RaceFans writers’ first times seeing F1 up-close · RaceFans

Anyone who has seen a Formula 1 car with their own eyes will tell you the same thing – there’s nothing quite like the experience of seeing the world’s fastest racing cars in the flesh.

From the sights, sounds and even the smells, witnessing Formula 1 with your own two eyes is an immersive experience that simply cannot be replicated on television.

But for every F1 fan who comes back to their home grand prix year after year or those of us fortunate enough to follow this addictive sport across the world, there is always a first time witnessing a Formula 1 car up close. RaceFans’ regular writers take a trip down memory lane to recall their own experiences seeing F1 for the first time…

Pitting and winning

At my first experience of a grand prix I witnessed a victory by of Formula 1’s all-time greats. Sort of. Truth be told, I wasn’t actually sure who’d won when the chequered flag dropped.

I left the 1998 British Grand Prix at Silverstone shivering, sopping wet and baffled by one of the strangest conclusions to an F1 race. This race is remembered as ‘the one Michael Schumacher won in the pit lane’. However, due to my family’s vantage point at Copse corner – turn one on the old Silverstone configuration – that detail was lost on us, much less the explanation for such a bizarre turn of events.

At quarter past seven on a cool though mercifully dry Saturday morning we joined the pit lane walk-about to get a first-hand glimpse of the grid. The 1998 field was an odd-looking bunch, a wrong-headed FIA rule change having produced a peculiarly narrow generation of cars. But the cars did not disappoint on the track.

During qualifying later that day, we watched them emerge from Woodcote, grow from specks until they seemed far too close to the right-hander to get around it, then change direction with speed and composure which defied the huge forces at work. The scream of each V10-engined car was an assault on the eardrums which pounded in my skull long after each driver disappeared from sight towards Maggotts.

The showers began soon after pole-winner Mika Hakkinen led the field away. By half-distance it was tipping down, cars were pirouetting off the soaked track and the Safety Car was eventually deployed.

In those pre-mobile internet days we stood little chance of following what unfolded after the restart with 11 laps to go, though we saw Schumacher immediately lap Giancarlo Fisichella to get Hakkinen in…