How F1 75 Live launched the 2025 Formula 1 season — and Ferrari unveiled its new car, the SF-25 – The New York Times
Formula 1
Formula 1 greeted the 24-race 2025 season with a special event at London’s O2 Arena on Tuesday night.
All 20 drivers were in attendance as the 10 teams unveiled their liveries for the new season at F1 75 Live — conceived to mark the sport’s 75th anniversary.
Each team was given a seven-minute slot to unveil their designs. Sauber kicked things off with a high-energy performance including neon drumsticks, Aston Martin brought class with a James Bond theme and vocals from Tems, while defending champions McLaren completed the unveilings with a parade of its iconic cars.
MGK opened the night, which was hosted by British comedian Jack Whitehall, and Take That wrapped up proceedings after almost two hours.
Attention now switches to the remaining car launches. Ferrari officially unveiled the SF-25 at Maranello today. F1’s sole three-day preseason test takes place in Bahrain (February 26-28), before the first grand prix in Australia on March 16.
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F1 75 Live review: The hits and misses from the sport’s showy 2025 season launch
Our next musical interlude is composer Brian Tyler’s Are We Dreaming, and I’m enjoying it muchly.
Especially his awesome hair.
Some really big cheers in the arena for Ollie Bearman. He’s already a fan favorite.
On top of what Madeline has so wonderfully written, Haas also wheeled out its 2025 livery to Lenny Kravitz’s Are You Gonna Go My Way.
Which I approve.
What do you make of this one?
As one of the Americans on our F1 staff and a big country music fan, I appreciate this crossover of Haas and Kane Brown.
Miles On It is his most recent song, which he did with Marshmello, and Kane is a notable country music name. He was the first artist to top five of Billboard’s main country music charts simultaneously.
Haas has faced the question of whether they are truly an American team, and this was a great way to lean into this identity.
It may have been a video-led reveal, however combining it with Kane performing to kick it off was smart.
Live music is hard to beat.
I think we’re a bit behind schedule already. Haas has already shared the livery on its socials!
Ah well, we’re all having fun. Haas on now, with another video-led livery launch.
What I find interesting is how polar opposite the reveals are for Sauber, Williams and Racing Bulls.
Sauber leaned more into a modern unveiling, high energy. The drums were a great touch.
Williams made sure to honor its history while also putting a light on who it is today.
And then Racing Bulls had a bit of fun with the name changes in recent years.
Time for a musical interlude, which comes from U.S. country star, Kane Brown.
I’m sure lots of you love his stuff, which appears to be country music with electric beats underneath.
Hey, not every livery hits the spot — and it’s the same with artists.
Mixed bag there. Not the biggest reception in the room. Enjoyed the “short kings” gag and the livery is so, so nice. But putting that third out of the three launches so far. Yes, I’m making a ranking.
Next, the turn of the Racing Bulls — or RB for those who were around last year.
The team’s name and identity has been a bit of an issue of late, so you’ll need to get used to seeing Racing Bulls in 2025.
The team opts for a video mocking those team-name issues, which is a nice angle to lean into.
As for the livery, it’s a proper moment. It’s very white, it’s going to stand out from the other teams this year — which is no mean feat — and I think I like it!
But maybe it’s just the adrenaline and surprise factor.
The next link from Jack Whitehall sees him label Vowles as one of the great, dynamic sports presenters or words to that effect — I sense sarcasm — and he then sits down for another slightly awkward chat, this time with Lando Norris.
And yet, all I really remember is Whitehall saying he’s seen the Tiger King from Joe Exotic in the arena and he wants a selfie with him later.
This Valtteri Bottas reference is beautiful, and now I wish Valtteri was back racing…
A reminder that these are the liveries being unveiled, not the 2025 cars — although Williams is one of the teams to have launched their new chassis.
The FW47 is up and running, while the new livery looks pretty crisp and classy to me.
From the energy, drums and green of Sauber, we get Williams.
The nod to Frank and the team’s incredible history is a tap-in, but the rest is a little more… simplistic.
In fact, I’m probably most impressed by team principal James Vowles taking it upon himself to be MC for a few seconds. Not sure he’s my favorite hype man.
Jack Whitehall decides the best bridge from Sauber’s epic reveal onto Williams, is a series of Mike Krack jokes.
He squeezed every last drop out of those. Hopefully Aston Martin get better PR later tonight.
I’m following along via the YouTube feed and so far, this has exceeded my expectations. Sauber’s reveal has set a high bar for the other nine teams.
According to F1, on YouTube, 439,000 people tuned in when the show opened, and during Sauber’s portion, the viewership was up to 824,000 people.
Pretty strong start from Sauber. Enjoy the drummers and neon to bring out the car. Good vibes in the room too. Think this is building up very well here…
We’ve had glowing neon green drumsticks, loads of drums, some fantastic visuals and now the 2025 Sauber livery flanked by drummers.
It’s all very slick and stylish, with Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg on stage for a quick but anodyne chat.
Team chief Mattia Binotto offers this up on the livery:
💬 “I like it.”
He does also state how big this year will be for Sauber, and that may prove to be the real understatement of tonight.
What I’m taking away from this Sauber video is the car is made of werewolves.
Ahhh, there was always going to be the ribbing from Jack Whitehall. Yes, Jack, we’re all nerds.
Some boos in the room when Max Verstappen is shown… but the cheers drown then out in the end.
Much like an awards ceremony, Whitehall tucks into Max Verstappen’s love for these extra curricular events (he has none) and the aforementioned beef with George Russell.
Both are flashed up on the big screen, with Russell holding onto his awkward smile.
A video showcasing 75 years of F1 plays out next, ahead of our first reveal…
