What vintage races do you recommend?

[Andres125sx]

Longest winter ever with no racing at all, not just F1 but nothing in motorsport or any other sport, and many of us are confinned in our homes with lots of free time, so I think it´s a good oportunity to watch some vintage races

But contrary to what many people think (old times were always better), if you take a random race from past decades you´ll probably watch a boring race, specially since you´re not following the whole season and you´re missing the technical war, the battle for the tittle, between teams, etc. so I think it would be a good idea if people with good memories (not my case, sorry ) share with us what are those races wich are worth watching again.

If you´re able to talk a bit about the season, the interesting battles between teams, drivers, teammates or whatever, that would be an awesome bonus to understand the atmosphere in the race and enjoy it better


Probably a bit too much to ask from someone who can´t even remind best races I´ve enjoied, but I´ve read people in this forum who can remind details I can´t from last race, so I think it´s worth asking

[coaster]

Suzuka 1989.

[Just_a_fan]

The problem is finding some of the races in anything other than highlights form on youtube. I guess F1 TV might have them all but not everyone can get F1 TV.

Adelaide 1986. Three drivers in contention for the title, two of whom were team mates. Came down to luck, ultimately, but it was a proper season-ender.

Monaco 1992. The classic fast car chasing slow car around Monaco. Totally pointless, of course, because the slow car in front only has to point in the right direction to win, but back in the day it was edge of the seat stuff in the closing laps because the Williams was a heck of a machine and one could almost believe it capable of overtaking even at Monaco.

Monaco 1996. Panis's only win in F1 and it was at Monaco. Only three (?) cars finished the race.

Spain 1996. Schumacher's first season with Ferrari and his first win of many with the Scuderia. Probably he finest drive and the one that cemented him as the Regenmeister (rain master) for his generation. He was a second behind the pole of Hill's Williams but won the race by something like 45 seconds. Only 6 cars finished and 3 of those were lapped at least once. A performance not matched until Hamilton's 2008 Silverstone performance.

A real classic drive would be Fangio's 1957 comeback at the Nurburgring. His fastest lap during the chase for the win was several seconds faster than his pole lap. Here's a video with the great Murray Walker's voice over.

[NathanOlder]

I'm a real big fan of Nurburgring 1998, was a big title swing after 3 poor results for Hakkinen. Was mega pressure on Mika for his 1st title, had to perform in Germany and had the race of his life in my opinion. Was a great race, well worth a watch in full.

[1158]

The 1999 European GP at the 'Ring was an exciting one.

[Andres125sx]

Great, I´ve found some of those, so I´ll have some fun in next days/weeks of confinement, thanks!


If someone want the links, pm me, I dont think it´s a good idea to post any link publicly even if they´re all more than 20 years old

[izzy]

i'm just watching Jerez 1997, it's quite good, and a bit topical with what some of us have been discussing, Schumi... The cars look so much lighter! Really agile, and refuelling and a tyre war. Not a huge amount of close racing tho

[Just_a_fan]

The 86 Adelaide race is on youtube (official Formula 1 channel).

[CMSMJ1]

Japan 2005 was excellent

Belgium 2000 was alright...

Imola 2006

Hungary 2003

France 1990 (was that the March one? Might be 1989)

Suzuka 1988

Monaco 2004

[Just_a_fan]

Spain 1996 is on youtube as the whole race.



It's often stated that this showed Schumacher's mastery of the rain. Some say that Ferrari set up Schumacher on a full wet set up where the others such as Williams went for a normal dry set up assuming the conditions would improve. I don't know whether that's true.

[NathanOlder]

France 1990 (was that the March one? Might be 1989)

Neither.

Leyton House on the other hand, had a good run in France in 1990

[Just_a_fan]

Just watched Germany 1989 on youtube. Don't bother watching it yourself - it was dull. The only excitement was Berger's puncture and few other failures. Amateur-hour pitstop performances by the McLaren crew on both cars. The possibility of a climatic last 2 laps ended by a mechanical issue for Prost as Senna was closing.

I'd forgotten how boring some of the races used to be back then. The engines sounded good, however, so I'll take that as a small positive.

[Andres125sx]

The 86 Adelaide race is on youtube (official Formula 1 channel).

Spoiler warning: If you´re going to watch this race, stop reading here




Nice, better quality than the one I found. Dramatic race for Rosberg and Mansell, I feel sad for Rosberg´s last F1 race specially, Mansell loss was bigger, but we know he got some success later. But Rosberg race was being perfect and was anihilating their competition in his very last race, he really deserved the victory

Also, it put some perspective about perfomance between top teams and the rest wich we complain about nowadays. On lap 30/83 leader lapped 6th, and (also due to the retirements) at the end of the race even 3rd in the podium was lapped, and 6th was lapped twice But even without retirements, at second half of the race only the four cars from McLaren and Williams were on same lap.

Probably drivers played a role too, Prost and Rosberg for McLaren, and Mansell and Piquet for Williams are all F1 legends. But someone called Ayrton was also lapped before his Lotus broke down so...


I did enjoy it, thanks for the recommendation

[Just_a_fan]

1990 Portugal here:

A good race between two McLarens and two Ferraris. Some atrocious back marker driving that nicely reminded me of why we have the blue flag rules today. People moan about the quality of the drivers at the rear of the field today, but back in the day they were amateurs by comparison.

[Pingguest]

Spain 1996 is on youtube as the whole race.

https://youtu.be/csI2dzm-lqY

It's often stated that this showed Schumacher's mastery of the rain. Some say that Ferrari set up Schumacher on a full wet set up where the others such as Williams went for a normal dry set up assuming the conditions would improve. I don't know whether that's true.

Even if Schumacher had a 'full wet-weather' set-up and Williams a dry-weather set-up, it doesn't explain Schumacher being four to five seconds per lap quicker than the opposition.