Your first-ever Formula One grand prix to watch on Television was?

[nokivasara]

I'm not sure when I saw my first full race but I was in to F1 pretty early on and I was born in 1979. I do remember Group B rally cars (Rally first, F1 second for me) but don't have any vivid memories of F1 cars before the mind blowing Williams FW14.
Sadly enough my strongest early memory of a full F1-race weekend was the fatal accident of Roland Ratzenberger, and of course Senna's crash the following day. I would say that from the 1994 season onward I haven't missed many races. There was a period of very dull races in the 00's when I only watched the highlights or just the results after the races.

[ojlopez]

I don't recall which race it was but it was during the 1989 season. I have the Senna - Prost collision very clear in my mind. It was open television in my country, with local commentators. I was 13 years old and been watching ever since.

[Big Tea]

Before BBC took it seriously it was on Eurosport for a while, commentary John Watson) and I recall getting a dish to be able to watch on German and Spanish TV. The 'done thing' then was to buy a decoder box and get a a rom blown to allow the channels you want.
I was lucky then as I had a large garden because the dish was 1.2 mtr. and had to be at a steep angle ( I think 63deg )

[Just_a_fan]

I don't recall which race it was but it was during the 1989 season. I have the Senna - Prost collision very clear in my mind. It was open television in my country, with local commentators. I was 13 years old and been watching ever since.

Sounds like Suzuka where Prost turned in on Senna going in to the chicane causing a collision. Prost was out of the race, Senna rejoined incorrectly and was later disqualified resulting in Prost winning the title. Balestre, who was the French president of FISA (which ran motorsport for the FIA), admitted years later that he had intervened to disqualify Senna and help Prost (just as Senna had accused him of at the time). Such was the politics of the day back then.

[kalinka]

Huh...can't even remember which race it was. I remember it was just..interesting..I remember Mansell in a Lotus, but wasn't a fan of him ...yet..I think that car had so iconic look, that it burned into my mind. It must have been around 1983/1984. I was 11.

[CMSMJ1]

I remember buying an Essex Lotus from a toy shop in Manchester. I had posters of John Watson in the McLaren and one of the renaults - 1983? I would have been a young kid then.

I remember the 3 wheeled Johanssen (Austria?) footage and of course I can remember the 1986 Australian race.

Lived in Germany 89-92 and had Eurosport so was all in then. I loved racing then. I watched every race possible and only ever missed an occasional Moncao GP - as it fell on my sister's birthday some years. I watched it all live. All qually. I even bought tapes of older races from 'Emlyn - the F1 Tapemaster' (Am sure some of you know of this chap - if you;re on here Emlyn, howdo )

Reading that - I had it bad, I was in deep. I remember when F1.com was bought by FOM, when Pitpass wasn't a pisstake and when grandprix.com was also a very different place. I recall this place being amazingly technical and with some impressive knowledge and development threads that were pure gold. It has polarised on here somewhat and become a touch too focussed on the drivers and being a team (us and we..etc) rather than the pure technical inputs and exciting thoughts. The Dead Zone...the comedy of the ellipses..

I no longer watch the racing live - I don't have to and it no longer has the hold on me that it did. I've not been to see these Hybrids (I've been going to watch MotoGP or local racing instead)

My son is 7 - his first race was the 2013 Malaysan GP He is in deep to the love of racing - of all forms, sensible or not. maybe we'll find a new impetus and drive to support F1.

[proteus]

For me, it started somewhere in 1998 - i especially remember the Spa carnage. I was a huge fan of Mika Hakkinnen and Mclaren and i still am today. Absolutely hated Ferrari and Schumacher, they were the arch enemy. Have watched majority of quali and races, but for me it went gradually downhill somewhere after 2002 season. I am still watching today, but more out of a habit than pure passion. I am not a fan of these ultra modern cars and engine penalties and tarmac runoffs.

[roy928tt]

I guess I had a passing interest in F1 till it arrived in my hometown, Adelaide, I worked at the first two, '85 & 86'.

We worked essentially as garbos, removing bags of rubbish from the bins. The first year our area included various hospitality suites. So soon arrangements were made, for a few beers extra attention could be paid to making sure bins were regularly emptied.

'86 was even better, our area included the F1 pits and garages. We were rubbing shoulders with F1 royalty and removing their rubbish, there was quite a lot of used parts souvenired, brake pads, spark plugs, master cylinders. I picked up the broken rear housing of a gearbox (it had been backed into a wall at speed).

The other memory is of Nigel Mansell walking back into the pits, we watched him walk his way across to the rear of the Williams garage, nobody approached him, till he was greeted by someone at Williams.

Honestly, as workers there we had less time to follow the race, information seemed to kind of filter it's way to us. The noise and spectacle was fabulous and we were spoilt in '86 with being right there. I have a photo of Vern Schuppan and Evan Green interviewing Nelson Piquet...a rare moment when I caught on film a fraction of what was seen....

Lovely memories, so long ago....

[Moving Chicane]

My first clear memory of F1 is from that Imola weekend in 1994. I was 7 and I can clearly remember my father getting all serious and quiet after the crash, rescue operation, airlift, etc. I can still remember our old living room furniture, my seating position,...

I don't really remember much after that until J. Villeneuve won in 1997. Because of that Jerez incident I allways disliked M. Schumacher (but, and I cannot stress this enough, I still have huge ammount of respect for his achievments). Becuse Williams were bad in 1998, I switched to McLaren and stayed ever since...

I guess it's not a surprise I'm a F1 fan since my dad has a huge poster of a driver with a red nr.5 in a Williams in his garage for more that 30 years.

[ojlopez]

I don't recall which race it was but it was during the 1989 season. I have the Senna - Prost collision very clear in my mind. It was open television in my country, with local commentators. I was 13 years old and been watching ever since.

Sounds like Suzuka where Prost turned in on Senna going in to the chicane causing a collision. Prost was out of the race, Senna rejoined incorrectly and was later disqualified resulting in Prost winning the title. Balestre, who was the French president of FISA (which ran motorsport for the FIA), admitted years later that he had intervened to disqualify Senna and help Prost (just as Senna had accused him of at the time). Such was the politics of the day back then.

Sorry, what I meant was that I only recall that race of that season. It is too far away in my memories. I did watch the whole season.

[dan.k]

A fun topic

I have a strong memory of watching a Formula 1 race with my dad and some friends of his, at that point i did not understand what it was but it stayed a strong memory. as for Formula one viewing i sweden it was not so good after this period when stefan johansson went missing from formula 1 in 1991.

That first touch of F1 etched to my memory, intresting what pictures of fast moving cars can do to a young boys mind

My first real race that I watched was the race of SPA francorchamps in 1996, when Michael Schumacher won his second win for the prancing horse.

[Big Tea]

A fun topic

I have a strong memory of watching a Formula 1 race with my dad and some friends of his, at that point i did not understand what it was but it stayed a strong memory. as for Formula one viewing i sweden it was not so good after this period when stefan johansson went missing from formula 1 in 1991.

That first touch of F1 etched to my memory, intresting what pictures of fast moving cars can do to a young boys mind

My first real race that I watched was the race of SPA francorchamps in 1996, when Michael Schumacher won his second win for the prancing horse.

Cars sweeping and dodging through bus stop is one of the enduring memories of F1 anywhere. they should be slated for ruining it. It has become all about speed in numbers now, not impressions of speed

[El Scorchio]

Absolutely no idea. All the Grand Prix were on TV in our house so it’s impossible to say for sure. Senna will have been in the black lotus though and even then as a really small child I was hooked on him as my favourite. So 85 or 86.

[GalacticHitchHiker]

My first grand prix was either the 2013 or 2014 Australian Grand Prix. I happened to be scrolling through the TV listings and had a general interest in racing at the time. I don't believe I watched the whole thing, but recall two Red Bull cars running close together, indicating it was probably 2013.
The first race I set out to watch and viewed in its entirety was the 2018 Monaco Grand Prix. What a race that was!

[RonMexico]

Monza 2000 was the first one I remember, it was shown on RTE2 here in Ireland. I was all aboard the Jordan train just as they began their decline. I remember conversations about Irvine's title challenge the year previous but can't remember watching any race oddly enough.