I wasn't around in the 60s unfortunately, but I remember the year 1998 quite clearly when the Narrow track era began in Formula One: Width of car reduced from 2 metres to 1.8 metres with teams now running rubber with grooves in (4 on the rear and 3 on the front) to reduce the speed of the cars, asymmetric braking banned, X-wings banned, single fuel bladder mandatory, refueling connector must be covered, cockpit dimensions increased, side impact test now to use 100% more energy, tyre barrier effectiveness increased, pit lane must now have 100 m of straight running before first pit garage, increased use of pit lane lights alongside flags.
Ever since the track was narrowed, cars just didn't look quite right any longer to me. Drivers were moaning up and down the pitline about how ridiculous these regulations are and how this had nothing to do with F1 any longer. See the Villeneuve video at the bottom of this post after the three shots of Schumacher for comparison.
Villeneuve on grooved tyres.
[youtube]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XT0Sp4SNBlY[/youtube]
