What next for F175 after an encouraging night leaves vast opportunities?

Judging by the exuberant fans exiting London’s O2 Arena on Tuesday night, Formula 1 has stumbled upon a winning formula for engaging a new audience.

Fans, many of whom had never attended an F1 race before, were buzzing at having seen their heroes in the flesh and in a familiar setting inside an easily-accessible city venue.

It had whetted the appetite, with many of those punters now investigating the opportunity of attending a live grand prix.

There was also a sense that despite all the grumbling about eating into driver PR days, it being a logistical nightmare, plus additional production costs, the teams all saw some benefit to F175.

But despite this, there are currently no plans to host another event of its kind in the future – which is a real shame.

Take this July’s British Grand Prix, for instance, the Silverstone race was F1’s maiden points-scoring event yet there are no grand plans to mark the occasion in the championship’s 75th year.

This is a great disappointment, as MotoGP did it. In 2024, the motorcycling championship celebrated its 75th anniversary with teams running retro liveries at the British Grand Prix – an effort which proved widely popular.

Of course there are many obstacles when staging such an event, like significant costs, but the perspective from the ground was that F175 was a hit with fans going home happy.

But reality states that the true return on investment will not yet be known for a while. It is only once the commercial value of F175 can be relayed into monetary terms that its impact will be palpable.

And once that has happened, then there can be a push for a repeat of said event. Yet 2026 will arguably feature the biggest regulation overhaul in F1 history with changes to both chassis and power units, so the strain on teams to go through it again will be a lot.

But why not do it, given F175 exceeded many expectations and on paper, it is easy to see how it could be replicated in another city across the world. Especially because it is obviously a target for the marking departments to take F1 to new audiences.

Madrid, for example, would be an ideal host for 2026 given it is preparing to become the new host of the Spanish Grand Prix. It is just one of many options though, with the United States clearly being another as Liberty Media has been keen to crack the American market ever since its F1 takeover in 2017.

But it is all part of the conundrum F1 will likely have over whether to use a season launch event as a way of bolstering its fanbase, or have it as an additional source of income. Should it be the latter, then Rwanda hosting would be of no surprise, as the African country has expressed interest in holding a future grand prix while having staged last year’s FIA Prize Giving Ceremony.

And there is always the cash-rich, PR-seeking Middle East, which continues to expand its presence within the series yet having it there would sacrifice the concept of engaging more fans.

Regardless, the possibilities are endless, so hopefully the attitude will change and one big livery launch will become a mainstay – but fans must remain at the heart of it.