Those were the days

[Mike Sterckx]

I remember when i was a wee boy of 8, some 26 years ago, we visited our grandparents every sunday. My nephew lived there and he was 4 years older then me and a big fan of F1. So every sunday(or every other sunday) we sat and watched live F1 on the BBC. I didn't speak a word English but i couldn't care less. All i wanted to see was fast cars and lots of crashes! And there were plenty of it! Engines catching fire, Turbo's exploding, glowing embers spewed meters in the air from the titanium bottomplate scratching the tarmac. The pitlane packed with hundreds of people all jumping aside when a car comes in, not a single person in the pitlane carying a helmet or any safetygear. Oh i miss those days with legends as Prost, Senna, Nelson Piquet, Stephen Johannson, ... Its so boring nowdays. The excitement factor today is nowhere near what is was in the mid 80ties. Someone posted a site on this forum where you can download all grand prix's since 1986. I watched Spa in 86 and 87 so far and its awesome!
link: http://www.tremek.com/forum/f1-videos/

 

[My993C2]

Oh cool they added some years. A week ago the earliest you could get was the 1989 season.

 

[Steve Stoop]

awesome! Must have been around '90 when I started watching f1 as a kid. Huge Senna fan at the time. So crushed when he died I kinda stopped following F1 as closely (I also hated schumi lol), only to pick it back up full swing in '07. I effectively froze out the schumi succes years hehe.

thx for sharing this site, will sure bring back memories!

 

[My993C2]

I effectively froze out the schumi succes years hehe.

I did the same thing, but for different reasons. I did however first become a fan of F1 during the Gilles Villeneuve Ferrari days. In the old days I liked Ferrari. But that all changed when Schumacher joined them. haha ... now I have adopted an anybody but Ferrari attitude.

Senna and Prost have to be some of the best drivers ever. But there are a lot of "what if" games that could be played. Schumacher was good, there is no denying this. But he also had a lot of help along the way.

 

[My993C2]

Hey Spuddy I saw your comment on the www.tremek.com site asking about the audio in some of the races. I have already downloaded and watched all the races from 1993 through the middle of 1999 and the vast majority of the TV footage has English audio. There was a couple of French GP and Canadian GP races in French and LOL one Australian race is in Italian. I can't tell you yet about the 1999 to 2010 races as while I have downloaded them all, I have yet to watch them. But I am assuming they are all in English.

Now I just finished downloading all of the races from 1986 (I am interested in this season as I actually know one of the drivers who raced that year ... Allen Berg) but the 1986 season on this web site is a little bizarre with the audio from many of the races.

Round 01 - Brazil (does not seem to have any audio for the entire race)
Round 02 - Spain (is in English)
Round 03 - San Marino (no audio)
Round 04 - Monaco (is in English)
Round 05 - Belgium (is in French)
Round 06 - Canada (is in French)
Round 07 - USA (is in Japanese ... ROFLMAO)
Round 08 - France (is in French)
Round 09 - British (is in English)
Round 10 - Germany (no audio)
Round 11 - Hungary (is in English)
Round 12 - Austria (is in English)
Round 13 - Italy (is in English)
Round 14 - Portugal (is in English)
Round 15 - Mexico (no audio)
Round 16 - Australia (is in English)

Now I can't tell you about the 1987 to 1992 seasons yet as while I do plan on downloading them in the not too distant future, I don't have much free disk space thanks to the 1999 through to 2010 seasons occupying most of it and only after I watch these races and delete the files will I have some free space. Hopefully 1987 through to 1992 won't be as buggered as the '86 season, but beggars can't be choosy. Oh and it looks like the 1986 season is the earliest that we can download from but I believe "Optimus" the user uploading all these races does have plans to upload as early as the 1977 season.

 

[Mike Sterckx]

Hey My993c2 thanks for that information. This will come in handy. Too bad round 1 has no audio, thats when they usually explain the drivers and teams, new rules and stuff...

 

[Steve Stoop]

I really liked ferrari too when Berger and Alesi were teamed up there, then like you i've grown to dislike ferrari when schumi came in (while granted he did take them back to the top and has been a great driver, I never liked that guy)

Must find Alesi's only win now thinking of it!

 

[My993C2]

Hey My993c2 thanks for that information. This will come in handy. Too bad round 1 has no audio, thats when they usually explain the drivers and teams, new rules and stuff...

There is no sound on my computer, but maybe the sound problem for those races are isolated to a deficiency with my system? I say this because every once in a while you actually hear something. But not enough. Oh and I finished downloading the 1987 season. All races have audio and all are in English except the Italian GP is in Japanese, the Portuguese GP is in French and the Mexican GP is in German.

Round #2 in 1986, the Spanish GP is a must watch (I watched it last night). It is a good race with a fantastic finish. You just don't see what happened in the closing laps of the '86 Spanish GP in today's GP world. Don't get me wrong, I do like the modern era. But as you said in your first post of this thread, there was something different back then. All those people in the pits wearing shorts and all, was a little on the crazy side. I had to laugh when one photographer was pushed out of the way by someone else because he was busy standing in front of a car during a pit stop taking pictures when the driver wanted to exit his pit stall. Most of these races I delete after I watch them (my hard disk isn't big enough to keep them all), but the '86 Spanish GP, like the '93 European GP (Donington) and a few others are keepers.

 

[My993C2]

Must find Alesi's only win now thinking of it!

The 1995 Canadian GP is the race you are referring to. Alesi had some bad luck over the years with reliability and accidents. He definitely should have won more races and ironically the race he did win, he only won because others had bad luck in their race. Michael Schumacher in a Benetton should have won that '95 Canadian GP had he not had some temporary mechanical issues part way through the race and if memory serves me correct Damon Hill was also looking strong in that race before mechanical problems took the win away from him. Many of the Montreal fans were dumb though as the moment Alesi crossed the finish line, many of them took to the track ... while the other cars were still trying to finish their race. I believe F1 implemented new "fan" rules after the '95 Canadian GP.

 

[Steve Stoop]

watched the 95 Canada Alesi win. It was in French but no worries as I speak French too .Sure was a blast from the past but not a very exciting race tbh.

Hill was struggling from the start in fact, Alesi passed him cleanly early on in the hairpin, later Hill retired due to a gearbox problem leaving him stuck in 6th.
Schumi dominated the GP untill he indeed had troubles forcing him to make an unsheduled pitstop, some problem with the electronics which dropped him to 7th.

Was fun seeing Brundle in the Ligier running 5th (big fan of his commentating), but Berger took him out in a reckless overtake attempt on the first corner. Also a young Hakkinen messes up in the hairpin in the 1st lap. Man the '95 Mclaren was ugly as hell! Ugliest f1 car ever!

A young Barichello clinched 2nd in the Jordan. It was crazy the fans crossing the track while some were still racing, a rule change was definately in order lol

Good stuff, I can see myself spending many hours rewatching these races!

 

[James Chant]

Hi guys, moved this to the Motorsport forum as it's not directly relevant to the game.

 

[Mike Sterckx]

I watched the '88 spa gp last night. A big diference compaired to '87 and '86. Engines are much more reliable so its a little less spectacular it terms of things blowing up. McLarens dominated all season because of their turbo boost which also added to less spectacle. The naration was mostly done by Murrey, but sometimes it changed to french for a couple of minutes, then back to english. The last 15 minutes or so the naration was in american english.