More than a million viewers following live on YouTube, a star-studded evening and all 10 teams revealing their liveries on the same night - Formula 1’s special launch event in London was quite the spectacle.
In front of 15,000 fans and more than a few special guests, each F1 team showed its 2025 colours to the world at the O2 Arena on Tuesday. And through the day, we heard from various team representatives and drivers talking about their new cars, the upcoming season and much more.
Here’s the pick of what we learned from a unique F1 offering to kick off the new season.
First half of Ferrari '99% new' car reveal
Ferrari’s effectively holding a multi-part car launch across two events. First, there was Tuesday night's offering: wheeling the 2025 livery out on stage on a showcar, and supplementing that with a comprehensive digital offering of the 2025 car itself.
On Wednesday comes the second part - media activities and a shakedown at Fiorano.
But even as we wait for the track running, the digital renderings are significant already, showing what Ferrari calls a “completely new car”.
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A deeper technical analysis will follow, but the SF-25 is already a visual departure from its predecessor. The change from pushrod to pullrod front suspension is the most obvious visual cue but that’s been done to give greater scope for aerodynamic development, which Ferrari felt was “pretty much exhausted” with the previous design.
New technical chief Loic Serra says “99%” of the car has been changed and while we will never be able to spot all of that on the surface, there’s enough visual difference to leave us even more intrigued to see the real thing on Wednesday.
‘Re-energised’ Hamilton tipped for title by rivals
Sticking with the Ferrari theme, Lewis Hamilton’s renewed enthusiasm for life in F1 came through in abundance on stage, where he got audibly the best reception of the night.
“The word I’m thinking of is ‘invigorated’ because I feel so full of life, and so much energy, because everything’s new,” Hamilton said when asked for a word to sum up how he’s feeling.
“And just focused on what’s up ahead, I’m so proud to be part of the team, something new and exciting for me.”
It was consistent with everything we’ve heard from Hamilton so far in his early weeks at Ferrari, and his re-energised stance has been noted by rivals as well.
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner tipped Hamilton to be a championship threat if he translates the off-track buzz into the season itself: “If he gets off to a good start, and he gets the team behind him and he finds his confidence, he rides off that energy, then I can see him becoming a real contender in this championship.
“So much will depend on how he gels with the team in that early part of the season. We all know what Lewis is capable of and if he’s re-energised in a different environment, absolutely I think he could be a real factor this year.”
Horner’s driver Max Verstappen, Hamilton’s fierce competitor from 2021, agreed, saying: “We all know how good Lewis is, there’s no debate on that, right? It all depends on the car.”
Meanwhile, the CEO over at constructors’ champion McLaren, Zak Brown, said he is “definitely anticipating Lewis being a championship contender”.
The vibe on the ground
F1 fans certainly know how to create a great atmosphere, if we hadn't already gathered that from the 24 grand prix from around the globe.
But this was different. Seeing tens of thousands of F1 fans there to witness what was effectively a live show with some livery reveals thrown in was great.
From the moment you entered the arena and saw F1’s magnificent staging, you could feel the atmosphere among fans. It was electric. You could see fans who had bought floor tickets hollering and interacting with drivers who were on the stage.
Some may say the videos were a bit much, but they added to the spectacle on-site and most of them were a good length.
To say it was a completely positive atmosphere wouldn’t quite be correct as the audience did partake in a couple of booing sessions when certain figures - or even logos - were shown on screen.
Some drivers could have taken more time to talk to the fans who had attended, or their teams could have factored that into their stage slots, which may have meant a longer show - but would have been worth it. The drivers are who a lot of the fans came to see after all.
'Red Bull 2' era has begun properly
Red Bull’s second team has properly entered its ‘Red Bull 2’ era, starting 2025 with a second name change in two years and a move onto the main Red Bull campus.
Racing Bulls - which has moved away from the initial-only RB moniker it adopted last year - started at its new UK facility on January 2. It has said goodbye to the small Bicester base used alongside its main headquarters at Faenza, and is essentially phasing out the old Minardi headquarters in Italy, too.
Faenza remains, but with reduced responsibility as the new satellite base at Red Bull’s main Milton Keynes location - where Red Bull Racing and the Red Bull F1 engine is being developed - is now up and running.
The question is whether or not any of this deliberate extra Red Bull synergy will translate into more on-track success. The covers only came off the 2025 car’s livery at the O2 - and it’s a beautiful design, a little bit AlphaTauri/Red Bull’s Honda special/1990s Footwork, but all the better for it.
That colour scheme only reinforces the identity of this entry as ‘the other Red Bull team’. But it’s probably better to double down on that like it has rather than be apologetic about it.
Mercedes thinks it has avoided a trap
Mercedes is one of the teams still holding back even images of its 2025 F1 car but we have had the first hints of what’s in store, alongside the team’s new look.
New team leader George Russell talked extensively at the O2 about the work that’s gone into this car and how “significant” the changes are, as Mercedes looks to finally get on top of this ground-effect era in the last year of the current rules cycle.
Russell kept referring to the “trap” Mercedes had fallen into in the past when it came to car development, which - after prodding by The Race - he finally elaborated on as a weakness in being short-sighted with some of its decisions.
He reckons Mercedes has been in a cycle of fixing one big problem only to cause a new one, which may have unintentionally made the team sound surprisingly unmethodical.
It’s a little vague, but it’s the first pointer we have. Mercedes could've easily been one of the teams phoning in 2025 because it can't afford to start the new rules in 2026 on the back foot for a second regulatory era in a row.
Now we’re wondering if its new car will be a big final swing at this ruleset after all.
Aston Martin will be ‘close on 100% new’
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Aston Martin’s big-picture focus is on 2026, with the arrival of Honda and F1’s new regulations, but despite us having to wait until Sunday before we see any glimpses of what this year’s car will look like, team principal Andy Cowell gave away some details of the new machine. He describes the aerodynamic package as almost completely new, with its success important in validating the way the team has evolved its working practices after last year’s struggles.
“We’ve got a reasonable understanding on last year's car and what we've worked on through the winter is to try and create a car that is more stable through corner and is more predictable to drive through the race,” said Cowell. “So we've worked on that as well through the winter.
“The aerodynamic package of the car is close on 100% new. [There’s been] a huge amount of effort put in the campus by everyone. The aero [design] release points were later than we've ever done before with a car, and that's thanks to the investment has been put into the into the campus and the capability of the operations team in particular, but also the design group. Both of those groups have enabled the aero development team to spend several more weekends in the windtunnel.”
Hopes aren’t high for Aston Martin in 2025, but if it can make good progress this year, stay competitive at the front of F1’s midfield and maybe chip away a little at the advantage of the top four, that will prove it’s on the right track.
Alpine can't escape another distraction
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Alpine scored the first win of the season in a peculiar category: cutting off questions about a sensitive subject. In this case - the pressure Jack Doohan is already under following the signing of Franco Colapinto from Williams as test and reserve driver; a move even Williams itself has publicly stated has been facilitated because it gives Colapinto a chance at a 2025 race seat.
Doohan was asked one too many Colapinto-related questions (three!) at the press conference early in the day at the O2, although to be fair to him he seemed to be batting the topic away fairly effectively in his own way until that point.
But it demonstrated something obvious: the latest Alpine driver saga could overshadow anything the team does on-track.
Last season Alpine recovered well and was on a good trajectory, to the point of stealing sixth in the championship late on. But that didn’t get anything like the attention of, say, cancelling its own works engine programme or dropping driver Esteban Ocon for the season finale to put Doohan in early.
This is a team with drama in its DNA, and 2025 started in a familiar, slightly tense manner. Pierre Gasly also wants this season to hurry along. Not in a ‘he’s not about to try’ kind of way, or even a ‘the team can’t achieve anything’ way. But simply, as he put it: “If it was down to me, all the budget would be on 2026.”
Gasly would feel a little different if Alpine started as badly as a year ago and the prospect of doing 24 races with a backmarker car and no upgrades became more of a reality! But it reflects the fact Alpine needs something big to break free of its incessant midfielder-ness, and that ‘something big’ is the massive rule change that's a year away still.
“It doesn’t change as a driver - every single time I get in the car, I want to be the fastest I can with the package I’ve got,” said Gasly.
“That doesn’t really change the mindset for ‘25. But bigger picture, I know there is a lot more to gain in ‘26 than there is to fight for in ‘25. So we’ve got to be smart in the way we do things.”
The last pre-Audi Sauber - and Hulkenberg's 2024 car verdict
The final Formula 1 car to be officially called a Sauber before it turns into Audi next year broke cover, not on stage – in a simplified green and black livery for the end of its weird interim Stake era – but in images released in the evening.
And new arrival Nico Hulkenberg, a Sauber old-boy having raced for the team back in 2013, spoke of seeing “quite a few familiar faces” at the team, and that after “a challenging season last year, they’re motivated to turn things around and write a different story this year”.
Hulkenberg kept a low profile when he drove the 2024 Sauber in the post-Abu Dhabi Grand Prix test last year, but fortunately his worst fears were allayed by the fact that the worst car of last season had actually improved late on.
“The car performance wasn’t that bad and wasn’t that far off what I was previously used to [at Haas]. The update they brought to Las Vegas last year was a big step forward for them and you could see the trend was in the right trajectory. That’s obviously what we’re going to continue and try and do this year.”
Verstappen calls for common sense from FIA
Max Verstappen smiled when he suggested that one way he could be free from racing commitments to be at the birth of his first child later this year would be to drop a few swear words.
“I cannot miss a race… unless I have too many [licence] points… or swearing,” he said when asked about a potential clash between the birth and an F1 weekend. “Anything is possible!”
Verstappen’s remarks highlighted an acute awareness of the scale of the sanctions that F1 drivers now face if they are caught swearing in official capacity three times over two years – which opens the door to a potential one-month ban.
Boos greeted the FIA logo when it appeared on screen during a shoutout to the governing body and its order of volunteers during the F1 75 event itself, while host Jack Whitehall even took a jab at the “fun police” and roped celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay into doing similar. It’s obvious that, outside the FIA president’s inner circle, people are not impressed.
The message from drivers throughout the F1 75 press briefings had been consistent earlier on Tuesday, as they were asked about a situation that had escalated over the winter when the FIA announced new stewards’ guidelines for punishing misconduct.
The consensus was that while they understand their duty as role models, and swearing all the time was not a good look, there is a difference between what they are expected to do and being exposed to the risk of extreme punishments if they slip up.
From Verstappen's perspective, the extreme fines and potential race bans were too much.
“It’s a lot of money,” he said. “Honestly, from my side I think it’s not necessary to be like that with the rules. I think you need to use a bit of common sense.
“I’d prefer that we actually focus on other topics, to try to improve safety, to try to improve the overall performance of Formula 1 cars, instead of actually having to focus on all these kinds of things. It’s a bit unnecessary, I think.”
Oscar Piastri said that the FIA precedent from last weekend, of letting team radio messages go but remarks in more official capacities be sanctioned, was probably right – even if a bit heavy-handed.
“I think potentially some of the sentiments are maybe a little bit strong, but I think there's also a valid point in not swearing where it's not necessary to,” said the McLaren driver.
“I think certainly in the car, we're in our zone and of course we're going to say things that are not in the heat of the moment and probably not politically correct - but I do also think that out of that situation we are role models, and we should be setting an example.
“Whether that requires a big monetary fine to remind us of that…I think a talking to maybe is going to be enough. But I see it in both ways. I'm going to try to keep myself out of trouble!”
Haas might have F1's least new car
With such a big rules reset on the horizon in 2026 there will be plenty of cases of "evolution not a revolution" among the 2025 challengers, but no team appears to be more in the 'evolution of 2024 car' camp than Haas if first impressions are anything to go by.
While Haas revealed its 2025 livery on a showcar on stage at the O2 arena, it also revealed imagery from its shakedown at Silverstone last Sunday.
Our very own ex-F1 technical director Gary Anderson analysed the first pictures of the VF-25 on-track versus Haas's VF-24 from last year...and found remarkably little difference.
You can understand why given Haas made a significant step forward with its 2024 car from the previous year and scored more points in that year than during its previous four campaigns combined.
Part of that continuity includes Haas retaining a 2024-specification pushrod front suspension supplied by Ferrari, rather than taking the new pullrod version Ferrari has switched to for 2025.
Haas being one of the first teams to run its new car on track - only beaten by McLaren and Williams - means the Haas that turns up to Bahrain testing next week could look different.
The cars we're still waiting for
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While the likes of Ferrari went with a livery reveal show during its F1 75 slot and complemented that with renders of its actual car, others are keeping things under wraps.
Red Bull opted to be even more Red Bull than normal - and not reveal anything about its 2025 challenger.
OK, we’ve seen the livery. But we didn’t need this event - or any Red Bull reveal - to know the colours it would run in! And the car itself has not been shown even in render form.
The same goes for Mercedes and Aston Martin, although they have already communicated their plans to hold online launches and shakedowns of their own (Sunday for Aston Martin, Monday for Mercedes), and Racing Bulls.
Sauber and Alpine, like Ferrari, showed renders of their 2025 cars but we’re left waiting a little longer to see those in reality - maybe not until testing.
