Last Updated on November 14 2024, 2:15 pm

Formula One announced this week that there would be a makeover in how the teams reveal their new cars for 2025. There will be an “approved” event held at the huge O2 arena outside of London and each team is required to bring a mock up of their next season’s challenger.

The event on February 8th is scheduled just two weeks before pre-season testing begins in Bahrain later in the month. The great and good of the sport believed the old car launch format to be looking tired and so are bringing a refresh.

There are some spectacular F1 car launch events from the history of the sport, with McLaren’s in 1997 regularly ranked amongst the favourite. Pulling out the all stops for the new car’s presentation, McLaren had engaged the hugely popular Spice Girls to perform their hit “wannabe” before some ‘fun’ interaction with the drivers, David Coulthard and Mika Hakkinen.

 

 

 

Spectacular F1 car launches

In 2002, Eddie Jordan earned famed for his Silverstone based outfit when midway through an ordinary event at Brussels airport, a message was announced from the control tower that a “special delivery had arrived for Mr. Jordan.”

Then a large cargo jet performed a low level fly by before returning to land. As the plane finished taxiing to its given stand, the side doors were opened to reveal a distinctive cargo to the world, the Jordan EJ12.

The introduction of the cost cap means even the best financed F1 teams have to weight where they commit to spending. This has led to some very dull F1 car launches particularly amongst the smaller teams. 

Alpine topped the rankings amongst the teams big new reveals for 2024 with The Race writer, Mitchel-Malm claiming “a great blend of everything we need from a launch. A bit of a show but nothing as ostentatious as last year”.

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The team incorporated the launch of their WEC hypercard too which added interest along with a great brand awareness factor. Senior staff were present for the journalists to speak with and the media access was apparently much improved. 

The launch was “a vast improvement from last year’s disorganised one”, according to veteran F1 writer Edd Straw. “This put ‘Team Enstone’ front and centre, revealed a genuine car, integrated the World Endurance Championship project and made good use of technical director Matt Harman.”

Bottom of the pile was the re-branded AlphaTauri launch. Now named awkwardly, “The Visa Cash App Racing Bulls” decided their big new American based sponsor would be seen in the glittering lights of Las Vegas.

The timings for the event in the Nevada desert were not widely advertised in advance and neither was the event streamed for fans to watch online. The images of the car were finally dumped onto the internet by which time most had lost interest.

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RB launch “woeful” and “shambolic”

“This was not a launch for fans or media and a limp way to start a new era,” was Scott Mitchell-Malm’s verdict. Josh Suttill called it a “woeful first launch” for RB’s new identity and said “you couldn’t have designed a more alienating method of delivering a new look”.

Edd Straw’s cutting review read: “It was poorly communicated, offered nothing to fans and didn’t make it clear there would be little for those in Europe who made the effort to be around when it was happening.

“Sums up a team only interested in serving those it sees as bringing in big money and that appears more of an afterthought than ever for Red Bull.”

Ben Anderson lambasted the “shambolic” timings and the Visa Cash App RB name and said everything but the car “can get in the bin”.

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Red Bull disorganised New York launch

The Red Bull family haven’t faired well with recent car launches as their huge 2022 event in New York was declared a damp squib. Due to an incredible dive in the temperatures in New York, Red Bull were forced to move the location of the launch last minute.

The confusion in the new venue led to long silences between new sponsor video’s, the new partnership with Ford was set to be confirmed too. Unknown Red Bull sponsored extreme athletes were introduced, although a number of them appeared overwhelmed at the media focus.

The presence of Ford’s CEO revealed he understood little about F1, racing the spectacle that their US motor giant would return to F1 but merely as a name badge for Red Bull Powertrains.

Now the innovation or lack of preparation is being removed from the teams as F1 reveals all cars will be launched at the same event in London. Ferrari have reportedly negotiated some financial exemptions, given the incremental cost to the team travelling from Italy. This presumably is the case for RB and Sauber too.

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Verstappen threatens to throw a “sickie”

Max Verstappen, who as always says what he thinks, is no fan of F1’s latest media splurge. Appearing for his online racing team ‘Redline’ in a twitch team Q&A, the F1 world champo0n was asked for his thoughts on the new F1 car launch event.

“I don’t know, what is F175?” was his initial response. When informed of the new announcement Verstappen was brutal with his response. “I hope I’m sick that week.”

Of course the F1 teams and even drivers will be contractually obliged to attend and Verstappen’s heart on the sleeve response was entirely predictable, although Martin Brundle praises his ability to speak with honesty rather than mere media speak.

With Brundle attending most Grand Prix weekends, as an ex-F1 driver he is regularly chatting to the current crop. His pre-race interviews are often very revealing providing insight for fans back home watching the UK coverage.

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Max on Las Vegas

Of all the drivers, Verstappen stands out to Brudle because he is ‘so grounded.’ I like Max, talking to Max. I find him very grounded and very straightforward. I like them all to be honest. I’ve got so much respect for them,” said the British presenter.

Max will need to bite the bullet and attend yet another ‘pointless’ media event as he would describe it. Next time out he goes racing in Las Vegas, something Verstappen described last year as “National League” in comparison to the “Champions League” quality of Monaco.

Verstappen predicted before the event it would be “99% show and 1% sport,” although his mood improved when he took the chequered flag first.

Max praised the location and length of the DRS zones claiming it was very powerful, “so even when you would take the lead, if the guy behind would stay in the DRS, he would still have an opportunity to come back at you. I think it created quite a lot of good racing, so it was definitely a lot of fun.”

Should Verstappen finish ahead of Norris in next weekends race, he will be crowned a four times champion of Formula One.

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Monaco F1 organisers finally ‘give in’

Monaco has held a special place on the F1 calendar with its traditional end of May date which coincides with a huge internal film festival down the road in Cannes. This ensures the event is regularly star studied as the world’s most beautiful people make the short journey up the coast to be seen at this round of the most watched of global sporting competitions held each year.

The principality too is steeped in F1 history, and the circuit today is pretty much the way it has always been. Grand Prix racing first graced the streets in Monaco way back in 1929 and the city was host to an F1 race in the debut year of the sport in 1950.

The legendary Ayrton Senna proved his mastery around this track when in an underpowered car and torrential rain conditions he proved to be quicker than McLaren’s Alan Prost. The Brazilian still retains the record for the number of race wins in the principality, with six in his shortened career of ten years… READ MORE