F1’s Exciting 2025 Season Will Start With an O2 Party
The 2025 F1 clock is counting down, with a 75th-anniversary launch event, car reveals, and testing all scheduled for February.
Damon Hill (left) may have left Sky F1’s coverage, but Martin ‘Grid-Walk’ Brundle has plenty to look forward to in 2025. © Getty Images
Key Facts:
- A first-of-its-kind February 18 launch event, ‘F1 75 Live’ sold out in 45 minutes.
- Ferrari will reveal their 2025 race car at its test track in Maranello the following day.
- Significant driver changes for F1 season ahead – including six rookies on the podium.
- Damon Hill has left the Sky commentary team, but his career is celebrated with a new documentary.
Formula 1 will kick off its 75th anniversary in style with a first-of-its-kind launch event at The O2 in London on February 18. Taking place eight days before the start of pre-season testing in Bahrain and just under a month before the season-opening race in Australia, tickets for ‘F1 75 Live’ sold out within 45 minutes.
All 10 F1 teams, with their 20 drivers, will be in attendance. Each will have seven minutes to make their mark by unveiling their respective car liveries. Ferrari will reveal its 2025 race car at the Fiorano test track in Maranello the following day.
This year, Williams appears to have won the race to launch its car ahead of rival teams. Its 2025 car, the FW47, is set to be revealed in a bespoke one-off livery at a special promotional event at Silverstone on February 14. Its race livery will remain a secret until the ‘F1 75 Live’ event.
A Bigger Party at McLaren in 2025?
News of new sponsorship agreements has been scarce during the closed season. Executives at Entain plc will have been delighted with McLaren winning Formula 1’s Constructors’ Championship in 2024. Promoting its PartyCasino and PartyPoker brands, McLaren’s race cars have carried the gaming company’s logos since 2021.
It will be interesting to see the prominence and size of the Party branding on the 2025 McLaren – and if any other teams will carry logos of betting companies. Just days before the start of the 2024 season, PokerStars unexpectedly pulled their sponsorship of the RedBull F1 team. The companies had enjoyed outstanding success together.
Tight Betting Suggests Exciting F1 Season
With minimal technical regulation changes, 2025 could be Formula 1’s most exciting season. Last year, McLaren finished just 12 points ahead of Ferrari in the World Constructors’ Championship. Max Verstappen won the Drivers’ Championship for Red Bull, and the Mercedes team won four races.
When it comes to odds, online betting sites cannot separate Max Verstappen and Lando Norris at the top of the 2025 World Drivers’ Championship betting. The pair are quoted on 11/4, with Charles Leclerc given a 7/2 price tag. Lewis Hamilton, who will be wearing Ferrari’s famous scarlet red overalls for the first time, can be backed on 7/1.
Fresh Faces on Track. What Does Sky Have in Store?
Ultimately, the 2025 season will surely be fought out by the ‘big four’ teams: Red Bull, Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren. However, it will have plenty of fresh faces. No less than six rookies will be on the starting grid in the Australian curtain-rising Grand Prix. Two are teenagers.
Yet to be confirmed is the presenter lineup for Sky Sports F1 coverage. Last year, commentator David Croft missed three races and was replaced by Harry Benjamin in the commentary booth. There were bigger changes in 2023 when the broadcaster dropped former racers, Johnny Herbert and Paul di Resta.
Naomi Schiff – who boasts a career-best tenth position from her six races in the 2019 W Series – and former IndyCar racer Danica Patrick have appeared on Sky during race weekends with increasing frequency ever since.
Hill Docu on the 2025 Sky Horizon
One person who will not be presenting the action on Sky’s dedicated Formula 1 channel in 2025 is Damon Hill. The 1996 World Champion took to X (Skype) in November to reveal that his 13 years as a pundit with the broadcaster had ended, and he was “Looking forward to new challenges.”
Its been a fantastic 13 years with @SkySportsF1 but all good things come to an end. I will miss the most impressive bunch of professionals it has ever been my pleasure to have worked with. Looking forward to new challenges #f1 pic.twitter.com/mdRxOJWVW2
— Damon Hill (@HillF1) November 15, 2024
The split appears anything other than acrimonious. Sky recently announced a new 90-minute documentary, titled ‘Hill’, will air on Sky Documentaries and streaming service NOW later this year.
Featuring intimate interviews with Damon and his family, the new film tells how the 64-year-old overcame the adversity of losing his father, the legendary Graham Hill, to follow in his footsteps and become a Formula 1 World Champion.
The emotional documentary also reveals the inside story of how Damon fought a furious battle with one of the greatest of all time, Michael Schumacher. How Hill dealt with the death of another iconic driver, Ayrton Senna, his team-mate at the time, is also examined.
