The height of F1 fandom in the 1980s was reserved for bedroom walls, magazine cuttings and those coveted Sunday afternoons spent watching races on TV. Now you can watch your favourite teams race right through to the chequered flag in person, surrounded by thousands of fans in the grandstands.
Sounds pretty different, right? In little over 40 years, F1 has revolutionised how fans experience the sport, from watching races on TV to planning a trip to Abu Dhabi with tickets from Fanatix. Well let’s just say not much has changed there. Scroll back down memory lane with us and take a look back at F1’s golden age of fandom to see how Formula 1 racing became the worldwide obsession it is today.
The Bedroom Wall Era: Posters, Magazines and Racing Heroes
Posters of Senna, Mansell and Prost adorned your bedroom walls, but what else filled your race fanatic space back in the late 1980s? Well miniature Ferraris and McLarens on your shelf of course, along with stacks of Autosport and Motor Sport magazines.
Social media didn’t exist so picking through copies of magazines was about as close as you’d get to your racing heroes. Hours would be spent flicking through photos, cutting out your favorites, and disputing your mates on who’d take place highest on your wall.
Race programmes were sacred. So too were team stickers, especially if they were McLaren’s bold red logo.
Sunday Afternoons, Engine Roars and VHS Tapes
Race Sundays were a tradition. Gather round the TV didn’t quite have the same ring to it until the remote was grasped, the volume turned up and you were greeted with the sound of roaring V10 and V12 engines. And we can’t forget Murray Walker. The races with little to no action suddenly became heart pumping thrillers for British fans when Murray got stuck in.
The best races deserved a place in the VHS collection. Fans recorded the entire Grands Prix and labelled their tapes with dates and circuits.
Who wouldn’t want to relive Nigel Mansell desperately trying to catch Ayrton Senna at Monaco in 1992? Or watch Senna absolutely nail it at Donington Park in the rain back in ’93?
The Ferrari Red Wave and the Rise of Global Fandom
By the late 1990s, Formula 1 fandom was getting bigger and a whole lot redder. Yes, there was 1 colour that defined F1 fandom in the late 1990s, it was Ferrari red. Michael Schumacher was at the center of it all. He joined the Italian team in 1996, and by 2000, he’d ended Ferrari’s 21-year wait for a drivers’ championship.
Want to see what that meant to the tifosi? Just look at Monza. Fans climbed fences after the race to celebrate beneath the podium. You could almost mistake the atmosphere for a football derby.
Meanwhile, early F1 forums started to bring t fans from different countries together to debate Schumacher’s tactics and Ferrari’s controversial team orders.
Poster Boys Have Become Instagram Boys
Once upon a time, F1 drivers were larger-than-life figures fans mostly knew from TV interviews. Now Facebook and Instagram allow you to peek inside Lewis Hamilton’s race weekend wardrobe or chuckle at Daniel Ricciardo’s driver paddock banter.
Then Drive to Survive arrived on Netflix in 2019. The rivalries, back stabbing and behind the scenes drama was what hooked new viewers first. Who knew what DRS even stood for? Learning could come later.
Floodlit Grandstands and a Whole New Kind of Race Weekend
Someone sure knew how to make an entrance when they decided to put Formula 1 racing under the stars. Fans don’t leave as soon as the chequered flag is waved. Three times a year there’s concerts to catch, oceans of fans letting their hair down and a whole city joining in on the GP party.
The world has become Formula 1’s oyster and these are just some of the venues it has added to its calendar over the years:
- Singapore: Who needs daylight for a Grand Prix? Singapore’s night race has been flooding its street circuit with thousands of lights since 2008.
- Abu Dhabi: Come nightfall, Yas Marina’s floodlights kick in to keep the race going when the sun goes down. Since 2009 fans have tuned in to watch the circuit light up race by race.
- Las Vegas: Sin City really is jumping these days, especially when Formula 1 returns in 2023 for the Las Vegas Grand Prix. Part of the famous Strip will turn into a racetrack.
For fans who once admired these machines on bedroom posters, seeing them roar past in person is something special.
Different Decades, Same Racing Obsession
Posters on walls have been swapped out for memes on a phone wall. And yes, VHS tapes of classic F1 moments are now probably collecting dust in your parent’s attic. But I bet if you ask your parents (or yourself) what your favorite race was you can recall it in detail.
Formula 1 has transformed dramatically over the last 4 decades, but some things will never change. Like that feeling of anxious anticipation before race day? It’s as familiar now as it was in 1985.