F175 wasn’t for the pursuit but the gamble paid off

There was one line in the middle of F175 livery launch event that particularly stood out.

Above all the whooping every time Lewis Hamilton’s image was shown on the big stage. And the booing of Christian Horner and Max Verstappen. More poignant too than the loudest jeers of all, which were reserved for a mention of Formula 1’s governing body, the FIA.

It was a line from the host, comedian Jack Whitehall, who upon reflecting on the extravagant evening in London’s O2 Arena, said: “I can hear all the purists groaning.”

It was absolutely bang-on. For the past couple of weeks as we have edged closer to the event, there had been growing rumblings of discontent from within the teams.

Criticisms over how much it has cost for each of them to have a seven-minute presentation to rip off the covers off their 2025 challenger.

Not only the cost in monetary value – with Red Bull’s presentation believed to have cost around £800,000 – but also eating into their allocated driver time for PR functions and to wheel out in front of sponsors.

Well, sorry purists, if this ceremony was not too your liking, but the reality is, it wasn’t for you anyway.

This was F1’s attempt to take the series into the city, to showcase its drivers on the big stage. To those fans who perhaps have not been to an F1 race before – and judging by those who had paid to come and watch, it was an overwhelming success.

Hamilton undoubtedly stole the show as he appeared in public for the first time in Ferrari red, while McLaren’s universal popularity was confirmed judging by the overwhelming reception for the Woking-based team.

Yet while the cheering and applauding was all well and good, it was a negative reaction that piqued interest more.

It was pantomime stuff as Horner walked on stage to present his team’s car for the 2025 season to a chorus of boos.

In his defence, he handled it brilliantly to brush it off but it must have taken some bashing to his ego and would have understandably been uncomfortable.

He had arrived with his wife Geri, who was dressed in white and stood by her husband’s side as they walked down the red carpet.

Horner has leaned into the dramatisation of himself as the perennial villain, which he has been cast by Netflix’s Drive to Survive, and this crowd reflected that.

Christian Horner, Team Principal, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Getty Images

Of course, this time 12 month ago, he was standing on a stage in Red Bull’s sprawling campus launching the 2024 car in what should have been an exuberant celebration after dominating the previous season. Wearing glasses – unusually so – he looked exhausted as his position as the team’s principal was in serious doubt.

Horner, who always denied the claims of inappropriate behaviour made against him and was ultimately cleared, was in danger of being removed from his position as the team’s boss and CEO.

Ironically, the man who posed the threat of usurping him, Red Bull’s managing director Oliver Mintzlaff, was sat between Horner and his wife at the livery launch. There is now a much-more united front in the team as it looks to regain its constructors’ championship title from McLaren.

Verstappen too felt the wrath of the London crowd, although the tone for this was set earlier on by the chippy Whitehall, who had quipped: “Cheer up Max, we didn’t sit you next to George Russell,” referenced their end-of-year bust up from the Qatar GP and that continues to rumble on.

There were some humorous moments. The image of Williams’ boss James Vowles walked out in front of the 16,000 crowd and said, “good evening, London,” was Alan Partridge-esque, and it was not possible to handle any more jokes about Aston Martin’s Mike Krack.

There were varying levels of success for the stylistic presentations. Aston leaned into its James Bond heritage was smart, McLaren gave a nod to its previous world-championship winning cars was also great, while Red Bull’s heavily-produced video was also enjoyable.

Oscar Piastri, McLaren, Lando Norris, McLaren

Photo by: Getty Images

There were opportunities missed not to go into depth to highlight the F1 Academy, Formula 2 or Formula 3 beyond a video package. And we should have at least heard one car fire-up, as had been done in the MotoGP launch last weekend in Thailand. However, this is nit-picking.

There will be plenty of back-slapping going on at F1’s HQ, but also some huge sighs of relief. This event was a gamble that could have backfired stupendously but it absolutely hit the mark.

It was never intended for the purist but to tap into a new, younger audience. To take an otherwise dreary car launch and make it fun and engaging. Indeed there can be things which can be improved upon, as is always the case, but otherwise this was an overwhelming success and F1 should ultimately be applauded for trying something new.