1998 nostalgia

[f1316]

What I find interesting is that, whilst I do love the cars of when I first started watching - late 80's casually until the obsession started mid 90's - I tend to gravitate towards cars that look cutting edge, futuristic.

Probably my favourite cars were in 2006 (2007/2008 cars were cool but some features were not always aesthetically pleasing) and I think today's cars have the potential to be even better if the nose regs were sorted.

I guess what I'm saying is that I love a car that looks like the fastest racing car in the world (2009-2016 cars were anemic looking, designed to be slower) and whilst this made my jaw drop at the time and I look back on it lovingly...



...and this car, with this livery, is my favourite of all time...



... I think this would be even better :

[Shrieker]

Talking of specific races in 98. For me , it was the Nurburgring (Luxembourg Grand Prix as it was known) What a race!!! For me it was the point that Hakkinen realised he could actually do it.

The race before in Monza Hakkinen had a great race but had brake issues and then Brake failure, which dropped him down the order. So on home soil Ferrari and Schumacher drew level on points in the WDC. So Hakkinen had lost his lead over the summer and were now equal on points to the Mighty Schumacher.

They then go to the Nurburgring , Ferrari lock out the front row, the start goes well for the red boys, then....... that magical moment, Mika decided NO! He is not going down this way, this brought on Mikas finest ever drive in my opinion. In Germany against Michael. He fought fought fought and got the job done to give him the advantage in Suzuka.

If you haven't seen the 1998 Luxembourg Grand Prix at the Nurburgring, please try and find it and watch it.

The 1 moment in that race was Schumacher getting it all crossed up as he see's Mika's Mclaren appearing in front after the pit stops.

This was the only race I hadn't watched in '98. I just watched it in full. Tho a good battle, it wasn't so special imo. The goodyears just ate themselves, and bridgestones didn't look to lose to much pace even when they were quite old. It looked to be all about the tyres more than anything. Hakkinen was always gonna come out on top. Not to take anything away from him tho, he still had to get the job done from third on the grid, and he did.

[NathanOlder]

Watching live was way better than 20years later. At the time not knowing how it was to unfold was great and did make it special. It was a hugely pivotal moment as it was the penultimate race. Fighting through a dangerous ferrari No.2 Irvine to get a run on Schumi was a huge gamble. I seem to remember Mika setting multiple fastest laps to get near Schumi.

[TwanV]

Lovely thread this. The first race I ever remember watching is the '94 San Marino grand prix with my dad... After that horror-episode I really started watching in '96 as a 10 year old and have been watching every grand prix since. Not having any reference I remember being very impressed with Damon Hill at the time. The image I have of the ultimate professional: In qualifying (I really miss the 12 lap format) he mentally did his lap with his eyes closed, got out on track, took pole-position and if things didn't go wrong, went on winning the race. Schumacher, Villeneuve, all amateurs.



Of course when I got older it turned out that the best racing driver was someone else. Anyway, that's how nostalgia works, Hill in the blue and white Williams FW18 is still #1 for me. Loved every season after that too until the point when traction control was introduced: the Ferrari battle to become WC, Hakkinen's world titles, Villeneuve's crashes, you name it. The magic ended for me with the loss of drama due to TC and Ferrari becoming too dominant.