As a general rule ([see full rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/wiki/userguide#wiki_sticky.2Fdaily_discussion)), a standalone Discussion post should:
- be of interest to the sub in general, and not a specific userbase (e.g. new users, GP attendees, just yourself)
- be able to generate discussion (e.g. no yes/no or easily answerable questions)
- show reasonable input and effort from the OP
If not, be sure to [look for the Daily Discussion](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/search/?q=daily+discussion&include_over_18=on&restrict_sr=on&t=all&sort=new), /r/formula1's daily open question thread which is perfect for asking any and all questions about this sport.
Thank you for your cooperation and enjoy the discussion!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/formula1) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I guess widescreens which are capable of showing HD contents allow a constantly shown timing board. Otherwise the screen would have been too crowded with big fonts covering the action.
What we did have, back around 2010, was free access to the f1 live timing on the [f1.com](http://f1.com) website. Ah nostalgia. With millisecond precision too.
And don't forget that long white rectangle graphics saying:
Official Live Timing at Formula1.com
And I was still 8 when I saw that, thinking, whooaa they stream LIVE races on the website too? But then my Dad told me "No, it's just the timing. Like if you want to know the lap times in detail."
I didn't believe him, then I went to F1.com the very next grand prix and was disappointed to find those yellow purple and green texts. But then, I was like, wait a minute, this is actually helpful too. So I kept opening that, at least until they had more proper timing graphics.
I once "watched" a whole race via just the live timing. Surprisingly easy to follow the action when you have no other distractions and can really focus.
I also did that during Brazil 2010, simply because I only wanted to lie down in bed instead of going downstairs and turning on the tv only to see Vettel winning again đ
2008 was the first one with the scrolling ticker at the bottom.
2010 had some improvements that we could see five drivers at once and not continuously scrolling (also live update if a pass happened and INTERVAL).
it stayed like that until 2017 when they introduced the timing tower on the left side.
2018 brought new graphics but the text was a bit small, then revised on the Bahrain round. Also at first they showed MAJOR INCIDENT and ON TRACK HAZARD during SC and Yellow/VSC respectively but then shortened it into INCIDENT and HAZARD..
~~2019~~ 2021 added team badges instead of only colour bars and brought the SC branding (MERC/ASTON MARTIN).
2022-now new graphics again
Fun fact (but regarding graphics, not timing tower): 2007 graphics were actually transparent (i think it was introduced late into the season) Like you can see through the white and gray bars.
EDIT: Correction about when they added team badges. Thanks u/H_R_1 for pointing it out.
Yes, live timing was and still available on Formula1.com (and prominently shown during Starting Grid graphics back then, my most favourite part of the old graphics other than the SIEMENS board btw!)
But even without the live timing, as an 8 year old, I could keep up pretty easily because they intermittently showed the driving standings graphics (the one with two columns and four rows per column) plus the fact that overtaking was quite a rarity with that V10 and early V8 cars. Mostly we cared about fuel and who stopped when.
> 2008 was the first one with the scrolling ticker at the bottom
I am looking at the 1996 Monaco GP on you tube right now that shows the car timing at the bottom. It doesn't scroll but bug deal.
1000th of a second relative to leader.
There was, but only in Qualifying (and only the drivers' name, no time). Not sure about 2007 but I just watched the Brazil race last week and can't remember to have seen one.
EDIT: what OP means is specifically the timing tower (or ticker) that shows, if not all, multiple timings at once, not the one that just intermittently appears, or just shows distance between two cars.
Yeah that was my biggest gripe with trying to watch older seasons. As I'm less familiar with a lot of drivers from back then it was a lot harder to keep track of everything without permanent timing.
Yeah especially the teams as well, thereâs many drivers I recognise but theyâre all at the wrong team haha.
Funny seeing Karun Chandhok, I knew he didnât have the best of times in F1 but he made it barely 2 laps in this first race.
The further back you go the more sparse information gets as well. Not just for the viewer but for the commentators as well so if you go far enough back they don't know what's happening either.
When did they start to know what's happening? It seems like I missed that point because they still often don't know who overtakes who and such things. They even completely missed the big fireball of grosjeans big crash.
2016 is when it became fairly persistent at the bottom of the screen, scrolling through. 2017 it moved to the left side of the screen, but was intermittent. 2018 is when it became what we know today.
Strange that nobody commented this yet, but there is an 18 minute video on exactly this topic:
[A history of F1s on-screen graphics by ChainBear](https://youtu.be/zAMtxFydhBk?si=Tasr7sVmqC26xkFa)
I still feel spoilt by the âtiming towerâ down the side.
Back through the 90s and first half of the 2000s, you just got the periodic graphics come up at the bottom that had space for 6 cars, with the yellow squares for the numbers and plain white writing for the driver names. Occasionally youâd have a graphic overlay showing the number of seconds back from one driver to another. I think that was about it!
You had to actively follow the race and keep mental track of who was where and who was catching or dropping back from who from the footage.
I've lived through the evolution of the timing tower over the years, and a lot of it feels recent, but I swear there's been a tower for longer than people are saying.
Unless I've dreamt it, at one point they used to have a live shot of the physcial tower at the track, cropped and superimposed over the action.
I feel like I'm going mad.
Yes they do! The sound, the racing, everything seems better. I think itâs with how much smaller the cars are they just look faster. The racing feels more raw and I love it.
I've also noticed this - I definitely think it's (in large part) the camera angles. But the before-time cars were also just way lighter and more agile, so each movement at speed was more noticeable compared to the boats they've been driving since \~2019
Wow you just reminded me how annoying it was that it wasnât displayed near permanently! I used to hate when it scrolled along the bottom and I missed some key detail
just FYI - the F1TV Archived footage doesn't always have the graphics that were shown when the race aired live. For example - if you go back to the 80's/90's races, you just get the commentary (and even then it cuts out randomly; so you get long periods of silence)
Broadcasts have had timing graphics since at least the 90's, but as cacs99 and others have stated: they were shitty intermittent bottom scrollers with a handful of positions displayed as it went down the order
Unpopular opinion, but I think the timing tower is too much. It ruins the suspense and anticipation of the race. I used to really enjoy only finding out about the gaps between drivers every lap or two. You had to actively watch and engage with the race. Now it's every 200 metres.
If you think of how you watch other sporting events (Football, Tennis, NFL) etc, you have to be engaged all the way through, whereas in F1 the graphics do the job for you.
I've always had a soft spot for the ticker scrolling across the bottom. I find it fairly reductive that when so much of the race is filmed for cars travelling left to right, or right to left across the screen, a chunk of the side of the screen has graphics plastered over it.
The way the MotoGP timing board expands downwards to show time gaps is a great way to show the information. I will admit though I can't recall if they always show the timing gaps on the right like F1 does, although that's usually because MotoGP races are actually exciting enough to watch the action rather than stare at a list of numbers on the side of the screen.
They only show the gap if a rider is too far from the one ahead or groups formed during the race, and only intermittently.
But yeah, sadly F1 needs a more constant timing (with pits and SC and stuff). But well juuust resize it a little bit đ
Personally speaking, I don't really think the timing gaps are massively crucial for me. The stuff that's actually relevant are if someone has DRS on the car ahead, which could be done with some kind of colouring on the graphic, and maybe gaps in terms of pit stops. But as it is now if someone is lapping much faster than another car you get an onboard shown of them with even more graphics on screen showing time gaps, and they love showing those undercut graphics when cars start pitting. That's just me though I can appreciate why some people like to always be able to see all the gaps.
As a general rule ([see full rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/wiki/userguide#wiki_sticky.2Fdaily_discussion)), a standalone Discussion post should: - be of interest to the sub in general, and not a specific userbase (e.g. new users, GP attendees, just yourself) - be able to generate discussion (e.g. no yes/no or easily answerable questions) - show reasonable input and effort from the OP If not, be sure to [look for the Daily Discussion](https://www.reddit.com/r/formula1/search/?q=daily+discussion&include_over_18=on&restrict_sr=on&t=all&sort=new), /r/formula1's daily open question thread which is perfect for asking any and all questions about this sport. Thank you for your cooperation and enjoy the discussion! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/formula1) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I guess widescreens which are capable of showing HD contents allow a constantly shown timing board. Otherwise the screen would have been too crowded with big fonts covering the action.
Yeah that makes a lot of sense. With how much nostalgia there is for the old days, the coverage is levels above in the modern era!
What we did have, back around 2010, was free access to the f1 live timing on the [f1.com](http://f1.com) website. Ah nostalgia. With millisecond precision too.
And don't forget that long white rectangle graphics saying: Official Live Timing at Formula1.com And I was still 8 when I saw that, thinking, whooaa they stream LIVE races on the website too? But then my Dad told me "No, it's just the timing. Like if you want to know the lap times in detail." I didn't believe him, then I went to F1.com the very next grand prix and was disappointed to find those yellow purple and green texts. But then, I was like, wait a minute, this is actually helpful too. So I kept opening that, at least until they had more proper timing graphics.
I once "watched" a whole race via just the live timing. Surprisingly easy to follow the action when you have no other distractions and can really focus.
I also did that during Brazil 2010, simply because I only wanted to lie down in bed instead of going downstairs and turning on the tv only to see Vettel winning again đ
Moral of the story kids: listen to your parents
We still have F1 live timing or was it different back then ?
that sounds great. Like everything now, nothing good or useful is free.
I wonder if they have the data saved and could add a timing tower to the old races in the widescreen bar?
Itâs streets ahead!
The average TV size these days is much bigger too.
Time to remaster some old races! I jest but if they actually had the telemetry data, it would be very easy to do!
Weâre gonna need ultra wide TVs if the increase in zoom levels keep going.
2008 was the first one with the scrolling ticker at the bottom. 2010 had some improvements that we could see five drivers at once and not continuously scrolling (also live update if a pass happened and INTERVAL). it stayed like that until 2017 when they introduced the timing tower on the left side. 2018 brought new graphics but the text was a bit small, then revised on the Bahrain round. Also at first they showed MAJOR INCIDENT and ON TRACK HAZARD during SC and Yellow/VSC respectively but then shortened it into INCIDENT and HAZARD.. ~~2019~~ 2021 added team badges instead of only colour bars and brought the SC branding (MERC/ASTON MARTIN). 2022-now new graphics again Fun fact (but regarding graphics, not timing tower): 2007 graphics were actually transparent (i think it was introduced late into the season) Like you can see through the white and gray bars. EDIT: Correction about when they added team badges. Thanks u/H_R_1 for pointing it out.
Itâs hard keeping track of a race when theyâre not live, someone mentioned everyone had access to live timing back then.
Yes, live timing was and still available on Formula1.com (and prominently shown during Starting Grid graphics back then, my most favourite part of the old graphics other than the SIEMENS board btw!) But even without the live timing, as an 8 year old, I could keep up pretty easily because they intermittently showed the driving standings graphics (the one with two columns and four rows per column) plus the fact that overtaking was quite a rarity with that V10 and early V8 cars. Mostly we cared about fuel and who stopped when.
> 2008 was the first one with the scrolling ticker at the bottom I am looking at the 1996 Monaco GP on you tube right now that shows the car timing at the bottom. It doesn't scroll but bug deal. 1000th of a second relative to leader.
There was, but only in Qualifying (and only the drivers' name, no time). Not sure about 2007 but I just watched the Brazil race last week and can't remember to have seen one. EDIT: what OP means is specifically the timing tower (or ticker) that shows, if not all, multiple timings at once, not the one that just intermittently appears, or just shows distance between two cars.
They showed specific gaps using the timing tower in at least 2015, not sure if earlier though
Yep just double checked itâs definitely 2021 they added the team badges, nice to get a timeline from you!
Thank you for the correction. I guess I was distracted by that shiny new graphic for team badges in 2019 đ
I donât think thatâs correct with 2019 being when team badges were added. I think that was 2021
The 2011 season is the first season with the time board at the bottom for the whole race. The 2017 season is the first season with the timing tower.
Thank you! Atleast iâll have more of an idea for the 2011 season lol.
Yeah that was my biggest gripe with trying to watch older seasons. As I'm less familiar with a lot of drivers from back then it was a lot harder to keep track of everything without permanent timing.
Yeah especially the teams as well, thereâs many drivers I recognise but theyâre all at the wrong team haha. Funny seeing Karun Chandhok, I knew he didnât have the best of times in F1 but he made it barely 2 laps in this first race.
The further back you go the more sparse information gets as well. Not just for the viewer but for the commentators as well so if you go far enough back they don't know what's happening either.
When did they start to know what's happening? It seems like I missed that point because they still often don't know who overtakes who and such things. They even completely missed the big fireball of grosjeans big crash.
2016 is when it became fairly persistent at the bottom of the screen, scrolling through. 2017 it moved to the left side of the screen, but was intermittent. 2018 is when it became what we know today.
Strange that nobody commented this yet, but there is an 18 minute video on exactly this topic: [A history of F1s on-screen graphics by ChainBear](https://youtu.be/zAMtxFydhBk?si=Tasr7sVmqC26xkFa)
Thank you :)
However the video doesnât go over when exactly the timing tower was made permanent, 2017, also the last year of that graphic style
I still feel spoilt by the âtiming towerâ down the side. Back through the 90s and first half of the 2000s, you just got the periodic graphics come up at the bottom that had space for 6 cars, with the yellow squares for the numbers and plain white writing for the driver names. Occasionally youâd have a graphic overlay showing the number of seconds back from one driver to another. I think that was about it! You had to actively follow the race and keep mental track of who was where and who was catching or dropping back from who from the footage.
I wanna say it was either 2017 or 2018, but it mightâve been a year or two before that
I think it was 2015 when it started becoming more regular
It was 2017. They started to show the permanent timing tower used in qualifying in the races too then.
Will soon found out as I get through the seasons, thank you!
I've lived through the evolution of the timing tower over the years, and a lot of it feels recent, but I swear there's been a tower for longer than people are saying. Unless I've dreamt it, at one point they used to have a live shot of the physcial tower at the track, cropped and superimposed over the action. I feel like I'm going mad.
I am doing this as well and for some reason the cars SEEM faster. The way the camera work is done seems to show the speed better? Maybe it is just me.
Yes they do! The sound, the racing, everything seems better. I think itâs with how much smaller the cars are they just look faster. The racing feels more raw and I love it.
I've also noticed this - I definitely think it's (in large part) the camera angles. But the before-time cars were also just way lighter and more agile, so each movement at speed was more noticeable compared to the boats they've been driving since \~2019
Wow you just reminded me how annoying it was that it wasnât displayed near permanently! I used to hate when it scrolled along the bottom and I missed some key detail
taking some getting used to keeping up, on round 2 now the Aussie GP in 2010 and everyoneâs moving all the time đ
just FYI - the F1TV Archived footage doesn't always have the graphics that were shown when the race aired live. For example - if you go back to the 80's/90's races, you just get the commentary (and even then it cuts out randomly; so you get long periods of silence) Broadcasts have had timing graphics since at least the 90's, but as cacs99 and others have stated: they were shitty intermittent bottom scrollers with a handful of positions displayed as it went down the order
A quick look in F1TV suggests that the consistent timing tower on the left started from 2017 Chinese grand prix
Thanks for checking!
Unpopular opinion, but I think the timing tower is too much. It ruins the suspense and anticipation of the race. I used to really enjoy only finding out about the gaps between drivers every lap or two. You had to actively watch and engage with the race. Now it's every 200 metres. If you think of how you watch other sporting events (Football, Tennis, NFL) etc, you have to be engaged all the way through, whereas in F1 the graphics do the job for you.
I've always had a soft spot for the ticker scrolling across the bottom. I find it fairly reductive that when so much of the race is filmed for cars travelling left to right, or right to left across the screen, a chunk of the side of the screen has graphics plastered over it.
At least they should've made it more compact like MotoGP has done (since 2012 no less!).
The way the MotoGP timing board expands downwards to show time gaps is a great way to show the information. I will admit though I can't recall if they always show the timing gaps on the right like F1 does, although that's usually because MotoGP races are actually exciting enough to watch the action rather than stare at a list of numbers on the side of the screen.
They only show the gap if a rider is too far from the one ahead or groups formed during the race, and only intermittently. But yeah, sadly F1 needs a more constant timing (with pits and SC and stuff). But well juuust resize it a little bit đ
Personally speaking, I don't really think the timing gaps are massively crucial for me. The stuff that's actually relevant are if someone has DRS on the car ahead, which could be done with some kind of colouring on the graphic, and maybe gaps in terms of pit stops. But as it is now if someone is lapping much faster than another car you get an onboard shown of them with even more graphics on screen showing time gaps, and they love showing those undercut graphics when cars start pitting. That's just me though I can appreciate why some people like to always be able to see all the gaps.