2000s were heyday

Fernando Alonso reckons that F1 peaked in the 2000s, not the 1980s. The 2005/06 world champion said he believed too many people have over-hyped the 1980s seasons, which featured the Ayrton Senna/ Alain Prost battles, and that the contest was at its best some 20 years later. “F1 at this time [the 80s], it was very boring,” said Alonso. “If you see a race now from ’85, ’88 or ’92 you will sleep through it because it was two Mclarens, the fourth guy was lapped and there were 25 seconds between each car. Now TV figures are going down as people say it’s boring now, so it’s exactly the same boring as it was at that time. A lot of manufacturers came into F1 in the 2000s – BMW, Toyota and more and TV figures and spectators were at the maximum. We went to new countries – like Korea, India, Singapore.”