What to expect from F1 teams trying ‘normal’ car launches in this very different pre-season

The 2025 Formula 1 launch season is like no other.

It’s a modern fixation anyway. By this stage in the 1953-58 actual racing seasons, the first rounds in Argentina had already been held – and later a schedule arrangement repeated the early year rounds for the South African race.

And yet, promoting upcoming grand prix campaigns is also a time-honoured tradition that has evolved over time. Remember Essex Lotus and the Royal Albert Hall in 1979 (OK, in December ahead of the 1980 season)? Or McLaren’s “grand pricks” – per Geri Horner – launch with the Spice Girls at Alexandra Palace?

By the start of this generation – such things had changed, as the teams came to more significantly have to justify those outgoing pounds, as the global financial crisis hit harder.

Ferrari’s Wrooom! Skiing jaunt was binned off over a decade ago. Teams therefore distributed images of their new challengers directly onto social media so became as familiar as a website that had been granted said images ahead of time breaking the set embargo. Tradition begets tradition.

And yet, this time, the F1 75 Live event at London’s O2 arena rather changes and narrows this unique part of every grand prix season.

All 10 teams are signed up to reveal their liveries in North Greenwich next Tuesday. This is being billed as an all-singing, all-dancing affair for those lucky enough to be in the room.

For the first time in F1 history, each team will reveal its forthcoming livery to a live audience on the same night

At least one comedian is said to have been hired by an unnamed team to help fill their designated airtime. Let’s hope no one in the crowd points out that Charles Leclerc sounds vaguely like a patisserie piece or security will be over in a shot…

Already, the event has been beset by a ticketing resale saga – as with every other live spectacle in our always-online world.

And with prices for seats tipping three figures at the top end, for this writer it jars with what this event is replacing from years gone by – the biggest stars of the championship trying very hard to say as little as possible about their new cars. One wonders if Max Verstappen will be as lambasting as he was towards the opening ceremony element of F1’s return to Las Vegas in 2023.

Nine of the teams will be presenting their drivers for media interviews ahead of the F1 75 Live show – except Ferrari, which isn’t bothering

But it is at least a fresh twist on what had become a predictable format. And the success of such an event ahead of a season set to be far more interesting than most since 2021 will ideally flush the F1 media/fan consumption ecosystem with intrigue that boosts it through testing and then on all the way to Melbourne.

There are, however, additional elements to question emerging.

Take how the Ferrari, Williams, Sauber, Red Bull and Mercedes squads have already revealed their driver race suits and therefore team colours for the coming year.

This exposes the clashing business needs of the teams that have been pushed to the margins by a single, albeit massive, live event approach that does away with the previous one-by-one car reveals. The teams still want as long a time as possible to sell their new merchandise. Although, of course, there might be the chance to sell such items as one-off specials.

The first photos of Lewis Hamilton in Ferrari colours have emerged, while other teams have also released their 2025 race suits - so, will F1 75 offer any element of surprise?

Photo by: Ferrari

But, taking a less cynical side for a moment, we can be sure exactly how the non-carbon-fibre swathes on the latest designs from Maranello, Grove, Hinwil, Milton Keynes and Brackley are going to be painted.

Thankfully for those fans that still craved what F1 launch season had become – and we have the metrics to see exactly how many of them there were in various markets, so please don’t think you’ve been forgotten – some teams are still holding their own events to grab a slice of hivemind attention span.

Williams, as the best example, has hired at least some of Silverstone to unveil the FW47 in a bespoke livery on Valentine’s Day. It will broadcast a livestream of the event and make team principal James Vowles and drivers Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz available to the F1 press corps. Now, F1 being as capitalist as ever, Williams does have a new title sponsor to promote here. It’s software company Atlassian – the squad’s first such headline sponsor in five years.

McLaren is also hosting a full season launch with its MCL39 at the same venue and with the same livery restrictions on Thursday, but took a stricter approach to announcing this so as to ward off any fans tempted to make the trip to catch a furtive glimpse of the camouflage car.

Back to F1 75 Live, nine of the teams will be presenting their drivers for media interviews ahead of the F1 75 Live show – except Ferrari, which isn’t bothering.

It is, as in years past, releasing a flood of new car images (with the interesting bits obviously obscured) and PR-saturated videos featuring Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc, Fred Vasseur and co, just as the covers come off what older model it will drape its 2025 livery over in the O2. Further familiarity for those missing it, at least.

In recent years teams have just held their own event to release that season's livery and some are opting to do the same in 2025 despite F1 75

Photo by: Alpine

Other teams are expected to take a similar approach to this – with some releasing images next Tuesday captured at the various shakedowns occurring in the preceding days.

Of these, Haas actually has an added element of risk: it is only giving new Netflix rom-com star Esteban Ocon the first laps in the VF-25 so as to check his lofty frame can fit in the new cockpit satisfactorily.

That’s according to team principal Ayao Komatsu, who said recently that “Esteban in terms of driver installation is more challenging, so we just want to make sure 100% that Esteban’s installation is fine [and] if we have an issue, we’ve got more time [to correct it].”

This time next week then, 2025’s very different launch will be over and in the flash of a red carpet bulb. Reaction, no doubt, will be extremely mixed. But whether you like it or loathe it, F1 will bring it back each year. In this sphere, everything evolves after all.  

Will F1 75 be a success?

Photo by: Liberty Media