Inside London’s O2 Arena the lights pulse red like those atop a Formula One starting gantry. Despite being three weeks and 10,000 miles away from the first race, the new F1 season is about to kick off in spectacular fashion. We're at F1 75 Live alongside 20,000 other attendees and 1.1 million watching online to toast three quarters of a century of screaming engines, crunched bodywork and fierce rivalries.
All 10 teams are here to unveil their latest liveries together for the first time ever. Normally they do their own thing; 10 different dates in different countries in a frosty pit garage where the F&B runs to tea in a polystyrene cup. Apart from 1997, when ITV corralled the entire grid – bar Michael Schumacher – to sit in a studio with Clive James, and when, that same year, McLaren hired the Spice Girls to launch its MP4/12, F1 launches have been rather dour affairs and the public rarely gets a look in. This time, all the stops are pulled out – no offence to Geri Halliwell (now Horner) who's arguably the most high profile person to attend both.
Really, tonight is all about the fans. A couple, Laura and Irving, have flown in this morning from Mexico City just to see the show, proving Sergio Perez doesn’t have to be on the grid for Mexicans to get involved. “We are [Charles] Leclerc fans,” says Laura. “We love him. He’s good-looking and a great driver, and he seems very nice as a person.” A family from Surrey – Jason, his daughter Elore and nephew James – have different allegiances. Jason, wearing an Ayrton Senna shirt, supports the local team, McLaren, and says he got into cars via Top Gear, while Elore roots for Red Bull Racing: “Max Verstappen got me into F1 in the first place. I love his arrogance and the way he drives.”
Outside, Londoner Nicole doesn't have a ticket but is happy to get a glimpse of her heroes nonetheless: “I’ve seen Lando [Norris], George [Russell] and Yuki [Tsunoda]. I’ve only started watching F1 recently, but you get so pulled into it. I got into it from watching clips on TikTok – I love fast cars and it just came up on my feed. I love the Ferrari brand and I’m a fan of Charles Leclerc, but all of the drivers are just amazing.” Conrad is in town from Cologne, and his efforts earned him a Ferrari cap signed by Lewis Hamilton. I asked him if this should be an annual festivity. “I don’t think they should do this event every year, no. Maybe every five years. It should be special.”
“It feels like a rock concert,” says the Lando Norris, who was runner up in the championship last year. “It’s great to try something different and launch ourselves full speed into the season.” On arrival, drivers and team bosses are disgorged from supercars at the foot of the red carpet. Hat tip to Honda who supply Verstappen and new boy Liam Lawson with a mint 1990 NSX, and to Tsunoda who does donuts in a '00s S2000, while Hamilton makes his UK debut as a Ferrari driver wearing black with a red tie and chunky shades.
Inside the arena, the VIPs – Idris Elba, Gordon Ramsay and Jerry Bruckheimer among them – take their seats at tables laden with Moet & Chandon while fans look down from the rafters. There are genuine legends of the sport in the audience too – Mario Andretti, Emerson Fittipaldi, Nigel Mansell, Jackie Stewart and Mika Hakkinen. Fernando Alonso reveals to me that he dined with them, and other grandees, the night before at Ramsay’s Lucky Cat restaurant in Mayfair. He was the only current driver in attendance.
“It was good to see Giancarlo Minardi there – he was my first boss – and also Bernie [Ecclestone] and [former Ferrari chairman] Luca di Montezemolo, with whom I have a great friendship. Mario Andretti, I admire him so much. It’s great we got to do this on the 75th anniversary. We each wrote a message and locked them in a box which will be reopened in 25 years. I can’t tell you what I wrote, it’s a secret. But let’s imagine if we’d done this quarter of a century ago, the champions who could have been there, it would be nice to read their notes now. This will be good for the next generation, and I may still be at the table.”
Host Jack Whitehall is perhaps a little too honest when he opens the show. “It turns out most [of the liveries] haven’t actually changed, but we’d booked Machine Gun Kelly and we didn’t want to lose the deposit on the venue. That is when you know the sport is ridiculously minted; when you book the O2 to announce the colour of a load of cars that are all exactly the same as last season.”
Indeed, as Christian Horner explains away from the stage: “Technically you won’t see a single car shown here in Bahrain [at the pre-season test]. It’s all for the fans,” adding that “it’s difficult enough to get all 10 teams to agree what day of the week it is, let alone have them do this.”
The negotiations must have been masterful. I fully expected Ferrari to be a no show. Traditionally, they prefer to do their own thing. But when Hamilton comes out in his red race suit the cheers explode. The panto-style boos are reserved for Horner and any mention of the FIA. Even Pirelli gets a round of applause – good to see tyres getting their fist in the air moment.
Each team got seven minutes to make their car presentation, and they used that time as they pleased. Sauber was first off, with a moody moon-lit video of their matte-black and green machine, live drumming, and a portent-heavy voiceover: “When darkness falls across this land…” Visa Cash App Racing Bulls make fun of their long-winded name. Haas comes out to an all-American montage and the tune ‘Are You Gonna Go My Way?’
Aston Martin does a Bond-inspired skit with Alonso and Lance Stroll in speedboats evading missiles as they speed down the Thames (of his new emerald ride, Alonso jokes to the crowd: “Now that we’ve seen the best looking car of the night, please enjoy the rest of the evening”). Red Bull had made a film about UK car culture, while Ferrari celebrated its 75 years of F1 heritage and showed off what is surely the Scuderia’s most exciting driver line up since Prost-Mansell 35 years ago.
Hamilton says he feels invigorated. “I feel so full of life and so much energy, because everything’s new.” As the reigning world champions, McLaren are the last team to show their hand; a new black and papaya car, trailed by four previous title-winning weapons from the eras of Hamilton, Hakkinen, Senna and Fittipaldi.
Musical acts Machine Gun Kelly and Take That suggest F1 is not only targeting the kids but women of a certain age. “Who actually are Take That?” asks Alex Albon, who wasn’t born until after their first break-up. “Who’s the singer?”
Overall, F1 75 Live acts as an ambitious curtain raiser ahead of what could prove the tightest title battle in years, with McLaren, Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes all in it to win it. Trying to produce an Olympics opening or Superbowl halftime type show is a high-wire act for a sport that’s been pale, male and stale for the bulk of its 75 years, but it pulled it off without spinning into the gravel and the gear changes were pretty slick.
“We need to think we are not only a sport, we are entering a new dimension. It’s lifestyle, it’s entertainment,” Formula One CEO Stefano Domenicali tells GQ on the red carpet. “This is an amazing moment where we can share something spectacular. So I’m looking forward to what’s going on tonight, and most of all looking forward to what is happening on track.”
No comments: