What to expect from F1's unusual 2025 launch season

The reveal of the 10 Formula 1 teams' 2025 cars will be unusually scattered this season owing to the addition of a unique collective livery launch.

A combination of in-person events, digital reveals, shakedowns and F1's grand 75th anniversary special event at the O2 Arena in London, means launch season will span almost two weeks across a variety of forms.

Here is what you need to know about the launches so far, what you can expect from the various components, and what you should look and listen out for.

What to expect from the main event

F1's London launch on Tuesday, February 18 is a unique offering but one fans should temper expectations for.

It could, probably should, be quite a grand spectacle. However, don't expect the cars on display to be the real thing. They'll be show cars - and most likely generic ones, not 2025 versions.

F1's primary wording around it is that it is a "season launch event", and while there is specific wording dotted around about the teams revealing their liveries, it could unintentionally be misleading given to a lot of people the car itself is intrinsic to any launch.

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But 'season launch' has become an increasingly common part of F1 jargon in the last couple of years. It's used to broadly cover off teams previewing the year ahead but not actually having to show anything of their real car - aiding the secrecy that is ever more prevalent in F1.

So, whenever you think of the O2 event, just think 'livery launch' or 'livery reveal', interspersed with entertainment in the form of performances on stage.

The liveries are the primary new thing you'll get from the teams, alongside some talking heads with drivers and team bosses present.

It will be interesting to see who commits to the presentations and which teams, if any, only offer the bare minimum.

Some cars will be revealed digitally

While the liveries will be the stars on the evening of February 18, don't be surprised if they are accompanied by some digital car reveals.

That's obviously not going to be what the people on the ground are attending for but it's something that could enhance the offering.

Admittedly, the broader audience that F1's clearly targeting with this kind of event probably won't care about playing spot the difference between a low-effort 2025 car render and its predecessor from 2024 - but some fans will.

And it would be arrogant to dismiss the fascination that the hardcore audience have with core technical details given the cars are the stars to a lot of people for whom technical interest is a core part of what makes F1 so interesting.

Essentially, while you won't see any real cars on the night in London, there might be images on-screen and then shared by the teams online and to the media.

While some teams are saving this for subsequent dates, we should have at least a few that decide to drop the images once their liveries are revealed - which will give us all some more 2025 details to scrutinise.

What to expect before then

At least two teams will have had a car on track in some form before the O2 event.

Williams is the only team to commit publicly to a proper car launch before it shows off its livery, going the extra mile by opting to reveal its FW47 in a one-off camouflage livery at Silverstone on February 14.

The likes of Red Bull and Sauber have done this in previous years, but it's particularly good for Williams to do this in a launch season that has been so complicated by the collective livery launch.

Obviously the livery will be the eye-catching part, but trying to spot any details will have more substance.

That's where launch season is at its best and this will be the first chance to do that - assuming, of course, none of the teams that haven't publicly communicated their plans don't get there first by dropping a surprise unveiling of their own before Williams.

It's worth noting that while Haas is one of the teams likely to opt for a simple digital launch on the evening of the O2 event in London, we might get spy shots of the 2025 car from its shakedown at Silverstone on February 16.

There's no plan for Haas to do a one-off livery that it wants to show to the public in advance of February 18, like what Williams has planned, but there always seem to be some blurry shots of any F1 car that runs at the British Grand Prix venue ahead of its official launch!

When cars will be on track

The three-day pre-season test in Bahrain from February 26-28 will put all 10 teams on track together but the reality is we'll have seen most of them before then.

Shakedowns are commonplace and teams don't really bother to keep them secret - although they will tightly control what they do share, which is a little ironic given the official name for such 'private' running is either a promotional event or a demonstration event.

We've already mentioned that Williams and Haas will debut their cars at Silverstone the week before the livery launches in London. Racing Bulls is rumoured to have an Imola shakedown planned with its 2025 car on February 17, while Ferrari plans to launch and shake down its 2025 car at Fiorano on February 19.

Aston Martin, Mercedes and Red Bull are known to have Bahrain shakedowns planned ahead of the first test, so they will decamp to the Sakhir circuit a few days early.

McLaren, Alpine and Sauber are yet to communicate their exact plans.

Will there be design changes?

Despite the regulations being in their fourth and final year, there's still scope for visually obvious design changes and a few surprises.

It's well known that Ferrari is set to reveal a 2025 car that has switched to a pullrod front suspension configuration for both aerodynamic and mechanical gains. Technical partner Haas, however, has confirmed its carrying over the 2024 front suspension. But there could well be other changes.

The question is how visually obvious these will be. The real magic of these cars happens in the underfloor and, unless an obliging driver shunts in testing and is craned near a photographer, we won't get to see that. But there could still be some top-body design changes.

As well as the scope for suspension modifications, including at the rear as while the gearbox internals are homologated for 2022-25 with just one change in spec permitted, the casing - or suspension carrier as it’s often known - can be altered.

Aero-wise, the obvious visual area will be the sidepod shape. Teams will have had the chance to make monocoque tweaks to create potential space for optimisation in this area, so this is perhaps where we will see the biggest change in bodywork geometries.

Potential for goalposts to move

Stable regulations often result in teams opting for refinement over revolution with their new car designs.

But Red Bull shocked everybody a year ago with a striking, visual departure from its all-conquering 2023 car.

Could this year feature a similar surprise? We wouldn't rule it out, especially with constructors' champion McLaren being pretty clear at the end of last year that it did not need to improve in just one area if it was going to gun for both titles in 2025 - it has to be better everywhere.

There has been some messaging from CEO Zak Brown about the new McLaren featuring some 'brave' design ideas, so there seems to be a high chance that we will see it move the goalposts at the front.

Quite what McLaren will be unveiling is not clear, and it has historically been quite keen to disguise parts of its car ahead of testing.

But one motivation in it being so aggressive with its early design is that it will hope it gives it a performance buffer so it can roll back development on this year's challenger.

That will then allow it to get stuck in early to the huge rules revamp that is coming for 2026.

Listen out for the early news agenda

Teams being flat-out focused on their new cars over the winter means that key figures have stayed out of the public domain.

So unlike during the season, when we find senior personnel commenting on the latest goings on quite regularly, we have mainly had silence on some of the burning topics that have emerged since the 2024 campaign ended.

That will all likely end when the launches kick off and the media get first access to drivers and team bosses - because it could get spicy early on.

One of the most interesting early stories will be how drivers feel about the FIA's escalation of penalties for misconduct, which leaves them at risk of a ban if they get caught swearing three times over two years.

But that is not the only story in town; we've got the fallout from F1's flexi wing clampdown, which could have an impact on the title battle from the Spanish Grand Prix at the start of June, questions over the way FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem is running things, and there is sure to be some early politicking as team find loopholes with the 2026 rules.

Dates released so far

February 14 - Williams launch event with one-off livery
February 16 - Haas shakedown (no images before Feb 18)
February 17 - Rumoured Racing Bulls shakedown at Imola
February 18 - Official F1 season launch in London
February 19 - Ferrari digital launch and shakedown at Fiorano
February 23 - Aston Martin digital launch
February 24 - Mercedes digital launch, Aston Martin Bahrain shakedown
February 25 - Red Bull & Mercedes shakedown in Bahrain

McLaren, Alpine and Sauber have not publicly communicated their plans yet