Even when I was quite young and living in China, I was aware of Formula 1.
I must say it was the death of Ayrton Senna which really grabbed my attention in a big way.
Pretty soon I was watching races whenever I saw them on TV, from about 1995, followed Schumacher's battles first with Hill, then Villeneuve, then Hakkinen, then DC, Ralf, JPM...
I remember jumping up and down shouting "No! No! No!" When Hakkinen made THE pass on Schumacher/Zonta into Les Combes in 2000.
youtube K1WuWu8kGak /youtube
From about 2003, I bought a wheel, and got really into F1 2002 on the PC. A setups "pack" I made back then became quite popular, and people were still contacting me about them until about 2-3 years ago asking for setup advice.
Sim driving on F1C then rFactor was how I got to know More&Faster, Tom (F1), Ximian, who are all on this board.
I watched that video last night
One of the best races for me was Suzuka 07(??) that had me up and down when Kimi hunted down Fisi into turn 1 on the last lap to take the lead. From last place! A brillant drive and he just looked so damn calm, cool, collected...