Off-Season Opinion: My Review of the F175 Live Event
The 2025 F1 season started with a bang on February 18th with the F175 Live Event. The event took place at the O2 in London and was also streamed live on Youtube for fans across the world. The show was extremely entertaining, full of laughs, and a near-perfect intro to the 75th year of Formula 1. Let’s recap some of the highlights!
Jack Whitehall was the comedic host for the night, and his humor and jokes were on point. Repeatedly getting lost in Charles Leclerc’s eyes and teasing Max and George about last season’s beef, Whitehall consistently made the entire venue chuckle. Whitehall has been on 5 stand-up tours, hosted the Brits many times, and acted in many film and TV adaptations. Overall, Whitehall’s wit and timing were impeccable as he asked Gordon Ramsey about the swearing ban, poked fun at the cars being the same colors as last season, and asked the audience to “pray for Toto Wolff” because of Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari.
The musical talent was collectively judged to be less impressive, with Machine Gun Kelly, Kane Brown, and Take That performing live at the event. None of the acts were necessarily bad, but the songs were unrelated to F1 or racing at all, although Brown attempted to be relevant by singing “Miles On It.” Fans online after the event expressed their disappointment that there were no female performers hired for the event exclusively, as there were so many singers that are popular and on topic - Rihanna could have performed “Shut Up and Drive,” or Tate McRae with “Sports car,” for example.
The all new Visa CashApp Racing Bull. Woof. Photo courtesy of F1.
But of course, the stars of the show were the liveries for each team. Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber started the show off, debuting a shockingly impressive lime green and black ombre car, with Nico Hulkenberg and rookie Gabriel Bortoleto accompanying Team Principal Matthia Binotto onstage. Following Stake was Atlassian Williams Racing, with a beautiful cobalt-blue livery escorted by Carlos Sainz, Alex Albon, and Team Principal James Vowles (master selfie-taker, apparently). Next was arguably the best livery of the night: Visa CashApp Racing Bulls’ stunning white car that just looked incredibly clean and fresh as Yuki Tsunoda and Isack Hadjar expressed positive feelings for the upcoming season. Haas was next, showcasing a sleek black, red and white livery with drivers Esteban Ocon and Ollie Bearman as well as Team Principal Ayao Komatsu. Marking the halfway point of the presentation, Alpine (introed by a DJ set from the creator of the F1 theme song) unveiled this year’s car with more blue and less pink accents as Jack Doohan and Pierre Gasly strutted onstage, refusing to show the buzzcuts under their team hats. Aston Martin’s dazzling emerald livery followed after a James Bond-style intro (featuring a performance by Tems) and Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll entering in suits and their race lids. The 7th team of the night was Mercedes, as George Russell and Kimi Antonelli unveiled the silver and black car and smiled to the audience. Red Bull Racing’s livery remains largely the same as the last few years, and Max Verstappen and Liam Lawson hyped up the crowd without any words about the upcoming season. Ferrari unveiled its new livery in a deep cherry red, and the crowd went absolutely wild for Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton. Lastly, McLaren flooded the stage with cars from past seasons as CEO Zak Brown unveiled the car with the help of Team Principal Andrea Stella, revealing a similar car to the 2024 model that won the WCC.
The stunning cherry-red Ferrari liveries. Photo courtesy of MSN.
All things considered, F1 truly put on a show, and I loved every second of seeing the drivers and cars before season testing later this week. As always, thanks for reading - let me know what you thought of the event if you watched it online!
Lights out and away we go,
Lucy xx
