About Us

What is F1NGers?

- Formula 1 NewsGroupers
- A dedicated community of F1 fans.
- A bit like the Usenet F1 groups but without the rules.
- Not a web forum.
- We’re full of experts, from driver experts to statisticians, from techies to strategy fans.
- Then there are those who just know good racing when they see it.
- We discuss other forms of racing too: IndyCar, Champ Car, Le Mans, Rally, MotoGP.
- But not NASCAR.
- That would be silly.

A Brief History of F1NGers

F1NGers started out in 1997 as part of the old Formula1.com website (also F1.com), back when it was owned by Purple I as an independent site. You might remember it; black background, yellow menu, later changed to white background, lots of good stuff on there. It is archived here: http://web.archive.org/web/19981203030022/http://www.formula1.com/

The newgroup URL at the time was news://news.formula1.com, and newbies would get to that through the ‘Fun’ page of the F1.com website – that’s how the majority of us found the NG. Since the owners didn’t moderate the group, so we were left to our own devices, and a unique culture evolved, completely different to any other F1 forum on the internet. We said what we meant, and that meant some flame wars at times – but it was all good fun and it led to strong bonds being formed. At some stage they transferred us to news://gearbox.formula1.com, but it changed nothing but the name.

From 1999 onwards, F1.com faced legal threats from Bernie Ecclestone’s FOM company, the owner of the commercial rights to F1. They argued that since they held the rights and the trademarks to F1, Purple I should not be operating a site under the F1.com name. This was taken to the courts, and Bernie won of course. In 2001 we knew that a new website would emerge and they probably wouldn’t keep our humble forum.

It was in 2001, while we were debating our future and waiting it out to see what would happen, we gained our name, courtesy of Krash – the name being ‘F1NGers’, borne out of ‘Formula One NewsGroupers’.

In 2002 the newsgroup disappeared. Fortunately we had arranged an alternative home, a home we called news://news.f1ngers.com, where we were free to do as we pleased once again.

A few years passed by and we had to find a new home again, and with growing security threats on the internet we took the opportunity to build in some safeguards, as most community sites were doing at the time. We moved to news://news.zeppole.com and the username/password system was born, which is where we are today.

Despite all our setbacks this is still a great newsgroup and forever will be. We are a close-knit community, and yet new members always integrate easily into our unique mix. It is always fun to take the piss out of newbies – even more so when they stick around and give it back!

We hope you join us.