When was F1's Golden Era?

[f1-gast]

Well i think end 60's begin 70's =)

[Ferrariman60]

I personally like the mid-late 90's era from 1995-1999. I also liked 2001-2006 years, but the controlled tires and rev-limits started to ruin it for me from 2007 onwards.

[TommyBellingham]

For me the best season I have ever seen is 2008

I have been watching since 1996 but nothing compares to last season. Championship fight till the last corner my heart couldn't take it!!

Worst seasons 2002, 2004 and about to surpass them both 2009

[rich1701]

For me it was 1987 to 1993. Fat slick tyres, exotic sounding engines, showers of sparks, and Aryton Senna. You can't get better than that.

[impatientinventor]

Technological advancements I would have to put it at 93 prior to the exclusion of all of those amazing systems but as far as closeness of the field and overall emjoyment I am hard pressed to remember such an exciting string of seasons as the past 5 years... Alonso battling with Schumacher then Hamilton, the last two years of 1 point champions and now this year with the bottom of the field running away with the first half of the season and now the tried and true teams comming back in force... I despise the off track c**p but everything on track has been great.

[TwistedArmco]

So what I was eventually going to say was eventually was that the early 80's would have been so my thing. There were none of the vicious, serious rivalries (Piquet/Mansell, Senna/Prost) that made fans divide and made the sport seem all about the front of the field. Dominant eras had the same effect. The attention was on the front, and made even the other podium places seem unimportant. The early 80s, particularly 81 and 83/4 were a time when it was not gauranteed who would win, where the win could come from any one of about 10 or so parties. Seasons were colorful, varied, and different cars were at the front at different tracks. The 2009 season has been rather like that, but devoid of some of the on-track excitement.

My view, as probably stated above, is that the names do matter, but that every era has its own names, and ranking formula one entry charts against each other is hopeless, as the meanings of names change over time. Comparing Senna/Prost/Mansell/Piquet/Berger/Patrese to Alonso/Raikkonen/Hamilton/Vettel/Kubica is useless now, as one half's careers are in the ascendant, and will be as difficult in 20 years as comparing the Senna/Prost generation to the Fangio/Ascari/Farina/Clark generation is now.

The thing I like about the early 80s is that no name stood above the rest as the possible best of all time. They were all new then, all ascendant. Prost had only 5 wins or something in mid 82, and all the rest and him were contextually and reputationally more equal than say when Prost and Senna won all of the championships between '88 and '91 between them. There were also more winners in those seasons, more change.

I imagine people will conclude that in character, I like change and youth. You'd be right. These two things are why I like what I like. I don't choose to like them, I just do, and I respect what makes everyone else tick on this matter and would hope that no-one else tried to convince me that other things matter more.

[Pedro_Villeneuve71]

...1976 -> 1984, best races ever.....

[cformula1]

1980 to 2000

[djf1]

I love the era of GV, he was my hero growing up. Late 70's, early 80's innovation run abound, mega HP engines, no auto gearboxes driver aids and gadgets. Some of my favorite video below to illustrate the point:
Need I say more?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqZBJCFS_Ng[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03VUI6jF ... re=related[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxhTgNRs0Fk[/youtube]

[MP4/4#12]

No, there`s no need to say more. Outstanding footage and the pq is impressive. I grew up a bit later than you, in late 80`s so i choose it as "my golden era", there were no gizmos yet and the Hp delivered by Turbos was unreal, the wet tracks were always a huge challenge to them also, but if you`re expecting to hype those days forget it mate, apart 3 or 4 guys that appreciate it all the rest is Hamilton or Kimi are Gods and the best drivers ever.....nothing wrong with it....except a tiny naif and very boring.

Post some more of these videos if you can, i really enjoy them !

[blizzard]

Great videos! The 70´s, 80´s and early 90´s were the days!

And I also admire Gilles! In my oppinion he was the bravest.
The guys from the 70´s or 80´s would crush today´s kids like lemons.

Real men racing.

[MP4/4#12]

Great videos! The 70´s, 80´s and early 90´s were the days!

And I also admire Gilles! In my oppinion he was the bravest.
The guys from the 70´s or 80´s would crush today´s kids like lemons.

Real men racing.

Also true, nowadays F1 teams hire young guns, no doubt most of them are fast but as persons they are simply that...kids. Hamilton didn`t run a marathon or something like that, a simple joke and easy going thing to do with Button and what happened ? His dad didn`t allowed it . This crashgate happened cause Piquet is a Kid, no personality and Briatore played with him as he wished, with a "grown man" i find it hard to believe this would happen.

Those days really were for mens, Ayrton joined F1 in 1984 aged 24 years old, he was considered a young driver, a future star or possible "WChamp material".

When i see fans saying Kubica`s time has passed cause Beemer is leaving.....he`s still very young, he`s also highly talented and fast and i dont understand it, is he old ? Or am i ?

[blizzard]

Great videos! The 70´s, 80´s and early 90´s were the days!

And I also admire Gilles! In my oppinion he was the bravest.
The guys from the 70´s or 80´s would crush today´s kids like lemons.

Real men racing.

Also true, nowadays F1 teams hire young guns, no doubt most of them are fast but as persons they are simply that...kids. Hamilton didn`t run a marathon or something like that, a simple joke and easy going thing to do with Button and what happened ? His dad didn`t allowed it . This crashgate happened cause Piquet is a Kid, no personality and Briatore played with him as he wished, with a "grown man" i find it hard to believe this would happen.

Those days really were for mens, Ayrton joined F1 in 1984 aged 24 years old, he was considered a young driver, a future star or possible "WChamp material".

When i see fans saying Kubica`s time has passed cause Beemer is leaving.....he`s still very young, he`s also highly talented and fast and i dont understand it, is he old ? Or am i ?

I don´t know, but unfortunately it seems to be a trend not only in F1, but in our whole society that you have to do everything faster and at a younger age.
Look at all those kids getting hyped in the media with 13-14 years!
They have to be superstars now before they are even grown up and full age.
I find that rather disturbing.

[djf1]

No, there`s no need to say more. Outstanding footage and the pq is impressive. I grew up a bit later than you, in late 80`s so i choose it as "my golden era", there were no gizmos yet and the Hp delivered by Turbos was unreal, the wet tracks were always a huge challenge to them also, but if you`re expecting to hype those days forget it mate, apart 3 or 4 guys that appreciate it all the rest is Hamilton or Kimi are Gods and the best drivers ever.....nothing wrong with it....except a tiny naif and very boring.

Post some more of these videos if you can, i really enjoy them !

An interesting video from a relatively unknown driven, mid eighties... kind of shows the skill required to drive these F1 cars:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03VUI6jFknY[/youtube]

[blizzard]

The most amazing thing is that the drivers were actually able to concentrate on braking, turning the wheel and shifting, which seemed to be very complicated back then. Really amazing.
When playing racesims like rfactor, I can´t even concentrate on braking, turning and shifting with a semi automatic gearbox

But to do it with a normal H- shifting gearbox, just wow!