I adore Formula 1. Indeed, as technology improves I get to enjoy it more and more as we have gone from 40 minute highlight shows to full coverage of the races, to live coverage of the qualifying to the present day where i can watch all the practice sessions on Friday and Saturday morning along with graphics showing the realtive positions of the cars on the track and all the split times from Formula1.com.
My love affair started in the early 1970s with Jackie Stewart and the blue Tyrrell. I am not sure what grabbed my attention, certainly dad was not a fan but by the time we got to James hunt challenging for the World Championship I was very upset that I was not allowed to stay up and watch the title deciding race from Japan, I was just 11 years old. I bought the biggest Corgi model (and the most expensive) as a tribute to Hunt the Shunt.
The 1980s brought my love affair to its peak with the arrival of Ayrton Senna to the sport. I was a big fan of the Lotus team anyway and dad had visited their Norfolk headquarters as part of his day job, so there was another link. I got dad to put some money on Senna to win the world title in the Lotus, he came close but it was when he joined McLaren that he finally achieved his obvious potential. Similarly 1994 was the darkest year for my love affair with Senna’s death at Monza.
This period also saw the rise of Michael Schumacher, a driver who I had not taken too and one I still think is over rated. Sure he is one of the top drivers of all time but he does not measure up to Fangio, Clark, Senna or Prost to name a few. He had no real challengers, like Senna had with Prost and he had the full financial backing of the Ferrari team and the Fiat budget. Add into that the fact that he cheated, driving people off the track to win races and championships and you have just a few reasons why i believe he does not belong right at the top of those greatest driver ever lists.
The new millennium has seen my enjoyment of F1 increase with all the advances in coverage, which are just heaven for me. Finally, with the arrival of the F1 Timing app, initially for iPhone and now for iPad I get what I have always wanted, which is the graphic of track showing every cars relative position. If you had told me when I was 7 or 8 years old watching Jackie Stewart that one day i would have a display showing me the exact positions of the cars on a track on the other side of the world in real time I would have thought you were mad. As it is I now watch F1 using both my desktop Mac and my iPad to give me split times and the track graphic to enhance my viewing pleasure. I have written about this in my Tech blog Connected to the Mothership.
Now, if I can leave you at this point I have the British Grand prix to prepare for, what fun!