"The Good Old Days". Quite apart from being an old British music hall-based TV show, many people talk about the GOlD (nice acronym?) as if it were a time when everything was right with the world. Really, it comes down to when everything was right with their world personally.

In many cases, people think back to their school days or to their 20s as being their personal GOlD. It all depends, I suppose, when exactly you think that time was. To when you were having a "good time".

The other day I was leafing through an F1 picture book, and someone, a younger someone, who was looking over my shoulder muttered one of those magic phrases as I came to a particular picture.

For the record, the picture was of Gerhard Berger in a McLaren, which was sponsored by Marlboro and powered by a Honda engine. Nowadays, Berger is in a Benetton, McLaren and Marlboro have parted company, and Honda are no longer in F1 (well, officially).

To him, the picture brought back memories of a time when Berger and Ayrton Senna were going round in the McLarens, Senna winning the Drivers' Championship and McLaren the Constructor's Championship. That was in the early 1990s as turbos gave way to normally-aspirated engines, and Senna and Alain Prost fought over every first corner.

Even before he said it, I could hear the magic phrase that he was about to say; "That was when they really used to race in F1."

Was it?

From 1984 through to 1993, McLaren never finished lower than second in the Constructor's Championship. (You'd have to say that Marlboro had a pretty good run for their money over those years... and, given the results of the last few years, can you blame them for getting out?) In that time, McLaren got 1188 points - a phenomenal total by anyone's reckoning. But, you'd have to concede, a fairly major domination by one team. And, to many, a bit of a yawn?

But, and here's the rub, that wasn't the GOlD for me. Nor was it for my father. For me, the early 1980s were the GOlD and that's quite apart from the fact that an Australian, Alan Jones, was winning the Drivers' Championship then. It was in those days, I reckon, that they really used to race. It was a time when deaths were a rarity, but they did happen (the 1983-93 seasons were, thankfully, fatality free). It was also the time of ground effects and turbochargers and the Ford Cosworth.

But my father reckons that the GOlD of F1 were in the mid-1960s. "In those days," he says, "they used to really race." He also likes to say that everything was simpler then, but I like to counter by mentioning that that time was when Colin Chapman brought out the monocoque chassis - and that there was death nearly every year. To a certain extent, my father is right, because there were no wings, the monocoque concept was new, and the Coventry Climax engine reigned.

Strange thing that, isn't it? Three different people, all having totally different recollections of the history of F1. All three of them basically tying their preferred era to when they stopped glancing at F1, and really started to enjoy it ... and "life", too.

But, if you were to ask a certain someone was has been heavily involved in F1 since the 1960s, when he thinks the GOlD days of F1 were, and he'll say, "Today", the 47th year of the modern GP era (yes, it'll be F1's silver anniversary in 1999). That certain someone is none other than Ken Tyrrell, who can't remember when he last missed a GP. Who has been boss of an F1 team since 1970. Whose team has won two Constructors' Championships. And whose team has done virtually nothing since then, sad to say.

Despite the lack of silverware in the team cabinet, why would Ken Tyrrell think that these are the GOlD of F1?

The first thing he mentions is safety. As I mentioned above, the years from 1983 through to 1993 were fatality-free. And, since San Marino 1994, all the GP have been fatality-free. There have been many F1-related accidents in those years, many of them unseen by the TV audience, but none of them fatal.

The racing has been close, whatever you may say. Only twice in the 1990s has a driver finished a lap or more ahead of the rest of the field (to save you scurrying for your record books, Michael Schumacher at Brazil in 1994 and Damon Hill at Australia in 1995). McLaren and Benetton each have two Drivers' Championships, while Williams has three. The Constructors' Championship has gone to Williams four times, McLaren twice, and Benetton once. That seems a pretty broad split to me.

Did I say that the GOlD of F1 for me were back in the early 1980s? Perhaps I was mistaken. Put a GP on the TV and I'll sit and watch it, whenever it was raced. And I'll get excited about it ... perhaps not as excited as Murray Walker, but I'll still enjoy it. Put yesterday's race on the TV and I'll sit and watch, and get excited about it.

When I get near to the circuit - let alone actually getting to the track or the pits - and am able to sense that I am near, I get excited. The F1 cars don't even have to be on the circuit, I just need to know that they are nearby, lurking in their garages with their acolytes hovering over them, tending to their every need.

Looking back, that McLaren era did see some fantastic racing and some boring racing. So, too, did the 1980s and the 1960s (not that I can remember too much about them).

No, the GOlD of F1 for me weren't just back in the 1980s - they are today, and yesterday, and tomorrow. And I hope they are for you, too.

It's Formula One and I love it.

But that's just me.