Best era of F1 ?

[Parabolica]

Anfield, that was the era I grew up with, so it will always be a favourite of mine.

Which brings me to my Philosophical Thought of the Day.

The best eras are the one you grew up with, and the present.

Anything else will just leave you disappointed.

[555-04Q2]

Which brings me to my Philosophical Thought of the Day.

Easy now, it's Friday, don't stress your brain too much there

[steveaki13]

Anfield, that was the era I grew up with, so it will always be a favourite of mine.

Which brings me to my Philosophical Thought of the Day.

The best eras are the one you grew up with, and the present.

Anything else will just leave you disappointed.

Part 1 I agree with. It seems everyone loved the era they first watched. For me the mid 90s until the mid 00's. Despite Schumi Dominance.

However I feel the currant years have not enthralled me as much. The present F1 leaves me slightly cold.

[D-Type]

Anfield, that was the era I grew up with, so it will always be a favourite of mine.

Which brings me to my Philosophical Thought of the Day.

The best eras are the one you grew up with, and the present.

Anything else will just leave you disappointed.

Part 1 I agree with. It seems everyone loved the era they first watched. For me the mid 90s until the mid 00's. Despite Schumi Dominance.

However I feel the currant years have not enthralled me as much. The present F1 leaves me slightly cold.

I go along with this. The era when you were, say, 12 to 15 when you were old enough to understand what was happening but still young enough to find it all enthralling.
And I find the current F1 so artificial and contrived.
Which is how I ended up hosting the History Forum.

[M Needforspeed]

but it can happens that some of us, after gaining a Motor Racing culture, will see that the best era wasn't when they discovered F1.

For me, the best era can't be other than the 1963 / 1970 ... and I was too young to have an interest in Motor Racing, and there was no TV or radio coverages, only mags that I discovered after .

Followed F1 the year Emerson Fittipaldi won his first WC and what happened since 1972 until 1993 .... but nevertheless Jim Clark era rules !

[anfield5]

Anfield, that was the era I grew up with, so it will always be a favourite of mine.

Which brings me to my Philosophical Thought of the Day.

The best eras are the one you grew up with, and the present.

Anything else will just leave you disappointed.

You are undoubtedly quite correct.

[Parabolica]

That's my quota for this decade used up right there, then!

I've found every era of F1 that I have known to be riveting. There are always things that could be better, but I love F1 unconditionally.

Of course, unconditional love was better in my day.

It could leave its front door open, too.

[anfield5]

My problem with modern F1 is that the rules are too restrictive and designers are all in effect turning out facsimilies of each others cars. I have always thought F1 is the top of the tree where single seat circuit racing is concerned. This being true it is logical to assume the best designers and engineers populate the brainy side of the garage. Under today's draconian rules they are not being allowed to innovate. It would be like mandating when to apply the brakes, when to change gears and how much throttle percentage drivers can use.

Champcars just before it's death went down this path, by telling all drivers when they had to make pit stops i.e. in a 60 lap race they WOULD stop on lap 20 and lap 40, effectivly doing away with a driver's race craft and strategy, it made the racing absolutely pathetic and the series thankfully died and was consumed by the IRL.

In the 70's/80's the design rules were less draconian, designers had plenty of room to move and tiny little teams like Tyrrell could come up with a car that was different to the big teams, and could win races and championships. Todays rules kind of remind me of a modern housing estate where every house looks the same. Think of the song called 'Little Boxes" by Malvina Reynolds (look up the lyrics)

[D-Type]

It's not just the restrictive rules. It's the total artificiality of it all. It's no longer a competition, it's now a show. And to provide a 'show' they stifle innovation as they don't want somebody running away from the field the way, for example, the Lotus 78 and 79 did.

[Parabolica]

It's not just the restrictive rules. It's the total artificiality of it all. It's no longer a competition, it's now a show. And to provide a 'show' they stifle innovation as they don't want somebody running away from the field the way, for example, the Lotus 78 and 79 did.

With respect, it is clearly still a competition.

One that Red Bull are running away with.

If it wasn't a competition, and a high-quality one at that, then there would not be the difficulty to beat red Bull that, evidently, there is.

There aren't the headline-grabbing, turn-the-world-on-its-head innovations of yesteryear, but the technical developments in areas like exhaust-blown-diffusers are, for me, just as fascinating.

Off-throttle-blown-diffusers are, I feel, something Colin Chapman would be impressed by.

There is innovation. The rules prevent a left-field game-changer arriving, I completely accept, and that is something that I too regret. I don't let it ruin my interest in the technical revolutions that still take place, albeit more subtle ones.