On the 40th anniversary of the first use of live in-car cameras in Formula 1, it’s a striking moment to reflect on how onboard footage has transformed our experience of racing—and what we missed in decades before 1985.
History remembers the 1985 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring as a quietly revolutionary race. Renault fielded a third car, driven by François Hesnault, not with victory in mind, but to pioneer a new technology: a bulky live TV camera fitted to the car’s right flank. Formula 1 viewers, for the first time, saw what drivers truly saw hurtling through the forest, gear changes, steering inputs, and all the violence of an F1 lap from inside the cockpit.
But until the mid-1980s, millions of fans could only imagine the chaos, bravery, and finesse involved. With the benefit of hindsight and technology, which past races would have been dramatically richer with true onboard footage?
Imagine the 1957 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, Juan Manuel Fangio clawing back a near-impossible deficit on his rivals, every drift and dance of his Maserati’s steering wheel revealing pure virtuosity. What would it have been like to sit alongside Jim Clark at Monza in 1967, wheels broadside out of Parabolica, or inside Jackie Stewart’s Tyrrell at a soaked, fogbound Nordschleife in the late 1960s—when outright visibility was measured in meters and bravery in gallons?
A camera on Niki Lauda’s Ferrari during the rain-soaked, tragic 1976 German GP would have shown both the terror and technical mastery of the era, and may have provided crucial evidence in safety debates that eventually changed the course of F1.
The 1981 Spanish Grand Prix, considered one of Gilles Villeneuve’s greatest drives as he repelled a train of faster cars through sheer instinct, nerve, and car control—how much more would that final few laps have thrilled us with a camera mounted just above the steering wheel, the viewer riding out every twitch, clutch, and imprecise half-correction?
Even earlier, the 1950s and 1960s attempts at in-car footage—cumbersome, heavy film cameras often lashed to the rollhoop or rear deck—only scratched the surface compared to the immediacy and drama of what became possible in 1985. The efforts were so unwieldy they could never be used in a real race situation, instead saved for test days or staged outings.
After that breakthrough at the 1985 German Grand Prix, improvements came rapidly. The bulk was reduced, cameras moved to engine covers and mirrors, and the footage widened to all cars and finally inside drivers’ helmets. By the 1990s, live onboard angles became as iconic as the racing itself, immortalizing laps from Ayrton Senna at Monaco, battle-scarred duels at Suzuka, and the heartbreak of split-second mistakes.
Now, with each car carrying not just one but multiple high-definition cameras, and even “visor cam” angles from inside a driver’s helmet, the modern viewer experiences F1 almost as a participant: every risk, every snap of oversteer, every hand movement broadcast in real-time. It’s easy to forget just how much was missed in the golden decades before 1985—but also to marvel at how much richer the sport’s storytelling has become.
If ever there was a time to wish for more than memory and grainy television replays, it’s when reflecting on the near-mythical moments of F1’s past through modern eyes—knowing now how much a tiny in-car camera can reveal about the magic and mayhem of racing at its very edge.