Welcome to Wednesday’s edition of the RaceFans round-up.
Comment of the day
Our poll on F1 75 has only just opened so the jury is still out for now, but Edvaldo is one of several early respondents who was not impressed:
I didn’t understand what was the point at all. A two-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.
Edvaldo
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Phildick, looseasagoose and Reginald!
On this day in motorsport
- Born on this day in 1952: Stephen South, who made a single attempt to qualify for a Formula 1 race at the 1980 Long Beach Grand Prix, substituting for Alain Prost at McLaren
- Five years ago today Haas revealed their new VF-20, raced by Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen – and later Pietro Fittipaldi
- Five years ago today Renault revealed their new RS20 chassis. It was their last car before the team rebranded as Alpine.
- Five years ago today Racing Point’s new car for 2020, the RP20, appeared for the first time in testing, bearing a strong similarity to Mercedes’ previous car. It gave the team formerly known as Force India (now Aston Martin) one victory in the Sakhir Grand Prix.
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jztemple
19th February 2025, 3:52
Nice that they are adding more laps to several Indycar events.
So far it looks like Fox network is doing a good job preparing for the Indycar season with planned coverage of practices and qualifying as well as the races. I can only hope that they do a better job than NBC did with their commercial breaks.
BasCB (@bascb)
19th February 2025, 7:00
Ha, good one there Keith about Piastri at that event. I agree that livery still looks stunning.
Ideals (@ideals)
19th February 2025, 10:51
It’s nice, but it doesn’t beat the West MP4-13 that they also had on stage (might have been a 14 or 15, but I think it was the 1998 car), so Keith was unfortunately factually wrong on his socials.
Diez Cilindros (@diezcilindros)
19th February 2025, 7:46
I could only see some snippets on X, but since in Spain we have identified a very weird correlation between F1 and Eurovision fandoms, I have to admit it was quite a similar show: 3 minutes for various representatives who show their creation, on a massive stage with big screens, music and sickening lighting.
If only we the public could have given 12 points for the better looking car!
Craig
19th February 2025, 10:43
I dare say the show could had been greatly improved by adding some Eurovision madness, especially with people enthusiastically playing (but clearly not actually playing) various instruments. There’ll definitely be a drinking game in that.
Jere (@jerejj)
19th February 2025, 7:46
I see the point in the COTD, but I still keep my stance that I found the event a positive surprise as a whole, with only Jack Whitewall’s unnecessarily cringey jabs & the lack of Red Bull Racing drivers’ interviews being downsides.
BBC: & Zero need to speak about their situations anymore.
The booing aimed at FIA when mentioned & logo displayed was ultimately understandable, considering everything they’ve done or that has happened regarding them in the recent past.
Audi sponsoring Sky’s UK coverage is interesting & I wonder how it’ll show in practice.
I quite liked the appearance of some past McLaren cars on stage & I can definitely share the view about the MP4-23 livery as I generally like the predominant livery design used in 2007-2013.
The side difference between MP4-23 & MCL39 is very noticeable, though.
Simply mind-blowing how much bigger F1 cars have got over the years.
Simon
19th February 2025, 20:42
Not entirely surprising…
Final ad breaks before the live races last year (and poss 2023) had Audi ads, together with Workday (previous Sky Sports F1 sponsor) ads as well