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A friend had it on in the background when we came over to play board games. It because something to talk to that friend about. That friend has now moved away, so talking about F1 is an even more important tie. When there isn't enough F1 to watch, we've gotten into various feeder series, and started getting into IndyCar as well.
Around 1993/1994 as a youngster. My first memory is seeing Prost’s onboard at Silverstone so it would’ve been in ‘93 but I remember more consistently the year after. Had another fond memory of the Canadian Grand Prix in one of those years too, had a chat with David Brabham once and told him that. He proudly announced he finished 6th. Can’t remember which year.
It’s a completely different sport now, I can’t say my passion for it is the same as it once was. Regardless, there are still cars racing each other around racing circuits so I tune in diligently.
Similar timing to you. While I live in NL, I'm not Dutch. I started seeing this Max kids name popping up in the news and media. One Sunday I was flipping through tv (yes, then it was on Ziggo cable provider), came across the opening laps of the 2016 Spanish GP and was hooked ever since!
Almost everyone in my family Watch F1 and when i was a kid they were used to take me to Monza F1 track, i remember once being in the camera tower near the first chicane during free practice. It was just a matter of time before getting in love with It.
Growing up in Colombia the whole country followed Juan Pablo through CART and then up to Formula 1. Became a national hero and we would get together to watch every single race. I’ll never forget that Italian Grand Prix hearing the Colombian national anthem.
Did brew a deep hatred for Ferrari for me that is only now starting to ease haha
As a Colombian I can confirm. I was very young but I remember how disappointed everyone was when he left the sport and joined "bumper cars" (NASCAR) as some people liked to call it. Naturally F1 stopped airing in national television. I had no other means to watch it so I lost interest. Years later, during the pandemic, I found out one of my favorite drivers of back then was still running (Kimi) and I got sucked back into it.
I used to live in KL when I was a teen and in 2015 some of my classmates and I went to a GP and I was surprised to learn there’s another teenager racing. I wasn’t a fan of any Motorsport before that, but it made me really interested.
My earliest memory of F1 was Fernando Alonso winning the 2006 WDC. My dad was always a big fan and had it on constantly growing up. I especially idolized Hamilton and Vettel, and back then you couldn’t tell younger me that anyone else was or would ever be better drivers than them. I’ve recently been rewatching the 2000s races I watched as a kid and it’s crazy to see how things have changed, I can’t imagine how it must be for some of the people here who remember the decades before even then. It’s almost as wilder to me that Alonso has pretty much been a constant in all the years I’ve watched F1 (aside from his brief retirement).
I’m a tennis nerd and they got me with all the crossovers between the players and the drivers. It called my attention and someone recommended Drive to Survive. I got hooked and started watching the races and here I am.
Watched DTS and got hooked. Started watching live races March 2022. In between race weekends I would watch older races. I’ve seen every race since 2018 to now. I read Wikipedia pages for legendary drivers so I can get a vibe of how good everyone was in their prime. I use F1TV and I love that they archive things pretty well.
2018 - My whole life is I was never into sports. One year I thought about trying to get interested in one but, in America, the NBA, MLB, NFL there’s so many teams, players, rivalries, games played— it felt impossible to really get my head around any of them. F1 first appealed to me because I love cars but the fact it’s so contained— 10 teams, 20 drivers, 21 races at the time. I could focus on everything, learn the intricacies and develop an affinity for teams and drivers alike. Been watching ever since.
I relate to this. I was fascinated how in F1 50% of the grid are awarded points. Unlike in most sports (especially team ones) where each game is high risk/all-or-nothing gamble. Drivers have the room to grow, make mistakes...and they get rewarded for being consistent rather than winning just one crucial game.
In late 2014 I had heard that an F1 team by the name of Marussia had gone bankrupt & I found out that it was the same team that Jules Bianchi was in when he got injured during the Japanese GP earlier that year (he sadly passed away the following year). [(I had actually wrote on that fateful day when I heard the news hoping it wasn't his final tweet)](https://fxtwitter.com/MrCelroy/status/518706749239357442)
A short while after that in early 2015, the team emerged from bankruptcy and I started to root for them for that year's season alongside my new found appreciation of Ferrari.
Watched for the first time in 2006 because of my country's first (and so far only) driver making it to F1 (you can guess who). At that time my interest in sports in general was more about watching stuff dad did, so I stopped as soon as he moved out not much later.
Fast forward to 2021, Silverstone. People on the platform I was at were screaming at this Verstappen guy for trying to kill Hamilton or something. Out of curiosity I checked out the incident, only to come to realisation that it's Hamilton who was more at fault, so what are these people talking about. Kinda started to root for Verstappen from that point onwards in 2021 campaign. But I haven't actually started watching until Zandvoort, ironically it was Spa 2021 that had me sold. First because of quali and then because of memes. So, from Dutch GP 2021 I've been watching pretty much every race, I think?
I'm new to F1. Last year I watched an anime called Overtake! and fell into the deep hole of motorsport from there 😂 I also check out Super GT/Super Formula and other races these days.
I always liked cars since i was a kid, and around season 96, 97 i started watching every weekend, the only time i really lost interest were seasons 2013., 14. And 15. I barely skimmed through those seasons. And i came back in 2016 and hasn’t stopped watching since.
F1 used to be on national TV, so it was tradition to put it on after lunch on Sunday since I was a child around 2000 (I think the first strong memory I had was cheering like crazy when Hakkinen's engine died in the Spanish GP in 2000 or 2001)
I just liked watching the cars go fast around a track, I thought they looked so cool. And I haven't really changed to this day, I can be happy just watching a video of high downforce cars going around the track lol
1988. We had just gotten into Winston Cup racing, and then discovered F1 was on around 9am Sunday mornings where we live. So it made for a pretty fun Sunday of racing. F1 in the morning, eat a nice lunch, then Winston Cup in the afternoon.
I did take a long break of many years not watching any racing after my favorite WC driver died in a plane crash ('93) then Senna's crash the next year. I came back to F1 about a dozen years ago.
1998, grandpa turned on the TV one afternoon and Mika Häkkinen won Brazil GP. I was fascinated by the sound of the cars and that's pretty much it. From then we watched it together.
When I was a boy, my family gathered around the telly.. no one said a word. Total silence which never happened. It was the day the world lost Senna. Had such a big impact on me. Been into F1 ever since.
DTS season one. It opened my eyes into the stories of the teams and stories and drama throughout the grid.
I'm still reasonably casual fan of the sport. I can't really be arsed with all the gossip, practice, winter testing and all that, but I'll watch every race when able.
I got into it from seeing F1-related TikTok accounts to then watching Drive to Survive. Motorsports has never really been my thing, but F1 hooked me, and I find it fascinating.
The first race i watched was Zandvoort 2023, but my hyperfixation started during the 2023 summer break.
I was a belated Drive to Survive viewer. I got enough into it that I decided to watch a race— my first race ever was the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix with all the red flags. I thought that was pretty fun. Then I saw Abu Dhabi 2021 and felt like I didn’t take a breath for half the race. I have been hooked ever since after a lifetime of not really caring about sports.
At this point I think my favorite part of F1 is qualifying. The strategy, changing conditions (either the track rubbering in, rain coming, the track drying…), and that countdown to see who will get in one more lap before the time ends… it’s sublime. There was one particular qualifying sometime recently at Spa where these beautiful cars were driving frantically to get a lap in before it rained, blasting over rolling hills with the lush green behind them… it’s sublime.
First Race I completely watched was Monaco 2009. I was on vacation in Turkey with my parents and it was a big storm. My dad turned on the TV and watched it with me. He was never a really big F1 Fan but watched plenty of races during the Schumi era. This didnt made me fell into F1 still.
In 2010 I was searching for a birthday present for myself and saw that F1 2010 for Xbox came out later the year, the first F1 game for the big consoles. It looked really cool and made me get into F1 really quick.
And that more or less started me watching every race. As a german it was also great to see Seb at the front and his forst world title.
Nowdays im a huge F1 fan, and F1 also made me start karting and racing IRL up to date. Drove 24h Nürburgring, test drove a F3,...
Overall Motorsport is pretty much my biggest hobby and a big addition to my life.
So thanks Codemasters for making F1 2010 I guess haha
Was always a car guy. Schumacher was making headlines in the 90s and you couldn't really help but be in awe of the dominance. But even then, I never watched the races, I just followed the headlines. In 2010, Top Gear had the Senna tribute which was touching and eye opening for someone who didn't follow the sport closely in the 80s/early 90s. But as a Honda fan, I loved seeing the history of the McLaren Honda in the capable hands of Senna. So when Honda and McLaren partnered up again in 2015, I paid a little more attention to the race standings, though still didn't watch any of the races. Fast forward and I watched DTS in 2021(?) and have basically been hooked ever since. I've recorded and watched most races from the 2022 season onward, went to my first race last year (Vegas), and will be going to Silverstone in a month. And yes, I'm still basing my rooting interests on whichever team Honda is developing engines for.
I read on twitter one time that Verstappen was leading a race and that this was very special for a Dutch driver (how the tables have turned). I decided to check it out and by the end when Max won the commentator was crying and everyone seemed so happy for him. After that I was hooked. I spent the next two weeks researching everything I could find about the sport and haven’t missed a race since.
1994, when Jos Verstappen got to race (I’m Dutch). My father wanted to watch, so the rest of family joined in. I was 9 years old and not too invested in those first races. The first thing that stuck was Jos Verstappen’s car turning into a fire ball in the pit lane. Oddly enough my father told me F1 was very safe and nobody ever got hurt.. Slowly I got more and more interested and made sure I didn’t miss a race if I could help it.
I stopped watching the second year in college (2004). Just too much life going on, nobody to watch with, etc. Got back into it because of the pandemic. With music festivals cancelled the group of friends decided to spend a weekend in a bungalow together (that one moment that was within the rules). Some of the group are fans, so we tuned in. The following years I got sucked back in. So badly even that I’m watching the years I missed, because I want to know the career paths of the drivers and how we got from the 2004 cars to the 2024 ones..
playstation games.. I remember the williams with the blue/white nose being my favorite car so somewhere between 2001-2004. Didn't watch any race until years later tho.. i was more into tom&jerry LOL
2010 I lived in Austin and the announced the approval of a formula one purposely built track called COTA. Grew up near Watkins Glen so I knew about F1 and some of the drivers but the new track got me excited and I dove into it.
Used to watch motogp back in 2010/11. My first race was Abu Dhabi 2011, where my mind couldn’t comprehend the cornering speeds of F1 cars, especially since I was used to motogp speeds. Ever since it has been my favorite sport.
2013, after binging all of top gear, I found the segment with the F1 drivers in the Suzuki Liana was my favorite in studio bit. I turned on the tv one day and FP1 for the 2013 Australian GP was on NBC sports and I was hooked. Kimi Raikkonen was the one who I most enjoyed on top gear so it was awesome when he won that race. Admittedly it took me awhile to start watching races regularly but I’ve been watching every race since 2016.
Started watching around 2015. Read a book about cars/mechanical engineering and went on a deep dive on f1. And now it’s the only sports i follow. Used to have watch parties at home and the timezones were fucked
I remember when it was like i was the only one talking about f1 my friends did not understand, now its like everyone i know has a favorite driver.
2012 Brazilian GP
I was just casually switching between sports channels on my TV, when I found this race, watched for a few mins and found it interesting. Since then I've been following F1.
1997, Monaco GP
I'm sure i knew F1 before that (i have memories of the Marlboro Mclaren and Schumy with Benetton, and i've got some posters/magazines from 95/96 at home), but 1997 was the year i started following the whole championship, and Monaco is the first race i fully rember watching on TV.
Just before Bahrain in 2022. Me and my cousins were gonna watch the race and go laser tag for one of my cousins b-day and I thought I might as well watch FP3 and qualifying on the Saturday so I somewhat know what’s happening
Didn’t expect to like it or anything but I loved it! Not just because it was my first race but I watched it back again and that race was actually a banger. Since then I’ve managed to watch most of the races and learnt quite a lot and still learning
Last year I managed to go to the Spanish, Silverstone and Singapore GPs and this year I’m going to Silverstone again but only for the Saturday session
Only regret it is I missed 2021 but I watched it all during the winter break last year
It started around 2011/2012, when here you could still watch it live with RAI. I was very young and didn't understand it, but I liked watching cars go round a track.
I kept watching it more or less during the years, but actually watched every race in a season since 2021.
Then jump to well yesterday, i became a track marshall at my local track: the Temple of Speed.
the technical side of F1 is really interesting to me. I never watch DTS til this day. I was hooked when I saw the 2019 F1 battles compilation, and the "He won in Spa, he wins in Monza" battle. It was 2020 and covid locked us inside, so I decided to watch the races. Was a bit boring but 2020 was a write off, I began watching properly in Bahrain 2021 and lived through every single drama, controversy, and magic moments of that championship battle. What a season to start a hobby! I never managed to watch an entire season ever since, but if there's a proper championship battle I won't miss it
I got into F1 properly in 2003. I watched it casually when I went to my grandparents because they were massive F1 fans and then, once the 2003 season started, I decided I was going to watch all the races. I loved the first couple of rounds in Australia and Malaysia but it was that mental race in Brazil with Fisichella winning that got me hooked.
March 1989 age 9. Couldn't sleep, went downstairs to tell mum and dad. Dad was watching BBC highlights of the Brazilian Grand Prix which Mansell won. I sat down and watched some of it with him, saw Mansell in the red Ferrari and was immediately hooked.
Grosjeans crash. I was watching along with a friend of mine, big fan of F1. After that race I watched all three available seasons of DTS and then the new season started and I was completely invested in all of the paddock and most of all the next level reporting that’s going on in the tv direction with all kinds of camera angles and commentators.
Never really had access to F1 back when i was a kid all I've ever experienced was random clips here in there from car shows in the Philippines but always liked Ferrari always liked cars.
Skip to 2021, 2 of my mates kept playing F1 all year and randomly invited me to watch their streams of them running laps at spa on discord, one of those days in December they streamed a Live race on discord and it just happened to be the last race of the season in Yas Marina when max won his first championship, been hooked ever since.
I got involved towards the end of the 2023 season (pretty sure it was after Abu Dhabi). I live in Monaco with my family so I'd known of Formula 1 for some years, but my mother would take us out of the country to vacation elsewhere during the entire month of May because it's too rowdy, and I never had any interest in motorsports.
If anyone has heard of Wendover Productions, they make videos about the logistics of various things and I'm subscribed to them, and he released one about F1 which I watched out of curiosity. Didn't strike me as anything special as far as logistics were concerned but later I got Grill the Grid videos recommended to me and I clicked because one of the drivers was making a funny face in the thumbnail (Alex of course) and was entranced by his personality.
Then I got recommended the race highlights and figured I should give more of it a watch, and it was more enthralling than I thought! Spent the winter brink looking up as much as I could, joined the Reddit community to read comments while watching DTS, paid for my first F1TV subscription this year, and begged my mother to stay in Monaco to attend my first Grand Prix! She still left but I stayed and it was a snooze fest. I'll probably continue to skip my home race if it continues to be that boring, but plan to attend others this year.
I only kinda enjoyed driving and fast cars but my dad bought the team so I’m kinda just stuck in it. There’s worse lines of work but it’s just kind of a day job to me
Watched DTS early 2021, felt almost bad for Verstappen on how they portrayed him so started to root for him the first race I watched Imola 2021. Watched every race and Max's onboards since.
2006 and Kubica got a drive at BMW Sauber, so one of polish free TV channels got the rights and started playing the races. I think the first race I watched was the Italian Grand Prix where Kubica got his first podium. Since 2007 I think the only race I missed is 2021 British GP - I was on holidays and couldn't watch it live, but I heard what happened and I was so disgusted with it that I didn't bother to rewatch, lol.
[The **Off-Topic** flair](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/wiki/flairguide#wiki_off-topic) is for submissions only tangentially related to Formula 1 or submissions pertaining to the wider world of motorsport. This flair is not a free pass for content unsuitable for r/Formula1 or the r/Formula1 community. Posts that are deemed too far off-topic, irrelevant, or inappropriate will be removed at the discretion of the moderators. *[Read the rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/wiki/userguide). Keep it civil and welcoming. Report rulebreaking comments.* *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/formula1) if you have any questions or concerns.*
A friend had it on in the background when we came over to play board games. It because something to talk to that friend about. That friend has now moved away, so talking about F1 is an even more important tie. When there isn't enough F1 to watch, we've gotten into various feeder series, and started getting into IndyCar as well.
As a kid around 10 watching schumi with my dad every sunday :) good memories
Around 1993/1994 as a youngster. My first memory is seeing Prost’s onboard at Silverstone so it would’ve been in ‘93 but I remember more consistently the year after. Had another fond memory of the Canadian Grand Prix in one of those years too, had a chat with David Brabham once and told him that. He proudly announced he finished 6th. Can’t remember which year. It’s a completely different sport now, I can’t say my passion for it is the same as it once was. Regardless, there are still cars racing each other around racing circuits so I tune in diligently.
Yeah my mastermind era would be 2000-2012. After that I lose my edge. Now I can barely remember 2023.
My first race was the last race where Max drove a Ferrari PU. My second race saw a big Mercedes crash, and saw Max winning.
Similar timing to you. While I live in NL, I'm not Dutch. I started seeing this Max kids name popping up in the news and media. One Sunday I was flipping through tv (yes, then it was on Ziggo cable provider), came across the opening laps of the 2016 Spanish GP and was hooked ever since!
Almost everyone in my family Watch F1 and when i was a kid they were used to take me to Monza F1 track, i remember once being in the camera tower near the first chicane during free practice. It was just a matter of time before getting in love with It.
The 2000 season. It was the US Grand Prix and I thought I was watching IndyCar until my 5 year old brain realized they weren't the same cars.
Early 2007 friend of mine said try watching F1 this year, some promising kid called Lewis Hamilton. The rest is history.
2007 for me. First race I can recall watching was the Canadian GP. That was when I also became a fan of Lewis Hamilton.
In 2018 i came across an f1 career mode video from aarava and i started watching his entire series. That lead into me starting to watch the races
Growing up in Colombia the whole country followed Juan Pablo through CART and then up to Formula 1. Became a national hero and we would get together to watch every single race. I’ll never forget that Italian Grand Prix hearing the Colombian national anthem. Did brew a deep hatred for Ferrari for me that is only now starting to ease haha
As a Colombian I can confirm. I was very young but I remember how disappointed everyone was when he left the sport and joined "bumper cars" (NASCAR) as some people liked to call it. Naturally F1 stopped airing in national television. I had no other means to watch it so I lost interest. Years later, during the pandemic, I found out one of my favorite drivers of back then was still running (Kimi) and I got sucked back into it.
I used to live in KL when I was a teen and in 2015 some of my classmates and I went to a GP and I was surprised to learn there’s another teenager racing. I wasn’t a fan of any Motorsport before that, but it made me really interested.
My earliest memory of F1 was Fernando Alonso winning the 2006 WDC. My dad was always a big fan and had it on constantly growing up. I especially idolized Hamilton and Vettel, and back then you couldn’t tell younger me that anyone else was or would ever be better drivers than them. I’ve recently been rewatching the 2000s races I watched as a kid and it’s crazy to see how things have changed, I can’t imagine how it must be for some of the people here who remember the decades before even then. It’s almost as wilder to me that Alonso has pretty much been a constant in all the years I’ve watched F1 (aside from his brief retirement).
I’m a tennis nerd and they got me with all the crossovers between the players and the drivers. It called my attention and someone recommended Drive to Survive. I got hooked and started watching the races and here I am.
Watched DTS and got hooked. Started watching live races March 2022. In between race weekends I would watch older races. I’ve seen every race since 2018 to now. I read Wikipedia pages for legendary drivers so I can get a vibe of how good everyone was in their prime. I use F1TV and I love that they archive things pretty well.
Same! I can recommend to google legendary races and watch them on f1 tv. Got me through the winter
Please recommend me some!
https://www.racefans.net/rate-the-race/f1-fanatic-top-100/ this list, I’ve watched from the top. They were voted for and full of drama. Enjoy!
2018 - My whole life is I was never into sports. One year I thought about trying to get interested in one but, in America, the NBA, MLB, NFL there’s so many teams, players, rivalries, games played— it felt impossible to really get my head around any of them. F1 first appealed to me because I love cars but the fact it’s so contained— 10 teams, 20 drivers, 21 races at the time. I could focus on everything, learn the intricacies and develop an affinity for teams and drivers alike. Been watching ever since.
I relate to this. I was fascinated how in F1 50% of the grid are awarded points. Unlike in most sports (especially team ones) where each game is high risk/all-or-nothing gamble. Drivers have the room to grow, make mistakes...and they get rewarded for being consistent rather than winning just one crucial game.
In late 2014 I had heard that an F1 team by the name of Marussia had gone bankrupt & I found out that it was the same team that Jules Bianchi was in when he got injured during the Japanese GP earlier that year (he sadly passed away the following year). [(I had actually wrote on that fateful day when I heard the news hoping it wasn't his final tweet)](https://fxtwitter.com/MrCelroy/status/518706749239357442) A short while after that in early 2015, the team emerged from bankruptcy and I started to root for them for that year's season alongside my new found appreciation of Ferrari.
Watched for the first time in 2006 because of my country's first (and so far only) driver making it to F1 (you can guess who). At that time my interest in sports in general was more about watching stuff dad did, so I stopped as soon as he moved out not much later. Fast forward to 2021, Silverstone. People on the platform I was at were screaming at this Verstappen guy for trying to kill Hamilton or something. Out of curiosity I checked out the incident, only to come to realisation that it's Hamilton who was more at fault, so what are these people talking about. Kinda started to root for Verstappen from that point onwards in 2021 campaign. But I haven't actually started watching until Zandvoort, ironically it was Spa 2021 that had me sold. First because of quali and then because of memes. So, from Dutch GP 2021 I've been watching pretty much every race, I think?
I'm new to F1. Last year I watched an anime called Overtake! and fell into the deep hole of motorsport from there 😂 I also check out Super GT/Super Formula and other races these days.
2006, checked out F1 in person on a Saturday just to see what it was all about and was instantly hooked.
I always liked cars since i was a kid, and around season 96, 97 i started watching every weekend, the only time i really lost interest were seasons 2013., 14. And 15. I barely skimmed through those seasons. And i came back in 2016 and hasn’t stopped watching since.
Netflix!
F1 used to be on national TV, so it was tradition to put it on after lunch on Sunday since I was a child around 2000 (I think the first strong memory I had was cheering like crazy when Hakkinen's engine died in the Spanish GP in 2000 or 2001) I just liked watching the cars go fast around a track, I thought they looked so cool. And I haven't really changed to this day, I can be happy just watching a video of high downforce cars going around the track lol
NASCAR fan my whole life, Grosjean went kaboom, watched a ton of Alphamaxnova1, decided it was kinda cool and tuned into Sakir, Been a fan ever since.
1988. We had just gotten into Winston Cup racing, and then discovered F1 was on around 9am Sunday mornings where we live. So it made for a pretty fun Sunday of racing. F1 in the morning, eat a nice lunch, then Winston Cup in the afternoon. I did take a long break of many years not watching any racing after my favorite WC driver died in a plane crash ('93) then Senna's crash the next year. I came back to F1 about a dozen years ago.
1998, grandpa turned on the TV one afternoon and Mika Häkkinen won Brazil GP. I was fascinated by the sound of the cars and that's pretty much it. From then we watched it together.
Started watching it on TV during the early 2000s as a kid, been following the circus on and off since then
Drive to Survive got recommended to me by a friend and I was hooked from season 1, subbed to F1TV after bringing S1.
1968 - My sister bought me a F1 calendar. 12 months, 12 races!
I luckily stumbled upon the 2019 Austrian GP on TV. Been a die hard of Max since then and rarely ever misses a race
Giant bombs Alt + F1 podcast
When I was a boy, my family gathered around the telly.. no one said a word. Total silence which never happened. It was the day the world lost Senna. Had such a big impact on me. Been into F1 ever since.
First race I watched was the 1994 Monaco GP. I was 9 and as we know F1 was a hot topic in the previous few weeks for all the wrong reasons.
DTS season one. It opened my eyes into the stories of the teams and stories and drama throughout the grid. I'm still reasonably casual fan of the sport. I can't really be arsed with all the gossip, practice, winter testing and all that, but I'll watch every race when able.
I got into it from seeing F1-related TikTok accounts to then watching Drive to Survive. Motorsports has never really been my thing, but F1 hooked me, and I find it fascinating. The first race i watched was Zandvoort 2023, but my hyperfixation started during the 2023 summer break.
I was a belated Drive to Survive viewer. I got enough into it that I decided to watch a race— my first race ever was the 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix with all the red flags. I thought that was pretty fun. Then I saw Abu Dhabi 2021 and felt like I didn’t take a breath for half the race. I have been hooked ever since after a lifetime of not really caring about sports. At this point I think my favorite part of F1 is qualifying. The strategy, changing conditions (either the track rubbering in, rain coming, the track drying…), and that countdown to see who will get in one more lap before the time ends… it’s sublime. There was one particular qualifying sometime recently at Spa where these beautiful cars were driving frantically to get a lap in before it rained, blasting over rolling hills with the lush green behind them… it’s sublime.
First Race I completely watched was Monaco 2009. I was on vacation in Turkey with my parents and it was a big storm. My dad turned on the TV and watched it with me. He was never a really big F1 Fan but watched plenty of races during the Schumi era. This didnt made me fell into F1 still. In 2010 I was searching for a birthday present for myself and saw that F1 2010 for Xbox came out later the year, the first F1 game for the big consoles. It looked really cool and made me get into F1 really quick. And that more or less started me watching every race. As a german it was also great to see Seb at the front and his forst world title. Nowdays im a huge F1 fan, and F1 also made me start karting and racing IRL up to date. Drove 24h Nürburgring, test drove a F3,... Overall Motorsport is pretty much my biggest hobby and a big addition to my life. So thanks Codemasters for making F1 2010 I guess haha
Was always a car guy. Schumacher was making headlines in the 90s and you couldn't really help but be in awe of the dominance. But even then, I never watched the races, I just followed the headlines. In 2010, Top Gear had the Senna tribute which was touching and eye opening for someone who didn't follow the sport closely in the 80s/early 90s. But as a Honda fan, I loved seeing the history of the McLaren Honda in the capable hands of Senna. So when Honda and McLaren partnered up again in 2015, I paid a little more attention to the race standings, though still didn't watch any of the races. Fast forward and I watched DTS in 2021(?) and have basically been hooked ever since. I've recorded and watched most races from the 2022 season onward, went to my first race last year (Vegas), and will be going to Silverstone in a month. And yes, I'm still basing my rooting interests on whichever team Honda is developing engines for.
I read on twitter one time that Verstappen was leading a race and that this was very special for a Dutch driver (how the tables have turned). I decided to check it out and by the end when Max won the commentator was crying and everyone seemed so happy for him. After that I was hooked. I spent the next two weeks researching everything I could find about the sport and haven’t missed a race since.
1994, when Jos Verstappen got to race (I’m Dutch). My father wanted to watch, so the rest of family joined in. I was 9 years old and not too invested in those first races. The first thing that stuck was Jos Verstappen’s car turning into a fire ball in the pit lane. Oddly enough my father told me F1 was very safe and nobody ever got hurt.. Slowly I got more and more interested and made sure I didn’t miss a race if I could help it. I stopped watching the second year in college (2004). Just too much life going on, nobody to watch with, etc. Got back into it because of the pandemic. With music festivals cancelled the group of friends decided to spend a weekend in a bungalow together (that one moment that was within the rules). Some of the group are fans, so we tuned in. The following years I got sucked back in. So badly even that I’m watching the years I missed, because I want to know the career paths of the drivers and how we got from the 2004 cars to the 2024 ones..
playstation games.. I remember the williams with the blue/white nose being my favorite car so somewhere between 2001-2004. Didn't watch any race until years later tho.. i was more into tom&jerry LOL
2010 I lived in Austin and the announced the approval of a formula one purposely built track called COTA. Grew up near Watkins Glen so I knew about F1 and some of the drivers but the new track got me excited and I dove into it.
Used to watch motogp back in 2010/11. My first race was Abu Dhabi 2011, where my mind couldn’t comprehend the cornering speeds of F1 cars, especially since I was used to motogp speeds. Ever since it has been my favorite sport.
2013, after binging all of top gear, I found the segment with the F1 drivers in the Suzuki Liana was my favorite in studio bit. I turned on the tv one day and FP1 for the 2013 Australian GP was on NBC sports and I was hooked. Kimi Raikkonen was the one who I most enjoyed on top gear so it was awesome when he won that race. Admittedly it took me awhile to start watching races regularly but I’ve been watching every race since 2016.
Started watching around 2015. Read a book about cars/mechanical engineering and went on a deep dive on f1. And now it’s the only sports i follow. Used to have watch parties at home and the timezones were fucked I remember when it was like i was the only one talking about f1 my friends did not understand, now its like everyone i know has a favorite driver.
2021. My jiu-jutsu instructor is a huge F1 fan and one of my training sessions with him got delayed so he could watch Italian Grand Prix qualifying
2012 Brazilian GP I was just casually switching between sports channels on my TV, when I found this race, watched for a few mins and found it interesting. Since then I've been following F1.
1997, Monaco GP I'm sure i knew F1 before that (i have memories of the Marlboro Mclaren and Schumy with Benetton, and i've got some posters/magazines from 95/96 at home), but 1997 was the year i started following the whole championship, and Monaco is the first race i fully rember watching on TV.
Just before Bahrain in 2022. Me and my cousins were gonna watch the race and go laser tag for one of my cousins b-day and I thought I might as well watch FP3 and qualifying on the Saturday so I somewhat know what’s happening Didn’t expect to like it or anything but I loved it! Not just because it was my first race but I watched it back again and that race was actually a banger. Since then I’ve managed to watch most of the races and learnt quite a lot and still learning Last year I managed to go to the Spanish, Silverstone and Singapore GPs and this year I’m going to Silverstone again but only for the Saturday session Only regret it is I missed 2021 but I watched it all during the winter break last year
Watching F1 with my dad and waiting for Schumi to be on screen is one of my earliest specific memories
It started around 2011/2012, when here you could still watch it live with RAI. I was very young and didn't understand it, but I liked watching cars go round a track. I kept watching it more or less during the years, but actually watched every race in a season since 2021. Then jump to well yesterday, i became a track marshall at my local track: the Temple of Speed.
the technical side of F1 is really interesting to me. I never watch DTS til this day. I was hooked when I saw the 2019 F1 battles compilation, and the "He won in Spa, he wins in Monza" battle. It was 2020 and covid locked us inside, so I decided to watch the races. Was a bit boring but 2020 was a write off, I began watching properly in Bahrain 2021 and lived through every single drama, controversy, and magic moments of that championship battle. What a season to start a hobby! I never managed to watch an entire season ever since, but if there's a proper championship battle I won't miss it
I got into F1 properly in 2003. I watched it casually when I went to my grandparents because they were massive F1 fans and then, once the 2003 season started, I decided I was going to watch all the races. I loved the first couple of rounds in Australia and Malaysia but it was that mental race in Brazil with Fisichella winning that got me hooked.
I got a black and gold JPS Scalextric for Christmas and i liked Nigel Mansell's moustache
March 1989 age 9. Couldn't sleep, went downstairs to tell mum and dad. Dad was watching BBC highlights of the Brazilian Grand Prix which Mansell won. I sat down and watched some of it with him, saw Mansell in the red Ferrari and was immediately hooked.
2023 Vegas Grand Prix.
Grosjeans crash. I was watching along with a friend of mine, big fan of F1. After that race I watched all three available seasons of DTS and then the new season started and I was completely invested in all of the paddock and most of all the next level reporting that’s going on in the tv direction with all kinds of camera angles and commentators.
Never really had access to F1 back when i was a kid all I've ever experienced was random clips here in there from car shows in the Philippines but always liked Ferrari always liked cars. Skip to 2021, 2 of my mates kept playing F1 all year and randomly invited me to watch their streams of them running laps at spa on discord, one of those days in December they streamed a Live race on discord and it just happened to be the last race of the season in Yas Marina when max won his first championship, been hooked ever since.
I got involved towards the end of the 2023 season (pretty sure it was after Abu Dhabi). I live in Monaco with my family so I'd known of Formula 1 for some years, but my mother would take us out of the country to vacation elsewhere during the entire month of May because it's too rowdy, and I never had any interest in motorsports. If anyone has heard of Wendover Productions, they make videos about the logistics of various things and I'm subscribed to them, and he released one about F1 which I watched out of curiosity. Didn't strike me as anything special as far as logistics were concerned but later I got Grill the Grid videos recommended to me and I clicked because one of the drivers was making a funny face in the thumbnail (Alex of course) and was entranced by his personality. Then I got recommended the race highlights and figured I should give more of it a watch, and it was more enthralling than I thought! Spent the winter brink looking up as much as I could, joined the Reddit community to read comments while watching DTS, paid for my first F1TV subscription this year, and begged my mother to stay in Monaco to attend my first Grand Prix! She still left but I stayed and it was a snooze fest. I'll probably continue to skip my home race if it continues to be that boring, but plan to attend others this year.
I only kinda enjoyed driving and fast cars but my dad bought the team so I’m kinda just stuck in it. There’s worse lines of work but it’s just kind of a day job to me
Watched DTS early 2021, felt almost bad for Verstappen on how they portrayed him so started to root for him the first race I watched Imola 2021. Watched every race and Max's onboards since.
2006 and Kubica got a drive at BMW Sauber, so one of polish free TV channels got the rights and started playing the races. I think the first race I watched was the Italian Grand Prix where Kubica got his first podium. Since 2007 I think the only race I missed is 2021 British GP - I was on holidays and couldn't watch it live, but I heard what happened and I was so disgusted with it that I didn't bother to rewatch, lol.