Formula 1 has finally achieved its long-held goal of holding a single pre-season launch event attended by all the teams.
F1 75 Live was held at The O2 arena in London and broadcast on a free live stream worldwide. All 10 teams participated, each of which presented its livery for the upcoming season. Some, like Ferrari and Haas, also used the opportunity to distribute images of their 2025 chassis.
Previously, teams have held their own individual launch activities to uncover either their new cars or their latest liveries. Some are continuing to do so: Williams held a full launch for their car last week and Ferrari will officially present their 2025 F1 car tomorrow.
So was F1’s latest innovation a worthwhile addition to the pre-season build-up? Or is launch season more fun when the teams’ activities are spread across a longer period?
I say
F1 75 Live presenter Jack Whitehall kicked off proceedings by joking that most of the teams hadn’t changed their liveries. With a few notable exceptions, that was true, which was always going to be a risk with this kind of event.
However F1 pulled it off with undeniable flair and polish. There were a few genuinely entertaining moments, not least from Whitehall, who managed a few cheeky digs at the expense of the drivers. At its best, there were times when it felt like watching the celebrated Clive James TV special which greeted F1’s 1997 move to ITV in the UK.
It felt grimly corporate at times, however. The sponsor name-dropping reached truly crass levels, particularly when Racing Bulls appeared. Some of the attempts to shoehorn in references to F1’s partners felt woefully contrived. That would have had me reaching for the ‘off’ button had I been watching as a fan, and I didn’t feel the musical performances added anything either.
Still, I’m sure I enjoyed it more than FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem. Not only was his staunch anti-swearing stance mocked by Gordon Ramsay, but the federation was loudly booed after one appreciatively mentioned its role in ensuring safety.
My opinion of F1 75 was always going to be skewed by the fact having multiple launches spread over a longer period suits me better as a website owner. As a fan, would I have sat through two hours of this, or stuck a film on and looked for the livery pictures later? Truthfully, the latter – especially if I was already planning to set 24 weekends aside to watch all the races.
Now it remains to be seen whether F1 75 Live is the shape of things to come, and a concept which could be repeated in other countries, or, like F1’s 2017 Live London event, it is destined to be a one-off.
You say
Was Formula 1’s new pre-season livery launch event F1 75 a success? Cast your vote below and have your say in the comments:
Do you think Formula 1's pre-season livery launch event was a success?
- No opinion / did not watch (31%)
- Strongly disagree (25%)
- Slightly disagree (14%)
- Neither agree nor disagree (7%)
- Slightly agree (16%)
- Strongly agree (7%)
Total Voters: 174
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Roger Ayles (@roger-ayles)
18th February 2025, 23:11
I can’t say I liked it at all, was basically everything I hate about the show over sport direction that Liberty are taking F1.
I thought the presenter was bad, I thought the presentation of the show was bad and I thought the reveals and stuff themselves also fell flat.
I vastly prefer the traditional way with teams having individual launches as it not only has interest spread out over a couple weeks but also gives time to properly look over the liveries and cars. And they also avoid all the cringe I had to suffer through during this show.
This show was just terrible from start to finish.
Pete Ross
18th February 2025, 23:17
Hear, hear!
I luv chicken
19th February 2025, 2:13
I lasted 17 minutes. Then I thought, that I can see these paint jobs, online, or next week, at the testing. It’s 17 minutes of my life, that i will never regain.
Cdfemke
19th February 2025, 7:30
I think americans love it
The rest of the world not so much? You didnt. I didnt. Many others didnt.
Its a bit like enforcing 2 pitstops in monaco, too much fake sauce.
The fake applause sample didn’t help either
Tyler M
19th February 2025, 16:18
American here – hated it. I think what you meant to say was “American owners Liberty Media” love it.
Don’t know how anyone would like that cringe. I don’t even think the people in attendance liked it. Nobody looked excited to be there.
anon
19th February 2025, 11:38
Given you had said previously that you did not like the idea of that event and that you weren’t going to watch it, why did you watch it in the first place?
It’s not just yourself that question applies to either – there are a lot of posters on this site that had sworn they would not watch the event because they hated the idea so much, yet clearly they chose to watch something they claimed they weren’t interested in and went into with the expectation, and perhaps intention, of disliking it.
Why did so many chose to watch something they wanted to dislike from the outset and which they had previously said they didn’t want to watch?
rprp
19th February 2025, 12:27
Couldn’t agree more. This stuff is all optional. As is Drive To Survive (which I stopped watching after laughing out loud at the “the fastest person in qualifying … starts at the front” phrase in (I think) series 3.
I don’t mind these things though if other people enjoy them. F1 shouldn’t be an exclusive club for “true” F1 fans (whatever that means).
What does bother me though is the incredible increase in ticket prices in recent years, due to all the increased demand and celebrity hype. Fake F1 fans – stay away from my tickets! :)
Cwhithe
19th February 2025, 23:36
It seemed like a Disney project gone wrong.
Pete Ross
18th February 2025, 23:16
Too many flashing lights, overly loud and inappropriate music and not enough concentration on teams and drivers. As my old headmaster to to say about me – “could do much better!”
BenjaminS (@benihana)
18th February 2025, 23:16
Too much talkie talkie and self promotion and not enough showing of the cars. Would od been more impressive with all 2025 cars in all their colors in my opinion.
Cdfemke
19th February 2025, 7:32
They werent showing the cars but unveiling the sponsoring stickers (liveries). It was never about cars
BenjaminS (@benihana)
19th February 2025, 11:03
Yeah, that I realised, my point being that this would have more substance to many fans if the sponsor stickers père plastered over the 2025 cars. There were some, McLaren, Williams and Ferrari. It just lacked anykind of substance for fans without seeing all of the 2025 cars.
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
18th February 2025, 23:19
I didn’t think it was horrible. They let each team kind of define their strategy for introduction. I think some of the acts were cringe, but mostly because of the tv production / timing / cadence / what ever. So maybe get a better a better director, or be better direction.
I think this was more like a gala, but the people who were up in the nosebleeds should have paid more fairly. It’s not like they were mingling with the well-to-dos. F1 should be more inclusive, but I think these days, its more about inclusive banking / cash-flows.
PeterG
18th February 2025, 23:19
Honestly that was one of the worst F1 related things I’ve ever watched part of.
I watched probably about half hour and then turned it off as I just wasn’t willing to sit through anymore of it. Awful, simply and truly abysmally terrible!!
Hope they never do that again and looking through the reaction in other F1 related communities I visit it feels like a majority of fans agree with me on that as I’m seeing very little praise for it.
I luv chicken
19th February 2025, 2:16
Needed what McLaren did years ago. Have the Spice Girls appear and sing, not just a retired one, knitting at a table.
Hazel Southwell (@hazelsouthwell)
18th February 2025, 23:20
I am torn between whether they should do this every year or never again. On the one hand, it was very efficient at launching all ten cars and although it was a lot of cringe for one evening, it was a significantly smaller amount than when teams do their individual launches, collectively.
The parts that really didn’t work are that this was an extremely local launch. Every host was British and the vast majority of attendees were from the UK (at a guess, given how much Red Bull got booed) so although it was being beamed worldwide it felt less global than the usual launches. Which, I am aware, mostly take place in the UK but this had the distinct feel of a Brit Awards night.
Giving the drivers a maximum of about 15 seconds to speak meant the relentless pomp of launching ten cars in a row was got through quickly but not in a way that made me too excited about seeing the fellas back after their break. I get that the press conferences had more in-depth interviews for journalists but if this event was supposed to be for the fans then they got short-changed there.
On a purely shallow level McLaren have finally produced some nice race suits so thumbs up to them.
Coventry Climax
19th February 2025, 9:27
What’s ‘efficiency’ got to do with it? For most, motorracing is a hobby, a pastime. You go to a motorracing weekend at Silverstone just for the five minutes where they all cross the line? That would be efficient. And pointless.
As for the ‘amount of cringe’; you can’t combine the cringe of the separate shows into a single amount and then compare that to the amount of this show. With the separate shows you get the option to choose which ones to watch an which ones to skip.
Alan Dove
19th February 2025, 12:22
Culminative Cringe theory is something I’d need to look into. I have written about Collective Cringe and how that impacts cohesion within a community – https://alandove.substack.com/p/f1-and-the-power-of-collective-cringe – but not considered the nature of the Big Cringe vs Multiple Individual Cringes.
Interesting
Coventry Climax
19th February 2025, 14:13
Read your article. Nice, didn’t know you did things like that/this.
But: I must confess I’m of the opinion you credit the corporate guys with far more intelligence and an intent far wider than just their wallets, than what, in all of its historic background and likelihood, they actually deserve credit for.
I know the love-hate relationship -as that’s my interpretation of what, basically, you’re talking about- is or can be complex.
I’m a pretty straightforward guy though. For me, and whatever the amount, cringe, contempt, condemnation and rejection all go in the same direction, which is the opposite of love and appreciation.
DonDon (@dondonmontoya)
18th February 2025, 23:26
I can’t believe this negativity. I thought it was great fun. Jack Whitehall was very funny. He judged it perfectly from the start – taking the Micky the whole time and not taking any of it too seriously. As a launch event it got me properly excited about the season to come. And it was interesting to see how each team treated their few minutes (apart from Alpine who basically didn’t bother!). I’ve watched F1 avidly for 40+ years so I’m not exactly a new fan. After such a long break since the last race I just really enjoyed watching it. Yes we can moan about the sponsor mentions and some of the launches were a bit lazy – but as an event it was great fun! So cheer up everyone and don’t be so picky.
An Sionnach
19th February 2025, 1:12
I thought Jack Whitehall was pretty funny, too. Sauber put on a good show, and the intro to the Aston Martin one was amusing. Most of the rest of them were uninspiring, and the Red Bull one was beyond lame. Of course, the partisan crowd was already booing before this, but that was no surprise.
It wasn’t all bad, but it’s better when the teams handle their own launches. When I heard about the event I thought it seemed reasonably-priced for what it was. If they insist on having another one next year, it should be in Dublin so they can sell the tickets for thrice the price. I still won’t go.
An Sionnach
19th February 2025, 17:00
I should say that the team livery launches are usually rubbish, too. You might get something like the short films at this event. The part i enjoyed the most was the presenter. Novelty helped here and I’m not sure the same thing next year would work.
Didn’t like any of the singing so I skipped it.
It was nice to see some of the older drivers sitting together. Paused it on a few occasions to see how many familiar faces I could see.
The current drivers didn’t get much time to speak, but Alonso was still amusing. Charming, even? Not sure if he’d like to be described in such a way, but I think it’s accurate.
Raid
19th February 2025, 12:55
I think Whitehall represented exactly what I wanted from the evening, and I suspect everything that Liberty Media, or at least the individual team sponsors, didn’t. There was something immensely amusing to me about VCARB doing a 5 minute, painfully unfunny and obviously fake skit on getting people to say the full name of the team, only for Whitehall to immediately shoot it down afterward by saying that they’ll be changing it next year anyway.
Whitehall was, for the most part, an entertaining presenter, but he absolutely felt at odds with the rest of the evening which was largely po-faced and corporate-trying-to-appear-vaguely-human. Cutting to Gordon Ramsey, a celebrity famous for his swearing, to deliberately make light of the FIA’s idiotic swearing ban was what I wanted, however I imagine Mohammed Ben Sulayem did a comedy spit-take or choked on his caviar.
LyndaMarks
18th February 2025, 23:27
Yeah wasn’t a fan of that at all.
Just further highlights how Liberty want to turn F1 into an Americanised show. This sort of rubbish may work over there but anywhere else it just comes across as a horribly clingy contrived show that is putting all of that nonsense above the sport.
If they do it again next year I guess at least we now know it’s something to skip I guess.
I luv chicken
19th February 2025, 2:18
I felt sorry for anyone there, who may have paid.
SteveR (@stever)
19th February 2025, 4:27
Best comment tonight! Should be comment of the day.
Robert (@lekkerbek)
19th February 2025, 8:10
Well they lost all sympathy when they started booing a specific driver and team boss. British audience showing their worst behaviour again and again.
stevie303
19th February 2025, 19:02
hear hear.
Edvaldo
18th February 2025, 23:47
I didn’t understand what was the point at all. A 2-hour event in which the stars of the show, the drivers, team principals, and their cars, only get, at best, a couple of minutes on the screen.
On the business side, it was probably a good idea as the arena was sold out, or at least it looked sold out, but i couldn’t care less about that.
BasCB (@bascb)
19th February 2025, 7:09
Yeah, that is the biggest issue. A lot of pomp and show to make it more of an “event” but the things a real fan would be interested in most – the drivers, the cars (well those weren’t really new, just repainted) and maybe tech staff – got sort of relegated to the second bench for it.
It was sold out, and it seems many people tuned in, so I guess it was a commercial success. To me it is annoying to have them all out at the same time, since it will mean we just gloss over the few interchangeable team quotes and splashes of colour on the cars and forget about it instead of having anticipation building over several weeks as teams come out with new info, livery teases, new car teases etc.
I certainly won’t be spending my time watching such an event.
Femke
19th February 2025, 7:34
And they got to unveil the sponsoring stickers (liveries). Now onto the real cqr launches, we alreqdy had mclaren amd williams , cant wait for the rest
cdxc (@cdxc)
18th February 2025, 23:53
For me it was a Super Bowl halftime show without the game. I couldn’t care less.
User (@user576)
19th February 2025, 0:00
I thought it was good, assuming the aim of the event was to drive more earned media than the individual launches do, then I would imagine it will be considered a success. I would expect press to cover a one off season launch event like that whereas individual team launches are likely to be only on F1 news publications.
There certainly were some bits that didn’t quite work, Brian Tyler’s performance was poor for example, but overall I felt it had strong energy and ‘kicked off’ the season and generated excitement in a way that pre-season testing does not.
El Pollo Loco
19th February 2025, 0:13
You’d need to define what constitutes a success to answer this vacuous question/topic, which every single F1 website has published an identical article about today.
Michael Quinn
19th February 2025, 0:18
Meh. It was fine. Wouldn’t bother to watch another one.
I guess they had to pad it out to two hours make the 15,000 muppets who bought a ticket feel like they had gotten something. And for the celebs / teams / drivers to feel like it wasn’t a complete waste of time over in 30 minutes.
Basically some mule cars from last year with a few new stickers on them. Did anyone change anything major?
Next year I’ll just check the photos posted 2 minutes after reveals.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
19th February 2025, 18:26
And to meet contractual requirements – to book a venue out for a whole evening, it generally has to last at least a certain length of time (unless the venue is feeling generous or is paid significantly more than the per-hour rate would have been). Otherwise the venue will ask everyone to be out by a certain time to fit in another fee-paying activity.
Oxnard (@montalvo)
19th February 2025, 0:23
It was just awful. Well, for the part that I saw. Like an award show nobody asked for. The show kicks off with villainizing Max Verstappen, then talking up the Brits, some more unfunny jokes at the expense of certain people. The fact that the crowd bood the entire Red Bull Racing reveal also says a lot. F1 does nothing to fight the Verstappen hate, they just encourage it. Disgusting.
Jonathan Parkin
19th February 2025, 5:06
It maybe was unfair to boo Red Bull and Verstappen. And maybe the FIA aren’t doing anything to fight ‘Verstappen hate’
However it has to be said that Red Bull don’t particularly help themselves either. Letting Verstappen have his ‘yield or we’ll crash’ mentality and supporting it to the hilt is bound to get people riled up. Yes he is a terrific driver, but he doesn’t need to be a complete bellend
Robbie1
19th February 2025, 17:42
What yield or crash mentality are you speaking off?
I see Max do nothing but proper racing, unlike Lewis, who has no qualms sending drivers to the hospital, or George, who can’t wait getting out of his car to smack the victim of his reckless driving on the head.
Oh wait, I live in an objective, non British part of the world.
An Sionnach
19th February 2025, 16:49
The booing was bad, but I think the slagging from the host was good-natured, and even funny.
Mark (@mrcento)
19th February 2025, 0:56
No.
GT Racer (@gt-racer)
19th February 2025, 0:57
It was essentially exactly what I thought it would be but even knowing that I can’t say I liked it and as such didn’t bother watching for all that long.
And from what i’ve heard repeatedly over the past few years I know full well that this sort of showbiz event is something Liberty media want to do more of, Not necessarily in this form but they do really want to have some form of big showbiz extravaganza at every race weekend…. That making every race feel like a super-bowl quote that multiple people within both Liberty media & FOM have spoken about repeatedly.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
19th February 2025, 18:23
Are they trying to lose viewers and visitors?!? That seems to be the right way to go about it.
Maciek (@maciek)
19th February 2025, 2:55
Didn’t watch it, didn’t want to, never will, and yet I can confidently say I know it was exactly what I thought it would be from the few stills I’ve come across – vapid pap for the easily distracted… sorry, sorry, I mean engaging content giving fans more of they want.
David BR (@david-br)
19th February 2025, 9:18
@maciek +! Sums up my complete indifference.
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
19th February 2025, 12:08
Snap!
Tifoso
19th February 2025, 4:46
This is probably what the new generation of “fans” like to see. It was cringe to watch, so after the presentation of Sauber I stopped watching.
Is it true the were really booing at certain teams? If that’s true, F1 and their fans have fallen further down than I already thought they were….
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
19th February 2025, 18:22
I don’t think it would have been exciting enough for the new generation.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
19th February 2025, 5:38
I honestly can’t think of a more boring thing to watch than a livery presentation event with all the pomp and whistles from modern sports. I never watched any of the presentations of yesteryear when each team would do their own thing. That’s also boring. The only good bit is when you see the car, everything else, the interviews, the horrible sponsor talk, and so on is just a snooze.
So I didn’t feel like I missed much following through twitter. You just see the car’s right away, without suffering all the other. And given F1 is F1 it was incredibly underwhelming, as most cars are the same and they aren’t particularly pretty with very few exceptions.
Deerhunter
19th February 2025, 5:50
In terms of presentation, this was a slick and well-produced affair, so Liberty at least deserves credit for that.
But comparing this to the MotoGP launch at Bangkok, where the riders and the bikes all literally took to the streets to actually mingle with the fans, it’s hard not to look at this F1 75 launch as another one of Liberty’s cynical branding/marketing exercise ala the Las Vegas GP.
Seriously, just take a look at the photos of the riders in Bangkok actually having fun and putting on a show for the fans, who was there for free by the way, and compare them to the drivers and principals looking somewhat awkward on stage, and you’d be hard pressed to call this a ‘win’ for F1.
Jack Whitehall tried his genial best, but this was a clunker from start to finish.
Femke
19th February 2025, 7:35
It was a livery unveil. Was never about the cars but the sponsoring stickers
SoLiDG (@solidg)
19th February 2025, 6:06
I really enjoyed it.
Jack Whitehall did a brilliant job at the presentation and the jokes.
I like this launch better than the render launches we get the last few years.
Everybody got to do their own style for the launch and it was good.
Clearly not everyone’s cup of tea but I think it’s a great start of the season!
Ideals (@ideals)
19th February 2025, 6:37
This was a lot of fun. Could’ve been cringey, but I did enjoy that a lot. Jack Whitehall did a great job and was genuinely funny throughout. The presentations all having a unique vibe really helped and they didn’t linger too long on any of them. It was a nice little thing to hype up the new season.
Davethechicken
19th February 2025, 6:41
I wonder if F1 went through with their statement to refuse entry to resold tickets?
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
19th February 2025, 18:21
Davethechicken, the venue would have done so, regardless of F1’s opinion of the matter – it’s standard policy at O2 and all other large British venues that primarily host music concerts and similar events.
WG
19th February 2025, 6:41
It wasn’t as awful as I thought it would be, but then I don’t think it was really meant for me anyway and that’s very much ok!
Nm
19th February 2025, 6:49
Just English people being themselves (again)
Christopher Rehn (@chrischrill)
19th February 2025, 7:01
Honestly I did not mind it. It was all a bit awkward, Jack Whitehall did his best but I think he was fairly restricted in what he could and could not say.
Gordon Ramsay cursing about the swearing ban was fun. The booing for FIA was fun. The incredibly awkward Horner was fun, because I think he was up on stage first to deflect the booing from Max but instead he just got everything.
It was all very British, including topping everything off with the lesser known parts of a 30-year old boy band.
For 2026, if they repeat this, I would encourage them to do it somewhere else and try to bring fans from all teams. It wasn’t fair on Max and Red Bull. Host it in maybe Germany (a forgotton F1 market) with tickets reserved for all 10 F1 team fan bases, host it with a Dutchman alongside one British or Dutch or Italian or American host.
Also, more focus on the cars. This event will attract us nerds, so stop with the flashy shows and get into more nerdy detail. “What makes your 2026 challenger unique?”.
Femke
19th February 2025, 7:37
On the youtube stream there was no single boo to be heared, we got the same fake cheering and applauding sample over and over again
Gorson was great !!
Ideals (@ideals)
19th February 2025, 10:53
We all watched the same stream, there was booing.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
19th February 2025, 18:20
@ideals There were also fake cheering samples (along with actual cheering, which made its use more ridiculous).
Mr A
19th February 2025, 9:50
We don’t need a Dutchman or a presenter of any particular nationality.
What we need is for people to be respectful. It’s uncouth the boo people, but this is what FOM have attracted. This is also what Max has attracted for his unethical and unsporting actions towards competitors and the press.
Severin (@severin)
19th February 2025, 10:29
There was booing before Verstappen came on the scene. I first remember noticing it with Vettel in his championship years.
Been watching for nearly 50 years and before that I don’t remember any except extreme cases USA non event, Austria team orders, the Tifosi being the Tifosi etc.
Ideals (@ideals)
19th February 2025, 10:57
I just don’t think it’s a FOM thing, honestly, it’s a general societal issue. Not much to do, add some groupthink and off the crowd goes.
All in all, I don’t think it ultimately is much to get all too upset about. The crowd was just trying to have some fun, it wasn’t really all that malicious.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
19th February 2025, 18:18
@severin It also happened during the Hill/Schumacher years (in both directions – I may have noticed the boos against Schumacher more due to how the BBC cut the footage, but neither was exempt).
Unfortunately, in the last decade or so, the powers-that-be appear to have flat encouraged bad behaviour through example. Audiences can’t emulate some of the behaviours they see, but they can certainly emulate the teams and organiser apparently wanting to turn various people and teams in F1 into pantomime villains and reacting the same way they do to pantomime villains!
Jere (@jerejj)
19th February 2025, 7:39
Short answer: Strongly agree in the end.
Long answer: I watched the whole thing & this launch event ultimately proved to be a positive surprise, so in hindsight, I don’t get all the hate it received beforehand.
The only thing I somewhat disliked, if anything, was Jack Whitewall’s cringey remarks aimed at drivers, team personnel, & some celebrity guests.
They were funny, but still a bit too cringey for a (relatively) formal event.
One thing I especially liked was Aston Martin’s 007-themed introduction phase, especially the digitally-created reference to the 1999 World Is Not Enough film’s opening chase, which literally ends on the 02 Arena’s roof, as well as the drivers’ appearance on the grandstand wearing suits & helmets.
Somehow, neither Red Bull Racing driver got interviewed on the stage like all other drivers, which is baffling.
I liked the F1/racing-themed songs, with the lyrics clearly made for the purpose.
I somehow failed to recognize Brian Tyler, but I liked Gordon Ramsay’s approach to the swearing matter, & understandably FIA got booed when mentioned & logo displayed.
If only MBS were in attendance.
Vincent Ouwehand (@bazzek)
19th February 2025, 8:11
I am not sure egging MBS would have been such an improvement. Although, i would watch the reruns just for that to be fair.
Biggsy
19th February 2025, 7:49
I really struggle to understand what is this event offering to anyone who is actually interested in F1 as sport?
You didn’t get to see the cars up close, or have a proper look at them, unless you are on the stage itself.
You didn’t get to hear the cars.
None of the things an F1 fan would actually be interested in are being experienced better in this format.
As someone above said, a perfect image of the current F1 trend of show over sport.
Style over substance.
A pure, unadulterated Americanization of the sport.
Mr A
19th February 2025, 9:53
They weren’t even the proper cars. There was nothing to see in this regard.
Whole thing was a waste of time which detracted from traditional launch season. In other words, they have ruined launch season for the massive majority to please a tiny tiny number of ticketholders.
This isn’t a surprise, it’s just a shame.
Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
19th February 2025, 7:55
I didn’t watch as away with work but not really my sort of thing.
I hope those that watched enjoyed but for me I’ve really missed enjoying the individual car launches over a couple of weeks, usually one of my favourite times of year but never mind.
black (@black)
19th February 2025, 7:58
Over the years I thought that I liked more when teams put some effort into making the launch unique (like in 2011 McLaren assembled their car in square in Berlin, in 2020 Ferarri had an ‘opera’ setting if I remember correctly to celebrate their 1000th race), and then later that day they took that car for a shakedown and gave us some nice pics.
I think prefered it compared to when teams (especially rich ones like Mercedes) just showed up in Jerez, unveiled the car outside of a garage and had a shakedown.
It was nice, it had some presentation flair and was true to it’s racing values, kinda like unwrapping a gift on Christmas morning as a child and playing with it for the rest of the day. And also I liked that from mid-January to mid-February I was slowly getting into F1 mood again after the winter break, with one car launch per day, where everyone in this site went and had a look at the pictures and discussed about all the changes. Everything leading up to testing and the 1st race.
Yesterday’s show was… “whatever”. I mean it wasn’t terrible, it had some production value… but I couldn’t care less about this ‘style over substance’ show they produced. It killed all my excitement I had for dedicated car launches in one big flash Americanized show.
PS: While it was a nice change that most cars were not black with a few bits of colour (like Alpine last year), unless something changed in the regulations, I expect to see more black car when testing starts… I think yesterday’s was more of a “livery that we wanted to race, but can’t because of weight issues, so it’s not mostly black so that you don’t boo us tonight since you’re gathered all here” type launch.
Alan Dove
19th February 2025, 8:03
Of course it’s a success.
Collective Cringe, whereby large groups of people share their distress, still has positive psychological upside for the ‘fandom’. Then there are a people that actually did like it. So right now it’s all ‘positive’ for F1.
F1 has no competition in the market place. They are in the ‘can do no wrong’ zone.
how long that lasts however, who knows.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
19th February 2025, 18:15
F1 has a lot of competition in the marketplace.
For example, this particular event was competing with every other activity happening yesterday evening. After 5 minutes, I decided that the games on my computer had out-competed a televised boardroom meeting, and my relative who found the stream of F1 Live decided to watch some TV.
F1 races have similar competition and Liberty would be wise to keep this in mind. If yesterday was their idea of entertainment, people will be excused for tuning out.
Alan Dove
19th February 2025, 21:06
This post has had over 100 comments. Liberty have won. People are talking about this event.
F1 doesn’t have market competition in terms of motorsport. So it has freedom to be fast and loose with the cringe factor.
I there was another series with less ‘cringe factor’ and was on-par in terms of fan interest, then these kind of events would look desperate and weird. Without competition, they have the opposite effect of uniting people. That’s the theory is posit.
Vincent Ouwehand (@bazzek)
19th February 2025, 8:08
There clearly are 2 types of fans these days. 1 group is very heavily represented on Racefans.net, i am a part of that group.
My group doesn’t like the miami and vegas pre race things and may even skip out on the anthems cause the only noise we want to hear is the cars.
Are we wrong, no, are we right? don’t think so either.
The other group.
There were 20.000 people in that stadium that enjoyed the show. Normal media (not F1 specific media) are very enthusiastic about the show, loved how Gordon Ramsey took a dig at the FIA and their childish anti swearing fines en they enjoyed the presenter.
This group doesn’t care about the cars, they care about the show. And they are far more numerous then we are.
Does that mean you should have watched this?
No
Does that mean it was bad?
It was for us, but it wasn’t meant for us. And any parent watching Teletubbies with his infant will know what that means.
So yes, this show was the teletubbies of F1. I think that is fitting.
Ideals (@ideals)
19th February 2025, 8:51
What nonsense to turn this into a black or white affair where one group only cares about show and the other only about racing. As if there’s no universe where one can enjoy a show while also liking the sport aspect.
It’s this kind of thinking that leads to the rather insane amount of gatekeeping to determine who is real fan and who is not, it’s just so silly.
Vincent Ouwehand (@bazzek)
19th February 2025, 19:41
Okay, fair enough, Imissed the third group, the hybrid of both.
And it probably is more of a sliding scale anyways.
Point I was trying to make. If you don’t like it, it wasn’t meant for you. If you enjoyed it, great
barkun (@barkun)
19th February 2025, 8:15
A waste of time and resources. I prefer the individual launches teams used to have. Jack Whitehall did a good job but you could tell none of the drivers were comfortable being there. Nobody talked about the cars (technical aspect) because it was just paintjobs. If F1 wanted to do something collectively, it could have been done much better (as others already said before me).
Ideals (@ideals)
19th February 2025, 8:54
I mean, there’s other events for that right? There’s 3 days of pre-season testing with 8 hours worth of coverage where we’ll get all the technical analysis we could possibly wish for from FOM. Why can’t there be room for multiple types of broadcasts for different aspects? This was a light-hearted event to celebrate the season start. Nothing to take too seriously, and nothing that replaces what you were looking for, either. We’re still getting that next week as Sam Collins and Jolyon Palmer and co especially will undoubtedly spend a lot of time going over each cars technical changes.
Sam de Jong
19th February 2025, 8:56
It was awful, but I could see some value if it was the lead up to the pre season test. Morning of day 1 of the test watch the reveal then from lunchtime the test begins. Extra half day of testing in my books
Osnola
19th February 2025, 9:04
Its obvious these kind of events can not be hold in the uk.
The way the local hooligans acted during some presentations was appalling.
Nuf said. Let it be the last time for this
Mr A
19th February 2025, 9:44
What are you referring to just out of interest?
Nm
19th February 2025, 14:46
The same thing as that happens on silverstone every year
Osnola
19th February 2025, 17:06
The way the “public” reacted when redbull presented max verstappen and when horner speeched. Constant animal behaviour.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
19th February 2025, 18:10
Presumably the boos for Toto Wolff, Christian Horner and the FIA. (I disapprove of these, but I suspect the issue will solve itself next year as this event is clearly nothing like as advertised and many fewer people are likely to want to attend).
Coventry Climax
19th February 2025, 9:18
I did not take the trouble to watch it. Does that – after intensely following F1 for some odd 50 years already – count as a ‘not very successful’?
Glad to have made my choice, as “bands” like Take That are usually reason for me to completely turn off a radio/whatever device, just leave the room/space or not go there in the first place. I have no interest in sponsorstickers either.
The entire idea is so massively far off from what I feel that F1 actually is about.
Compare this to any autoshow on TV and at least there, they talk a bit (way too little to my liking, e.g. car weight is almost inevitably always omitted) about dimensions, performance, handling capabilities and practicality. That last one because they’re obviously road going, all household cars, with the one, odd exception now and then.
But would you watch that show if the car’s color scheme was the only topic covered?
And then with the only possible comment like ‘Oh, that looks cute’?
Dave The Drummer (@davethedrummer)
19th February 2025, 9:29
It was a success in that it met the brief: Launch the 2025 liveries.
But the whole thing could have been condensed down to about 20 minutes. Some of the comedic mickey-taking was funny and so were some crowd reactions. But the incredibly self-aggrandising and sickly saccharine voice-overs were really tasteless and vulgar with some bordering on the crass. I think it was probably a wasted opportunity to do some actual engagement rather than mutual back-slapping and yet more confirmation of the stonewalled boys club mentality.
A shame
G (@unklegsif)
19th February 2025, 9:29
So, here’s my (inconsequential) thoughts, for what they are worth
Having dipped in and out while writing reports up last night (but still got the gist), read various fan reviews online as well as read and listened to some “seasoned” journo’s who were in the room – you know the sort, the bobble hat wearing, Barcelona long-run testing in Feb sort, I think the overall impression is that “you had to be there”. Even the “things ain’t what they used to be” brigade who were in the room seemed to be won over to some extent. I’ve also heard of some journo’s who dont cover F1, being present so it will be working to cut through to new audiences and markets.
I’m sure the atmosphere in the room helped to hype it all up and get the fans going, but effectively they are who this event was for – the ones in the room. Sure there could / should have been some bits done better – more driver and TP time on the microphone for example, but overall for the crowd, it seems to have been a hit
G
Mr A
19th February 2025, 9:38
Overall, I thought it was terrible.
There was absolutely no focus on anything technical whatsoever – and this is because it was a sham launch with last year’s cars. We then had to endure CEOs and drivers looking at said cars, talking about them as if they were the new ones, while the public looked on.
The Aston Martin singer was honestly like nails down a blackboard, squashed into a dress several times too small and could not sing at all. I just don’t get it, and nobody I watch F1 with gets it either. It adds nothing.
Quite what z-list music groups that literally nobody who watches F1 has heard of have to do with car launches is beyond me. It was horrendous, cringe and completely inappropriate.
Please just let the teams do their traditional launches next year.
I don’t like Jack Whitehall, but I thought he was decent last night and it reminded me a little of Ricky Gervais at the Golden Globes a few years ago. Gordon Ramsay was hilarious. But it was all so out of context and jarring.
MichaelN
19th February 2025, 9:38
Didn’t watch, or even know it was now. Now every F1 website has 20+ articles all at once.
I guess I’ll just wait for the on track action to get a sense of the new looks.
Coventry Climax
19th February 2025, 14:24
Looking at the pictures, all liveries have remained the same by and large, so you’ll not find all that much surprise.
Maybe Racing Bulls start to look a bit more like the ‘famous’ Briatore period Renaults, but that’s about it:
The Ferraris are still red, the Red Bulls blue, the McLarens papaya, The Saubers fluo green, the Mercedes unchanged, the Astons still looking like the Mercs, etc.
Olivier
19th February 2025, 9:48
I liked it, but it could use a few tweaks:
1. Keep the corporate promotional intro video under 30 seconds.
2. Brundle’s questioning of the McLaren drivers and team principal was great—focused and insightful, not clueless.
3. Skip the comedy segment. It fits better in a year-end retrospective, not in the lead-up to a new season when you want to build anticipation and keep everyone focused.
4. Adopt a press conference format where drivers, designers, and team principals answer questions.
5. Stick to the traditional car reveal with a cloth instead of a time-consuming rollout on an automated platform.
DonSmee (@david-beau)
19th February 2025, 10:55
The comedy sections were great. I would have tuned out from the get go if it werent for the comedy to keep me watching. Reason I say this because it was unexpected. Most F1 presentations are the same run ofthe mill boring, corporate stuff.
Michael A.
19th February 2025, 10:06
What a total farce!
British fans living up to their reputation.
I only looked at photos on this site and thought that F1 is well and truly stuffed.
The Racing Car Show used to be worth visiting.
skylab (@skylab)
19th February 2025, 10:08
It was really a case of ‘what old corporate men think young hip people want’ (pretty much as expected). I love livery launch season but that many all at once made me feel like I had gorged on an entire box of chocolates all at once!
Biggsy
19th February 2025, 11:08
Well, gorging and overeating is par-for-course when it comes to Americanization of F1. :)
Tayyib Abu
19th February 2025, 10:15
I know this gets typecast as if you liked it then you are not a ‘real hardcore’ fan and the event was for ‘casual DTS’ fans. I’ve watched F1 since I was 3. The last race I missed was the 2013 Indian GP. And I enjoyed the event for what it was.
If you were expecting technical talk and debate about the benefits of Push Rod vs Pull Rod, this was not for you. And also it was never advertised for that. There is a time and a place for that and that’s testing at Bahrain
Also, F1’s history is littered with extravagant and ‘nothing to do with racing’ launches. Whether it’s Spice Girls, DHL, Cirque Du Soleil, Red Square Launch or whatever, F1 teams of their own accord have held ‘cringeworthy’ launches. Alpine had Zinedine Zidane a few years ago. What is the harm of doing one big ridiculous launch instead of having 10 separate strange launches
There are things that can be improved. I thought most of the music acts were sub par, Alpine and Aston’s launches felt really strange and I don’t think this is worth being an annual thing. But, my 6 year old children loved it and I enjoyed it too. And now we can get down to business
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
19th February 2025, 18:05
I was expecting entertainment, or at least some people other than the audience with some sign of being interested in events. I didn’t see it.
DonSmee (@david-beau)
19th February 2025, 10:53
I liked it more than the average ceremonial presentation you see on TV these days. I actually thought it was very entertaining! The jokes were good, great visuals, great musical performances, was great seeing the drivers so candid, and that moment with Chef Gordon Ramsey couldn’t have been scripted!
Really liked it. But I think it should not be something that is dones every year. Leave it for these sorts of aniversaries.
Bullfrog (@bullfrog)
19th February 2025, 18:56
Yes, maybe when F1 100 comes around, people will be looking back on this as fondly as Keith and the Clive James Grand Prix Show.
Richard Rowden
19th February 2025, 12:09
As with all things it depends on your perspective and expectations going in to the event, was it a success for the average Racefans viewer, of course not as it was never going to be about anything sporting or technical.
Was it a success for the teams PR & Marketing teams absolutely, a chance to invite key sponsors and stakeholders to a red carpet event with the chance to meet drivers, team principles and other guests, for the sponsors a chance to benefit from the money they spend on the team to participate and bring along thier key guests to a globally televised event where thier brand is being showcased…. i am sure in future negotiations with sponsors this is something they can point at to show what kind of exposure and brand activation they can achieve…. take Willliams, new title sponsor who has benefitted from a more traditional launch last week plus this event already, i am sure they are feeling an early reward for thier investment
Craig
19th February 2025, 12:15
Whether it was a success or not by our metrics is likely irrelevant (I still think it was a waste of time and didn’t watch it), whoever forced the idea through will have already convinced themselves it’s a success regardless.
bsanderson (@bsanderson)
19th February 2025, 12:21
Not as bad as I expected but let’s not do it again until the 100th year
The Dolphins
19th February 2025, 12:24
There’s a 13 minute highlight video posted on YouTube, maybe I’ll watch that. Maybe.
bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
19th February 2025, 12:32
It’s not for us. If you’re on this site, then F1 history etc is probably something you’re well versed in.
It’s a different audience. I can’t stand Reggae. But I don’t go to concerts and yell at people (it’s crossed my mind).
Jack Whitehall……… etc. But it pays the bills, and F1 is growing. Yes, there is loads of stuff we don’t agree with. You can’t blame the ‘commercialisation’ of F1 at Liberty when Bernie previously held court with a million dollars in a glass case in his office.
If the drivers come out to Bob Marley though, I’m done.
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
19th February 2025, 13:29
ha ha. +1 btw
Coventry Climax
19th February 2025, 14:31
I don’t like reggae either, but if you smoke what they do, it’s bearable. Just.
Can’t imagine what I need to take to appreciate “bands” like Take That. A lobotomy, most likely.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
19th February 2025, 18:03
The audience for corporate waffle is not the sort of audience who pays the price of a top musical artist’s concert to spend several hours listening to it in a concert venue. (That genre sounds best in a different environment, with comfier chairs and more computer presentations, from what I gather).
Sarah (@elyndys19)
19th February 2025, 12:45
It was much better than I thought it was going to be, I’ll say that. It looked slick, Jack Whitehall’s role was done to just the right level of humour without taking over, and I appreciated that every reveal took a different format, even if some were better and more entertaining than others. Though I think the best part was hearing the live audience reactions honestly – hearing Horner and the FIA getting booed was very satisfying!
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
19th February 2025, 13:28
I dont like it, i didnt watch it and here are my 10 reasons why…..
MacLeod (@macleod)
19th February 2025, 14:04
I saw some Liveries but total maybe 4-5 minutes long. I had hoped every livery would get 3-4 minutes so i can watch it. For me too much show & anoing booing.
Next year they can drop it this was more a British show with British entries in the spot light.
StephenH
19th February 2025, 14:09
As a Formula One fan since 1991, this was most embarrassing, cringeworthy, shallow, and vapid thing I have ever witnessed associated with the sport I love. Even Bernie, for all his many, many faults, would never have agreed to something like this. Just get on with the racing.
Nm
19th February 2025, 14:50
Looking at your profile picture, are you that YouTube guy who does f1 videos?
sam
19th February 2025, 16:34
Well spoken. Exactly how I feel,but without all the swearing I would have added.
Sergey Martyn
19th February 2025, 15:16
Deep Purple 1972 song “Never Before” (with a small corection) describes my feelings about this event perfectly:
Somebody, somebody
Come to my side
I’m tired, I’m crying
I’m sick inside
That event, that launch
Just wasn’t right
Help me now, please, my friend
I never felt so bad before
Never, never before
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
19th February 2025, 17:59
I saw 5 minutes on YouTube because one of my relatives happened to spot it in their recommended tab in YouTube. We agreed that it looked like a board meeting with more standing up. Everyone (including the presenters) sounded bored and as if they’d rather be anywhere else. The car I saw presented was shown in a really dull way.
It was more exciting that year in the mid-2000s where nearly everyone (barring Williams, McLaren and one other team) decided to do a small launch within 72 hours of the first collective test and just stick a few photos on the internet. At least then, there was reason to think some people cared about the process.
Please never do this again – it’s clearly a waste of everyone’s time. It certainly fleeced the customers, who paid the same as they would for a top-tier concert (albeit the less expensive seats), but got less for their money than they would have got had they gone to Autosport International a month earlier. (Autosport International, by the way, would cost quite a bit less).
S
20th February 2025, 0:01
Didn’t (and won’t ever) watch any event like this so can’t comment on the success factor – but I imagine it would be a lot more worthwhile if the teams actually changed liveries from year to year.
We can talk forever about how F1 has become more corporate marketing show than racing, but this is a prime example of Liberty doing exactly what they purchased F1’s commercial rights for – to make money.
Aquila_GD
20th February 2025, 1:13
It was a great event. Tems performance was a highlight for me. I certainly think they should consider more of this.
baasbas
22nd February 2025, 9:34
Instead of the O2 they should have booked Palais Bercy. Invite interesting names from other disciplines. And stop talking, start racing.
I’d watch that..
Didn’t watch this
MPH
22nd February 2025, 21:45
It is amazing how many comments there are about ‘not watching’ or tuning out after a short time. To all of the naysayers, no one forced you to watch, you had a choice. If I was a betting person, I would wager that there will be some of these same comments and commentators again next year, no matter which format they choose. Change can be tough for most people… sometimes you just have to open your minds and roll with it.
EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
23rd February 2025, 2:20
The good:
Liveries all released at the same time, and not drip fed.
The bad:
Everything else.