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

[Stramala]

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.