F1 announced “F1 75” a few days ago, its first joint launch show with all 10 teams.
This will take place on February 18, 2025 in London and we should mainly see news delivered on 2024 F1 cars. Some teams, less keen on presentations with great fanfare, could unveil their F1 cars intended for this last season of the current rules.
But what do the F1 bosses think? And what do they say to those who say that this event will be “fake” because we won't see the real F1 news?
"I think it's great," says Toto Wolff, director of Mercedes F1.
“It's almost like a race weekend, we all get together before the season, all the teams will introduce themselves, the drivers will introduce themselves, there will be a lot of media buzz around it, new liveries will be visible, and Maybe for some of us die-hard fans you'll be a little disappointed not to see the final product, but the truth is you won't see the final product until the end of winter testing anyway.”
“The regulations remain stable and it's a bit like the NFL draft, but maybe a little bit less consequential than the NFL draft. And I think we should promote that. We should promote testing a lot more than that. And I think Stefano Domenicali and Liberty are doing a very good job of that.”
His counterpart at Ferrari, Fred Vasseur, says “completely agree with Toto.”
“It's going to be a big event. And it's not the first time teams have launched a car with the previous year's car. I mean, it's happened several times in the past. Not to mention almost all the time.”
“And in the end, it's more of an event for…I'm not sure you'll look at the details of the car, the edge of the floor and all that in this kind of event, even when we launch the car. And I think we've all done it in the past, launching a car with fake parts. And it won't be fake parts. It'll be last year's car. good It's more for the fans, more for. the pilots. It's a good event. We don't have to criticize everything.”
Wolff also recalls “It should be kept in mind that all tickets for the event were sold out within 40 minutes.”
“At least the fans are happy!” adds Vasseur.
“Yes, the fans are happy,” Wolff continues.
“You know, I would also rather not have Sprint races, but the data shows that fans love Sprint races. Fans love these events. We are in a data-driven sport, and if the data says that it is really good, so let's try.”
Alpine F1 Director Oliver Oakes reveals an important detail about the organization.
“I agree with all of that. I think there might also be a bit of competition to do the best show. We each have a seven-minute slot to do our launch, so there might be a trophy for the best! We’ll see!”
