a report on the GO (with a surprisingly accurate drawing of Webber's crash for a 6 year old).

My first F1 game was F198 on the PS1.

[Faustus]

First F1 race as a spectator was the Portuguese GP at Estoril in 1985.
First F1 race working was the Spanish GP at Barcelona in 2002.

[W12]

EPIC BUMP

I was born on 1 January 2001, and I have a picture in which I watch the Austrian GP of that season... I also remember that once, I was specifically searching for the channel that shows F1, but the GP2 race was still going, and I watched it.

I later found out that the GP2 race was the sprint race of the Catalunya round of 2007, so I actually was following F1 when I was 6

[GerhardTalger]

Canada 1997, with the heavy crash of Panis still heavily on my mind. From then on I remember watching at least Germany 1997, Europe 1999, Spain 2000, Brazil 2001, Austria 2002 and Brazil 2003, but I didn't watch every single race back then, especially not because we went to my granddad on sundays very often, and he liked watching tennis and cycling more. He died in 2000 though, so I watched more from 2000-2003. Schumacher dominance pushed back my interest in the sports though. Didn't watch a single race live in 2005-2008. Went back watching in 2009 (Australia), since then never missed a race. But I think I liked F1 more how it was roundabout the 00's..

I am from '93, so I was just four years old.

[Rob Dylan]

Bahrain 2010. I was 14 and I remember it being pretty boring.

I honestly don't recall the following races until Monaco, which I kept seeing every 5 laps or so because I was working the garden. Barrichello 360ing with just enough space for cars to get around I thought was quite amazing, and is one of the reasons why I genuinely love watching Monaco ever since. Turkey was right afterwards and I saw the numpty move by Vettel, which is where I really got into it, reacting fully to what was going on - a.k.a. now hooked. Watched most races ever since. So Monaco 2010 was when I started. I went off a bit in mid-2012 due to the DRS and tyre nonsense and I missed Canada, Korea, and India, but other than that I've seen pretty much all races since.

Speaking of home racing, me and my brothers inherited a Scalextric track from my uncle and had some awesome cars for it. The track became unusable with the magnets dying, and so we used toy podracers (ah, the Prequel Generation). Having the old N64 Podracer game (plus Mario Kart 64: "eternal punishment for success") in the house we raced a lot when we were younger, but it was only as a teenager that I've started watching F1 itself - you know, actual motorsport Funny cos my brothers and my dad have watched it for absolutely ages, but now that I do I'm probably the most into it. Funny that.

[MorbidelliObese]

1991 French Grand Prix for me. Mansell passing Prost twice for the win after changing tyres (back in the days where pitstops weren't mandatory and Pirelli were one of two actual competitors rather than F1 strategy overlords) - made heroes for life for me out of the winner and the bloke ragging the Minardi-Ferrari in my avatar for all it was worth. 1992 was my first full (and best) season though.

My first racing game race was Ayrton Senna's Monaco GP on the Mega Drive, remember grabbing a last-gasp 6th place in the Serga at Phoenix. That's if you don't count the toy car races I held around the perimeter of my bedroom (when inconsiderate family members weren't opening the door and causing a 40 car pileup :-\)

[mrfakeboullier]

I remember watching the 2007 Brazilian GP and being very confused about Hamilton not winning (I was 6) because my parents had explained that he was going to win. Only really got into Motorsport at the start of 2012

[watka]

I can say that the first one I remember is, aged 5, the 1994 Monaco Grand Prix, the first race after Senna had died (fortunately I don't have any memories of watching that live). For some reason I remember Erik Comas pottering around and seeing as he only raced until 1994, I'm fairly certain it the 1994 race I saw as I don't think it could have been any earlier.

I remember where I was when Barrichello get his first pole at the 1994 Belgian Grand Prix; in a caravan in Worthing!

[go_Rubens]

I know my parents have been watching F1 since before I was born. The first F1 race I can remember was from 2007, when I was 6, and I think it was the European GP. I remember the race for how wet it was, and I remember Räikkönen's car retiring and me shouting "NO!" as I was a true fanboy of Kimi's back in the day when I had no clue who was who except for Michael, Felipe, Fernando, and Kimi. I also remember Winkelhock's Spyker. Oh yes, it was that day after all!

[Normal32]

Thwe first f1 race i watched is the 07 Aussie GP(i was 5 almost 6)ince then i was a fan of kimi