FIA Max Verstappen booed during F1 75 season launch The FIA and Max Verstappen were booed in the first-ever F1 launch event that hit many of its marks.
Held at London’s O2 Arena in front of a packed live audience, the event showcased the liveries all teams will carry throughout the coming season.
Hosted by comedian Jack Whitehall, it struck a solid balance between entertainment and the main attraction – the car reveals.
Whitehall poked light fun at the expense of Charles Leclerc, George Russell, Max Verstappen, Christian Horner, and Zak Brown, among others, to get the event off to a strong start.
Featured Videos
From there, the sequence of car reveals afforded each team the opportunity to put its own stamp on the proceedings.
It saw on-stage performances by the likes of Sauber and Aston Martin, while others opted for virtual elements.
Ferrari harked back to its heritage with footage of Enzo Ferrari and animations of the team’s cars through the decades.
McLaren also drew on its heritage with an honour roll of its world championship-winning cars on stage behind its 2025 design.
Not everything hit the mark, however, and elements of the show dragged on, and others were underwhelming.
The partisan British crowd also made its feelings known with vocal disapproval of the FIA when the governing body was mentioned midway through.
Horner and Verstappen also received cool welcomes.
Lewis Hamilton meanwhile, adorned in Ferrari red, was a crowd favourite and received rapturous applause when he appeared on stage with teammate Charles Leclerc and Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur.
The event was well received by both casual and hardcore fans who’ve understood the intent and appreciated the effort behind the show.
It drew a peak audience of 1.1 million simultaneous viewers on YouTube with a total viewership of 4.6 million, according to Formula 1.
That saw it easily eclipsed its previous best-ever live event which drew 289,000 viewers.
Perhaps more encouraging was the reception from fans in communities surrounding F1.
Comments online were overwhelmingly positive and encouraging as the event sparked renewed interest in the forthcoming season.
“The event also woke up the subreddit from the off-season hibernation,” F1 subreddit moderators revealed on social media.
“Just our main live discussion thread had over 14K comments and 600K pageviews.”
The F1 subreddit has a 4.8 million-strong membership and sits within the top one percent of communities on the platform.
“Tonight was an amazing event and a huge success,” beamed F1 boss Stefano Domenicali.
“As a sport, we did something together that has never been done in the history of F1 before.
“We are always celebrating and respecting our incredible history while looking to the future to engage new fans around the globe.
“We had a packed O2 arena, passionate fans sharing their love and excitement for the sport here in person and watching around the world.
“We saw all the drivers and team principals on stage alongside great music and entertainment.
“We are now excited for the season ahead and what is set to be a great battle in the track for the ultimate prize in motorsport.”
The 2025 F1 season formally begins in Melbourne with the Australian Grand Prix on March 13-16.
