Hi friends,
It’s a week dominated by liveries. All I’ll say about them is that I very much like the VCARB.
Top Story of the Week: The F1 75 Season Launch Was a Success
The very first joint launch event in Formula 1 history has come and gone, and despite a very lukewarm reception when the event was announced, it’s hard to argue that it was anything but an absolute success.
18,000 people were in attendace in the O2 Arena in London, and F1 reported a peak of 1.2 million concurrent viewers on YouTube alone, beating their previous record by a whopping 900,000 viewers, with even more unreported viewers watching the show via the various broadcasters across the world.
While there were elements that could be improved, as with any other live show, having one joint launch event followed by smaller private events by the individual teams, is likely to be the new normal in February every year, just by the viewership numbers alone.
None of the teams on the grid can generate this sort of live coverage for a launch event on their own, and it presents another strong value proposition to partners, that their brands can get this kind of coverage even before the season is under way.
Some stories have trickled in since the event, that certain people within the FIA are unhappy that parts of the show were met by boos from the crowd – specifically when the FIA logo appeared on the screens, and when Christian Horner and Max Verstappen were presented.
The FIA itself is currently viewed very unfavourably by the majority of Formula 1 fans for a multitude of reasons, most recently instituting heavy punishments for drivers using any swear words during FIA sanctioned events.
And bringing on Christian Horner, who faced harsh criticisms and an investigation for sexual misconduct last season, as well as Max Verstappen who won the 2021 Driver’s Championship under extremely controversial circumstances ahead of the most popular and most winning British driver of all time, will naturally elicit a reaction from a majority British crowd.
Going forward I can imagine a model similar to the F1 Exhibition or the F1 Show Events, with the venue changing year from year, to promote Formula 1 across various markets.
I have no doubt that this is not the last time we’ve had a joint season launch.
The Rest of the Stories This Week:
- The FIA Commission has decided to add more mandatory pitstops to the Monaco GP to improve the racing
- The FIA Commission approved the in-car driver cooling vests proposed after the 2023 Qatar GP, but has made them optional for 2025
- Alpine announced a new partnership with Mercado Libre, one of Franco Colapinto’s main backers
- Ollie Bearman got his driver’s license, after failing the first time
- Rally driver Adrien Fourmaux was fined €30,000 for saying “We fucked up yesterday” during an interview
- Mercedes announce plans for “Performance World” attraction at the Qiddiya circuit in Saudi Arabia
- Yuki Tsunoda tried out an IndyCar
- Cadillac is setting up their engine manufacturing in Concord, North Carolina
- The F1 75 show reached a peak of 1.2 million concurrent viewers
- Max Verstappen is set to launch a GT3 program in 2025
- Juncos Hollinger has paused it’s INDY NXT program
- Logan Sargeant won’t be competing in ELMS with IDEC Sport Racing after all
That’s it for this week, thank you for being here.
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