Recently I've been looking at getting some of the older season reviews. It really is quite surprising that none of the season review videos which were originally released haven't been updated onto dvd. Less legal options aside, in an ideal world, wouldn't it be great if you could go to the formula1 website and download season reviews on demand, or even individual races? At the very least the old video reviews should be put onto dvd.

Did you see how long they took to provide people HD pictures? When it comes to the presentation of Formula 1, the technology is trailing 6 years behind. Its going to take them old farts running F1 very long to realise and use the possibilities of the internet and modern technology. The Formula 1 Website/Presentation/Merchandising is a joke compared to NASCAR and there Service.

Personally I think they should get with the times, open a Youtube account and upload something, even just a few times a week, and if they really feel the need to get money from it, enable advertising. The set up cost is minimal, because Youtube provides all of these features; it's just getting the content into the correct format and uploading that would need to be done. The music industry has embraced Youtube, as have TV channels like Channel 4 and Channel 5 in the UK, who have their own on-demand services anyway.

If they release old seasons on DVD, the costs of distribution would probably outweigh the sales, because let's face it, the market for current season review DVD's is probably limited mainly to certain dedicated fans as it is.

F1 need younger men and women instead for the grumpy old farts that rule the show today.
The promotor is a 126 year old thing they refused to use in lord of the rings to avoid nightmares.
Rest of the pack is not one under 80 i think.The only thing they are interested in is bringing home money,we wiewers/public are bullshit for them.
I remember the grumpy old thing wanted to have a race at paul richard some years ago(as he own himself) with just invited vip's so they could get rid of us ordinary people.This attitude say it all in my opion.
Bring on a promoter in his 30's-40's who know what we ordinary people around the world want.
Nascar-fans had HD for 8 seasons now,the plan was to wait for F1 in HD but someone had has the courage to tell the old men that it was impossible to wait any longer without losing wiewers and money.
Because people did a good jobb in the 60's and 70's is not mean they do the same in 2011.

they don't want you watching old races, if you see how good the cars used to look you'd stop following it.

It would certainly be great if we could watch races from the past, there's several I'll like to watch again, and I do enjoy occasionally watching races from before my time. It depends on whether anyone will see it to be worthwhile.

Even if you are joking, I genuinely believe this is part of the reason. There are a few races here and there on Youtube you can find (full races, 1999 Nurburgring and 1992/93 or so Monaco come to mind immediately). Of course you can find loads of footage in driver tributes, best passes/moments compilations, etc. but they tend to remove all the full races. You can make any driver look amazing if you upload a video of his best passes in the same way you can make any footballer look amazing if you only upload a video of his best goals and nothing else.

I don't think there is any single season or era in which everything was better in F1 then than now, but I think that every aspect of F1 was more appealing to certain fans in various times in it's history. You can't really say 'Everything was better in the early 80s', but there are certain parts of F1 that you can say that about, and other parts that were better in the 90s, or better in the early 2000s, whatever. We have a whole nostalgia forum here so we don't really need to moan on and on about how much better things used to be, but it's true - everything about F1, the racing itself, was better at various points in its history. There was a time when passing was possible. There was a time when all of the engines sounded noticeably different, and much more visceral. There was a time when cars actually powerslided through corners, when watching an onboard lap was exciting because the camera shook and you saw the driver take his hand off the wheel (which was a wheel) to shift. Danger is exciting, and safety is the ultimate double edged sword.

It's not all that cynical to think this plays a big part of it. I do think that it is really just sheer laziness from the powers that be, that if they had a way to make serious money off of old footage they would do it regardless of how nostalgic it might make the older fans and how dispirited and bitter it might make the new ones, but you don't have to look far to see evidence of this - There's plenty of onboard laps from the late 70s and early 80s on Youtube, and all of those videos are peppered with comments about how much more awe F1 seemed to inspire in those days. I personally can't look at old videos without feeling a bit depressed - I have yet to meet a woman capable of breaking my heart the way castrating chicanes and tarmac runoffs do. No one wants to watch an onboard lap of Spa from 1993 and see how much better that track used to be. No one wants to watch that video of Jacques Laffite and Monza in 1978 and watch him sail the Ligier through what was actually once a forest, with trees a foot from the track everywhere (including the Variante Ascari). And repeat, for a million other examples.

There really isn't much you can do about this but wait. Wait for the ancient old men that run this show to retire (or die), and even then just hope they are replaced with someone born in the 1900s.

They'd rather stuff their stupid $50k watches on their website and overpriced clothing instead of doing something productive with it. FOM morons rather spend their time lurking on these forums looking for videos to take down cause they know these amateur youtube editors do a much better job than their own hired keyboard monkeys. Ridiculous statements made that more interest in HD is necessary meanwhile no major T.V. manufacturer has built a SD set in over 2 years. They are just money hungry control freaks who are feverishly trying to associate this sport with movie stars instead of who actually watches it...the blue collar workers.

Bernie hasn't figured out how to make the most money out of that sort of newfangled media.

I don't think there's enough of a market for it to be worthwile.

If they brought the old VHS seasons out on DVD I'd buy them!

Even if they charged for high quality video files from the internet. I could certainly see myself paying for HQ F1 races from like, 1985 or whatever. The quality would outweigh the cost.

As would I. This thread should be longer than any of the other threads here so these jackasses can take a hint.

I'd love some way of getting old races or season reviews in good quality. Sadly my VHS tape of the 1996 season review was damaged and the first few races are unwatchable. That's a very imporantant season for me because it was my first. I'd be willing to spend a little money to replace it with something good.

I agree. I have most of Dukes season reviews on VHS down to 85. However some of the early ones such as 86 and 87 must be damaged even though there no sign of damage, because they don't play well and have massive interference through out the video. Surley Duke can just put them to DVD it cant be that hard.

Online presentation aside, I think F1 is promoted wonderfully. It's about the only motorsport in the world that doesn't look all greasy oily and smelly, and instead looks glamorous, shiny and expensive. It's the only motorsport which has names that the average non-fan has heard of. It's the only really international motorsport with serious financial backing from governments who want the attention the races bring.

Yes, they are behind, but F1 is a behemoth of a business and the larger the ship is, the longer it takes to turn. At this time they are making money hand-over-fist, and providing old seasons anywhere is not particularly cost-effective, I would imagine. As someone above mentioned, the number of people interested in old seasons will be too low to bother making and distributing a DVD, or just not worth the effort next to the billions already sloshing around in the sport. Ok, there are some people that want these old seasons, but beyond pleasing a small number of fans, what benefit has it for FOM or whoever?

The capitalist world dictates that you can't have old seasons beyond finding torrents of TV rips.