Our verdict on F1's huge launch event in London (ad-free)
Added 2025-02-19 00:33:17 +0000 UTCWe react to Formula 1’s first-ever group launch event in the latest edition of The Race F1 Podcast.
Jon Noble and Charley Williams join Edd Straw from the O2 Arena in London to appraise F1 75 and ask whether this one-off event could become a regular one.
We pick out the teams that made the best (and worst) impressions with their segments and what we want to see more, or less, of in the future.
We also gauge the crowd reaction and what it says about F1. And with plenty of news emerging from the day, we also ask if F1’s Monaco two-stop plan is a good one.
Comments
Hi Edd. Many thanks for the response. I didn't think it was awful but it wasn't great either, it was OK and it's OK to say it was OK, rather than bigging it up to something it wasn't. I think the main issue is we are being told that Fans want this 'show' engagment 100% of the time i.e more street circuit, more pitstops, more razmataz. When what we really what is cars on track that are god damn smaller instead of the tanks we have now. All these gimmicks, shows and glitz and they cant appointment permanent stewarts, won't let andretti in (what ever that whole politics nonsense was now they are in) etc etc. I'm done now but you catch my drift.
Dara Peyton
2025-02-21 09:36:41 +0000 UTCAs an American seeing MGK was cringe. Also booing of Max and Christian was unnecessary I thought and simple minded. Overall it wasn't for me though. I'm old and don't care for this stuff, I get that. My 21 year old and 17 year old sons enjoyed it though so there is that.
Yosef Cardoso
2025-02-19 20:35:58 +0000 UTCIt was tolerable with cringey moments that I had to fast forward through. (Just keep it F1 related) Jack Whitehall saved the event. The drivers seemed like fish out of water at times when they seemed forced to be actors or presenters.
Clint Kidder
2025-02-19 18:08:37 +0000 UTCThat asterisk saved you a fine. And your Red Bull description made me properly laugh.
Simon Emms
2025-02-19 15:20:04 +0000 UTCEdd i was very surprised by your surprise at the booing for Horner and the FIA. Horner comes across as smarmy and underhanded in almost all of his interviews and has been the leader of F1’s “villain” team for the last 5-6 years. the FIA logo is also a symbol for Sulayem’s regime now and since most fans watch F1 for the drivers and he’s very publicly put himself in a direct conflict with them, so of course no one there likes him.
JAG
2025-02-19 14:51:40 +0000 UTCFor a relatively old fart like me, overall I thought it was a good show. The only thing that grinded my gears (and this is not specific to the show) was the booing of Max/Red Bull - maybe it's just personal taste and some fans think it's acceptable like it is in say football, but I find it moronic (my antipathy towards Lewis for instance rivals Matt Beer's towards Nigel Mansell, but I don't find it necessary to boo and jeer every time I see him on screen!)
Stuart Coulter
2025-02-19 14:05:03 +0000 UTCJon hit the nail on the head, I hated it, but of course I would. I'm going to watch anyway, why would I need this. Goofy or not, it definitely seems like accomplished its goals.
Mark Riccetti Jr
2025-02-19 13:47:09 +0000 UTCJust wished we could have seen Kimi as a driver at the event. He would have looked so unimpressed!
Daniel McBeth
2025-02-19 13:32:14 +0000 UTCThat would be the better way to go imo. Last night fell like 2 hours of not really offering much to people who'd paid a lot of money to be there
Dan W
2025-02-19 12:41:34 +0000 UTCWelcome Charley! Would be great to hear more from her on future podcasts. I quite enjoyed the event overall, though as always there were a few moments of over corporate cringe. That said, F1 has a tendency to be quite serious and Jack Whitehall gave it a human touch that can often be lacking, so he did really well (I do think F1 can be hard to make funny at times!) I know many casual fans who would need reminding that the season is starting, so why not make a deal about it so they know? The only tweak I'd make is that all the pomp meant there wasn't really enough time for a proper chat with the drivers and teams, rather than the "one question and done" setup that we had. As Jon mentioned, doing it after the launches might give them more to talk about.
Steve D
2025-02-19 12:39:19 +0000 UTCYeah, could well be on the cards in the future. Zak Brown floated the idea of an IndyCar-style end of season 'banquet' type event yesterday, for example
Edd Straw
2025-02-19 12:36:18 +0000 UTCWeirdly I felt this event would be better as an end of season event rather than a pre-season. Combine it with the giving out of the title trophies or something along those lines. Somewhere the drivers can let their hair down a bit, have a beers, say Hi to the fans etc and maybe want to be there a bit more. None of them looked delightfed to being present last night, a week out from testing it just felt like the whole thing was a massive inconvenience to all the team members who were there. If Liberty/F1 want this eurovision style event then go all in with it.
Dan W
2025-02-19 12:32:35 +0000 UTCI would guess that as a member of The Race you are likely a longstanding enthusiast and probably would be called a purist by some. And that's great - it's a category I fall into. But F1's audience is broad and has all sorts of people in it. Obviously, everyone is different and it's not that easy to break everyone down into a number of groups, but it's aimed perhaps at those who enjoy seeing more of the drivers and team bosses out of the car, at people who can't go to races or can't afford to maybe, those who enjoy that kind of show and some of the acts that participated. Perhaps you could sum it up as not being so much for the more traditional fans - although I say that with the caveat that there appeared to be plenty there who are longstanding fans. Overall, it's an extra bit of F1 activity and, inevitably, you can't please everyone. I just come at it from the perspective that it's not something that if I were a paying fan would go to (much more likely to turn up at a test to watch cars driving round, which I also did in the days before it was my job) but it's clear there's an audience for it of engaged F1 fans who are different to me. And that's great. There's no right way to follow F1 or motorsport as a whole, ultimately
Edd Straw
2025-02-19 12:27:01 +0000 UTCYou may not have liked the event and you're more than welcome to disagree with us. However, contrary to what you're suggesting here we'd have quite happily been very critical if the event warranted it. I went into F1 75 expecting it to be terrible, but having sat in the room and seen the vast majority of 20,000 fans clearly loving the show (and we also heard from some fans directly straight after who were all very positive) all I could do is reflect what I saw. I'm well aware this event isn't for someone like me, and there were parts of it I thought worked well and parts that didn't work so well (for example the overreliance on VTs) but I can see it's place. We always give an honest opinion on what we've seen and I completely understand why some won't have enjoyed it - were I a paying fan, it's not what I'd go to, but one of F1's strengths recently it's it is broadening its appeal. In the terms of what this event was and was meant to be, plus who it was for, it seemed to work
Edd Straw
2025-02-19 12:19:25 +0000 UTCAll the F1 media seem to have been drinking the same.
Dan W
2025-02-19 11:56:43 +0000 UTCAston Martins James bond using the world is not enough theme worked. Can we also talk about the HP on the Ferraris. It's on the drivers suits twice and the ferraris badge is only on Once. Plus it's not making the ferrari look very attractive
Dara Peyton
2025-02-19 11:10:55 +0000 UTCPoor event and poor podcast I’m afraid.
Steve
2025-02-19 10:56:16 +0000 UTCI think she's a great example of how a younger, more media connected fan interacts with motorsport, and F1 has been the most successful in maximising all forms of modern digital media to get the most traction.
Alexander Law
2025-02-19 10:48:33 +0000 UTCWhen I saw the opening moments I thought of an awards show - opening and roast. When Sauber kicked off the most important segment it felt like Eurovision: live stage, screen panels everywhere that can be used, fixed time limit per team. Some did a great job in using the space, others more polarising, some completely did not. If anything the teams creatives could do well to look at what succeeds at Eurovision on-stage and on-screens simultaneously to get the best reaction. Eurovision's winner from 2024 was a good example of staying that worked in both mediums.
Alexander Law
2025-02-19 10:45:12 +0000 UTCI enjoyed it. I was fully ready for it to be embarrassingly garbage but it worked. You needed a Jack Whitehall there to take the p*ss out of things and he worked really well. Agreed with the Race teams order of the launches - Red Bulls felt like something a group of middle aged executives would come up with when tasked with “let’s make our launch speak to the young folk, chaps”
Richard Snape
2025-02-19 10:32:31 +0000 UTCFor a first time event, I think it went really well. Certainly some things to learn for next time but Liberty, FOM, and the various production companies they worked with deserve a lot of credit. It easily could have been a lot worse. If they do this every year, I hope it gets toned down a little bit, but otherwise I see no reason why this can't evolve into something that even that hardcore fans will enjoy. And I'm with Charley on Aston being the best. In terms of production quality, I think they are the benchmark. The James Bond aspect I thought was neat and the good kind of corny, video animation was really cool, never heard of Tems but she smashed it and I was gettin into the music. However VCARB was the worst! But that's because they have no identity. I'm not sure making fun of your own name is a great look, the crowd didn't seem to care, and it sounded like the TPs only just made up what they said backstage mere moments before. Pure old fashioned F1 corporate team goal slogan nothingspeak.
Zach Buchowski
2025-02-19 10:06:49 +0000 UTCEvery bit of me wanted to hate it but I actually thought it wasn't too bad Got me in the mood for pre season testing 🤩
Matthew McMahon
2025-02-19 09:30:53 +0000 UTCSound like you've all drank liberty medias kool aid saying how brilliant it was.
Dara Peyton
2025-02-19 08:53:05 +0000 UTCAll I keep saying is people saying the launch event isn't aimed at me. So who was it aimed at?
Dan W
2025-02-19 08:15:53 +0000 UTCVery much so. It was nice having a different viewpoint from the social media side to Edd and Jon as journalists.
Simon Emms
2025-02-19 08:10:24 +0000 UTCCharley's point that "this isn't how it used to be" being a good thing is bang on. And we've always loved the personalities of motorsport - even DSJ and Roebuck talked of the people under the helmet. This is the modern incarnation.
Simon Emms
2025-02-19 08:02:09 +0000 UTCWe tend to say "welcome" to new people in the Members Club
Simon Emms
2025-02-19 07:56:21 +0000 UTCMy review of your review intro: access journalism. And can someone tell Charley to stop saying 'like' three times per sentence.
moggoon
2025-02-19 06:59:56 +0000 UTCAgree.
Michael Holden
2025-02-19 06:14:16 +0000 UTCCharley was awesome! I think she'd make a great addition to the podcast regulars.
Pablo Addante
2025-02-19 04:05:52 +0000 UTCI thought the launch event was okay for a first go. Yes its not aimed at me but i watched it from home and didn't think it was too bad. A nice way to gain excitement for this season. It's refreshing if nothing else.
Hatman
2025-02-19 01:50:32 +0000 UTC
