F1 2025 is here. Sort of. The powers that be, otherwise known as Formula 1 management and the FIA decided to ‘launch’ the 2025 cars at a glitzy event at London’s O2 arena. All ten teams were in attendance and so too were all team principals and all drivers except Max Verstappen, more on that later.
Billed as a great, big, glamorous event, nearly 25,000 people packed the stadium to get a glimpse of their favourite drivers and the 2025 cars. Except it was all rather confusing. The confusion came from the so-called car launches. If you’ve been an F1 fan for over five minutes, you’d know that the traditional car launch is a marketing gimmick. No true representation of the new car is ever presented at these events. So, what was presented at the 02 event were new liveries on old cars. Or was it old liveries on new cars? The point is that it was all rather a confounding exercise that did nothing more than produce fodder for social media.
Hosted by semi-comedian Jack Whitall, for whatever reason, the event just didn’t live up to the hype that those in charge thought it probably would. Firstly, mentioned of the FIA was met by a chorus of boos, Gordon Ramsay defied the swearing rule, and Christian Horner was jeered loudly on stage. It’s clear that, at least from those in attendance, the FIA’s approval rating is in the toilet, and it might well be all because of FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem. For some time now, he hasn’t been a popular figure among F1 fans, and he is seemingly beyond redemption, not that he’s trying to shed the comedy villain tag, mind you. A serious clamp-down on swearing, some highly controversial public comments, jewellery-gate, no political messages, and many more stories have not painted a competent picture of Ben Sulayem.
The boos weren’t reserved only for the FIA as Red Bull team boss Christian Horner also bared the brunt of the crowd’s displeasure. Mind you, the event was held in London, England and Netlfix’s Drive to Survive had done its best to paint Red Bull and Horner as the villains, with some serious help from Horner himself it must be said. But this might also be the reason for Max Verstappen’s conspicuous absence. The Brits aren’t exactly the Dutchman’s biggest fans, and he would no doubt have received the same warm welcome as Horner. Best to stay away then.
There were some new-ish liveries to…enjoy. Racing Bulls, formerly VCARB, had the best of the lot, though, with a sleek white and blue look. Ferrari’s HP sponsor is pumping a lot of moola into the team, which was given away by the garish white and HP logo on its engine cover. Red Bull, Aston Martin, and McLaren were different but the same. Sauber tweaked its day-glo green and black livery slightly, while nothing should be said about the Alpine livery.
For the record, if you’re interested in seeing the actual cars that will be competing in the 2025 season, they’ll all roll out for pre-season testing on 26-28 February in Bahrain.
