I was wondering if there was a specific F1 driver who got you interested in following F1. The poll has a few choices targeted at US Americans. Please post a message, particularly if you select Other. Thanks. PS: Apologies for butchering Daly's name. Can't change it anymore now.
By "US Americans" do you mean U.S. citizens in the 48 contiguous states? Not considering Hawaii, Alaska or Puerto Rico, or are they not part of the U.S.? Or by "US Americans" do you mean Everybody in the Americas?
Well, it is intended for US Americans, so all 50 states, Puerto Rico is welcome too. The point being that I'm trying to see who had the biggest poll on the current fans: US American drivers or the superstars of the nineties or somebody else. If we include Central and Southamericans, then we'd need a different list of drivers. Same goes for Europeans, Asians and our friends from down under. I chose the US because FChat's audience is mostly US Americans and because here we have the unique situation of a country where F1 only is a side show (unlike e.g. Europe).
And while we're at it I made my own choice of "Other". In my case it was Rega, but I'm not really representative of the sampled group as I grew up in Europe with a heavy Euro bias.
all the early - mid 70's guys. Not any one particular driver, although Mario Andretti, Niki Lauda and a host of others come to mind. That and listening to Jackie Stewart do the color commentary on Wide World of Sports when they did Formula One races. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pDDF2KA5H4[/ame]
Mario for me.... Jackie a close second as a commentator - he's the first person I ever tried to imitate his accent Jedi
Sena got me hooked. While he was still alive Schumie came on the scene, and after Sena's death I followed Schumie. But initially it was Ayrton.
Alfa Romeo. (Manufacturers' series.) But then, my Dad watched NASCAR for Mopars. (Anyone else remember "the Dodge boys"? ) "Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday." For that matter, anyone remember Bernie running the Brabham team?
I chose MS but I probably should have chosen other. No one person drew me to follow F1. Since I can remember, I loved Ferrari road and race cars. I don't know what drew me to Ferrari as no one else in my family is a car nut. I chose MS though because I got hooked on F1 specifically while he was dominant in the early 2000's. I really don't think it was his dominance that hooked me though. I think that's when I realized Speed carried the races and I could follow F1 more closely. Mark
+1000! Although I remember Stewart calling Villeneuve's name and watching this red car fishtailing all over the place. IIRC, Wide World of Sports broadcast maybe 3 races - Monaco and the US East / West races. I remember one of them Villeneueve won, and I know I saw him win the '81 Monaco race...well Villeneuve was my man. I messed up the poll - I thought I was voting for Gilles Villeneuve, and hit Jacques...but you get the idea.
Actually I messed up: I forgot to include Gilles, so if you chose Jacques, that works as well. At this point a special shout out to Jack.
I do. Somewhere in my archive I have a picture of him. As well as of Gordon Murray and Nelson Piquet Sr. Met them at Hockenheim in 81 IIRC
It's too late to change, but I voted for MS. I should have voted for Mario. His JPS Lotus and the Europas around town got me interested in F1 originally, but when he left, I didn't watch anymore. I met Mario and Clay R back in the day, but mostly followed Indy at that time. When Michael started winning for Ferrari, I got hooked again and ever since.
Schumi. I remember as a youngster occasionally catching F1 on Speedvision and loved the Ferraris (was probably 6 or 7 at the time). I was frustrated they couldn't do better against the Williams and Benetton cars. I was watching some highlights one night of a race and they showed a pass Michael made (while he was still with Benetton) and my dad said "that guy is the man." He looked like it to me, and when he went to Ferrari I was instantly a fan. I still have my copy of FORZA magazine from 1997 featuring MS's Monaco victory in the wet that I made my dad buy me in the grocery store Probably the most disappointed I've ever been watching F1 was when MS utterly dominated the Monaco GP in 2000 only to have that damn exhaust break. He ended up with the title anyway, but that was a crushing blow at the time!
Almost ashamed to admit it, but it was Michael Andretti for me. I was a huge CART fan back in the day, and closely followed both Mario and Michael. When Michael went to F1, I was hooked. I remember the 1993 season very well. I always thought Michael never lived up to his potential in F1, mostly because he chose to commute from the states. Here's another thing -- I also remember logging on to CompuServe with a modem to read daily F1 news. Extra points to anyone who remembers either CompuServe or modems. - Eric
I went "other" b/c it was (and still is) the draw of Ferrari for me. That said, I sure loved the glory years of MS!
