Join Grace and me for this TPF F1 podcast as we discuss three key elements of Formula 1’s fan base. National pride, team fans and driver fans. What kind of fan are you and why? Has national pride waned or is it still a strong element in F1? Can you like both teams and drivers equally? Can you see F1 without your fan lens? We discuss our generational dream team based on when we became fans and even hand out awards as well as read your mail.
"You can't take F1 to America, you have to take America to F1."
tpf@theparcferme.com
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I really like this podcast but… Hearing Grace talk about the nationalism in Scandinavia compared to the nationalism in the US makes me cringe. Please explain why Norway and Finland are not getting along, I’m dying to know. Maybe she’s talking about all the wars Norway has started the last century. And how Finland have the need to show support for the ”troops” and have a strong military presence at all their sporting events. Or maybe even how all Swedish kids have to pledge allegiance to the flag. Oh wait, that was all done in the states, sorry. (North Korea… Read more »
Easy peasy man, just talking to some friends in the pub.
I feel like ‘national pride’ is just a sensitive phrase to be using in general right now, especially in Europe, with what’s happening here.
But I understand the nature of this conversation as it applies to F1.
As we’re not a political website, this isn’t the kind of national pride we were speaking about. It is the national pride in sports like England vs. Tunisia in World Cup today or Hamilton/Mercedes vs. Vettel/Ferrari etc. National pride in drivers or teams etc.
Yes, I absolutely get that! I think there is good nationalism and bad nationalism, sadly we’re getting a lot of the bad kind in Europe right now. My strong reaction to what Grace is talking about is the fact that the (good) nationalism in the Nordic countries are pretty much non-existent compared to the nationalism in the USA. Also, Finland and Norway get along just fine and they have absolutely no reason not to do so.(and never did) The knowledge about foreign countries is sometimes horrendously bad in the US. Anyway, I’ll let this go now and continue to discuss… Read more »
I understand your point. I think maybe there is some missing context to what Grace was saying. I also find, as I travel outside the US, that there is a misunderstanding about the US and life here as well. It works both ways.
I’m a Sauber F1 team die hard fan since 1995. Times when RedBull and Petronas were associated with Sauber and not with top teams.
I usually take pride in former Sauber discoveries such as Kimi, Massa, Perez, Vettel…but I rather see ERI or LEC on a Podium. Sauber first. It’s been a hard decade, since BMW departure and all the “New Sauber Saga”.
What a normal fan does not understand is how podiums can be a life changer….Podium for Lewis or Ferrari? That’s a racing Sunday…..Podium in Suzuka for Kamui??? Like winning the soccer World Cup.
SAUBER///////PUSH!!!!! PUSH!!!!! PUSH!!!!!
Always love Peter Sauber and his team. Don’t forget my fav Sauber driver, Nick Heidfeld. :)
Sauber is a non England based team. The. Path has always been difficult. A team without track. We are what made F1 attractive in the 70ss…a successful garagista. Long live Sauber!!!! (Hope Leclerc signs a 10 year contract).
I doubt Leclerc will be there that long but with Ferrari support, there may be some young drivers in their program that come through that team and that could be fun to watch.
What kind of fan are you? I love this question! My fandom is based on attitude and ability. Nationality can play a role when first taking interest in a new sport, but I won’t support someone just because they’re wrapped in the red, white, and blue. When I first got into F1 Scott Speed was on the grid. It didn’t take long before I realized that his arrogance exceeded his ability. By then I had seen enough of the other driver personalities that I could make an informed choice on who to root for, and since I’m also of Polish… Read more »
gunther would do well to know the American team may not want to slate American drivers in Indycar, not a good move.
Hopefully you don’t mind me posting twice since you’ve asked your listeners to talk about two different subjects.
The super team for my years watching F1.
2000’s – Fernando Alonso
2010’s – Robert Kubica (in my dream world he never gets hurt, so he has a WDC by now)
Team – The current Mercedes team.
Or I could just take Kazuki Nakajima, Sebastian Buemi, and Toyota go race at Le Mans instead.
LOL…love it.
Hey Tod & Grace, This was a very interesting podcast. It hit home at the root of my fandom of the sport. I am a team fan – a diehard McLaren fan – so much so, I managed to convince my wife to let me make my son’s middle name McLaren! I have a great wife! Williams will always have a place in my heart as well. I am also Finnish, so I will follow the Fins,but it kills me to see Kimi at Ferrari, even after all these years. As Grace said “he is driving for the enemy”. I… Read more »
It pains me to see McLaren struggle and I agree with you, it was a shame they were struggling when Kimi was there because I think that would have been a good era.
I wasn’t born when Keke won his championship but I can honestly say that Finland really caught the F1 fever when Mika won those two championships. The honeymoon lasted until Kimi’s first retirement but after that F1 has reverted back to being a sport for relatively small group of loyal fans. When Mika was driving F1 was broadcast on one of the 3 major networks but since then they have switched to paytv so the core group of fans has shrunk even more. Now we have two drivers in a championship contender teams so interest has picked up a tad… Read more »
I LOVE Mika!!! The original Iceman. ;) Miss him in F1 and wish he would be more involved in retirement. I loved his sense of humor but the press I feel were purposefully obtuse about it and played him like a dork. It was unfair to be honest, they knew what he would joke about but chose to act surprised or like they didn’t understand what he was talking about. He is hilarious. Love that guy!
Yeah Mika was great.
I was rooting for Schumi, but was very sad when Mika went for his ‘sabbatical’.
The battles between those two were great, even qualifying was exciting!
Yeah, another vote for Mika from me as well. That late 1990s era was when I first discovered F1 and Mika was a favourite.
I totally forgot to play your game. I would pick 1990’s: Mika obvs. 2000’s: Vettel and for the 2010’s: I’ll have to default to Ferrari. I really wanted to pick Brawn but they missed the decade window by a hair. For team boss it would have to be Ron and Newey for technical director.
Yeah, I can understand the desire for Brawn. :)
1970s: Lauda. Dude got the last rites and was racing six weeks later. It does not get any more bad-ass than that.
1980s: Villeneuve. Dude never, ever, ever gave up.
1990s: Ferrari. See above.
That’s an awesome team!!
Great podcast, except for the cheap Hamilton/Hamilton fan digs. Then you wonder why Hamilton fans call you out when you make generalizations like that. One Lewis Hamilton fan challenges you and oh my god its the mobocracy! Grace was kind of all over the place in this one. Her favorite team is McLaren, but in her opinion Mercedes is “boring.” Her favorite driver is also Alonso…who arguably set the teams collapse in motion in 2007. He also picked Briatore over Ron Dennis. I mean…I can’t even…. I listened at work just scratching my head on a few points. On the… Read more »
I can assure you it is more than one Hamilton fan…they are prolific with their emails to me. You do bring up a good point about nationalism as it equates to national interest in supporting races and tourism etc. That’s something that many nations are willing to invest in while others won’t.
They even send emails? O dear.
There I was thinking you were overreacting. I’m so sorry!
Oh yes, I get emails…more like hate mails. I’ve been called all sorts of vile things from these people in emails and social media. I love their dedication to the sport and a driver they like, that’s all good, but I think the fanaticism clouds the ability to look realistically at their driver of choice. Luckily for them, Lewis rarely makes big mistakes these days, he’s a world-class driver but on the odd occasion that he puts his foot in his mouth (which we all do) or misses an apex and spoils a quali chance, it is what it is,… Read more »
Guess that’s the downside of blind obsessive fandom though right of particular drivers or teams? I’ve never really subscribed to it, I have drivers I like more than others and would call myself a fan of, but never to obsessive levels that think can do no wrong. As for national pride in racing, its waned in the sense that 80-100 years ago, you raced for your country above all else, the team wasn’t really that relevant. It was about the national colours and often nations were funding the effort directly. I think national pride in certain teams and drivers is… Read more »
LOL! That’s brilliant Arrow044, you’ve perfectly parodied the response of those diehard Hamilton fan boys!
Spin an oblique reference to His-Lewisness into a rant, ha ha!
Best laugh of the day, a shoe in for post of the week.
Well done, mate ;-)
There’s two things in the world Britain culturally exports to every corner of the planet. One is music and the other is British Motorsport, be that teams, drivers, officials, marshals or fans and I’m proud of that global footprint. I’m also proud of the strength of our national race series and Motorsport industry here in Britain.
In terms of individual drivers or teams though. I tend to like drivers and teams for personal reasons and their nationality doesn’t factor in it for me.
I’ve been Formula 1 fan since Jacques Villeneuve started riding for Williams; I had a late night, was just chilling and zapping white noise on TV when I suddenly came across a Formula 1 race in Australia. Rooted for Villeneuve that year because he was new to F1 too. Then I became aware of Schumacher who then drove his first year for Ferrari. Not the best car, but obviously the best driver. People keep forgetting how beyond everyone else he was in those years. Saying he had no competetion like people have nowadays… that’s how much better he was then… Read more »
Not a nationality chaser… if I was I wouldn’t be watching F1 as there would be no-one to chase. I don’t have any standout favorites over the years, I like most, but there are a few exceptions. I started watching in the early 90’s. So my picks would be: 90’s – Another vote for Mika. That is the first driver I cheered for. 00’s – would have to go to Alonso. 10’s would have to be Hamilton. Overall best driver – Alonso. Team – I fluctuate between McLaren and Ferrari. Currently McLaren have the nod. Once they get their house… Read more »
I’m a driver fan first. Wherever Daniel Ricciardo is, I’m there. Though I wonder how much of this is due to the fact that I’ve only been an F1 fan for 5 years, roughly the length of Danny’s Red Bull tenure. I wonder if on the long term, F1 fans start out being driver fans and slowly become team fans
Ginormous <- is that even a word? Do we really need a word between Gigantic and Enormous? Is that like, Canada is enormous and Mexico is gigantic, so the US has to be in the middle?
Depends, ask a non-F1 fan to rate these in order: hypersoft, soft, ultrasoft and supersoft. LOL!
Yes, well its ‘slang’ in the English dictionary anyway.
Fun podcast – I was on a jog listening and shouting our my choices also having become a fan as a kid in the 70’s… So here they are! 70’s Stewart, 80’s Lauda, 90’s Senna, 00’s Schumacher, 10’s Vettle Team: Ferrari! Bonus entry – coolest, most real, most fun driver to follow: Kimi!!! Totally agree with Grace – I could watch him race into his 80’s. Thanks for a great show.
I’m all three kinds of fan:
1. started watching back in the late 70’s (with my dad) and was hooked. Although coverage in Australia back then was scares to say the least and the time difference didn’t help with my bed time.
2. Nationalistic for a driver, because we live in Australia and when Alan Jones won the WDC that got me hooked as well. That’s now carried through with Webber and Ricciardo.
3. We emigrated from Italy so the love of Ferrari has never died.
Essentially, I love the sport for the team, the drivers and the sport itself.
I’m a fan of innovation, technology and the competition in F1 (well any motorsport really). Mostly focused on the Teams, their designers, and engineers, because that’s where the innovative ideas, brilliant technology and fierce competition come from. Seeing Red Bull develop those amazing blown diffuser ideas, Mercedes produce their brilliant Hybrid p.u, Ferrari and Red Bull clawing back that gap to Mercedes, just brilliant. But I also enjoy the drivers who’s incredible skill, and for some their intellect, allows them to push those awesome machines to their limits. However, given the Teams and Cars are far from even in their… Read more »
I was aware of F1 in the late 60’s, and Jim Clark was my childhood hero, so he’d be first pick for VdL F1, and from the 70’s his team mate would have to be Jackie Stewart . The Team from the 1980’s would be Lotus, with the innovation and genius of Colin Chapman.
Where do I leave a question that could be answered in the podcast? Right here? Okay well here goes, this is about USGP 2005. Yes, that one. Did it kill F1 fanship in US? What kind of ramifications did that fiasco have on US as a destination for F1 and/or F1 fan following in the US? I understand that the location had little to do with what happened and why so many teams did not participate in the race (or did it?). Anywho, it will be interesting to know what exactly happened and what the different causes that led to… Read more »
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