The 2025 Formula 1 doesn’t officially start until the lights go out at the Australian Grand Prix, but the lead up to the first race of the year begins much sooner than that.
Before pre-season testing in Bahrain begins, every team and all 20 drivers will attend the F1 75 event.
Formula 1 is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year and as a result, a number of events are likely to be organised around the world to highlight the sport reaching this milestone.
On 18 February, F1’s launch event will take place at London’s The O2 with the two-hour show set to feature every livery that will appear on the grid at the Australian Grand Prix and beyond.
It will give fans the first chance to see Lewis Hamilton in Ferrari attire in the flesh after his move from Mercedes.
Ferrari’s social media post announcing Hamilton’s arrival at Maranello broke records and he’s likely to be the driver fans are most excited to see that evening.
However, the event is particularly awkward for Ferrari both in terms of its location and the timing.
Journalist Scott Mitchell-Malm was speaking on The Race F1 Podcast and explained why the £3.8bn-valued F1 team aren’t particularly happy with the sport’s one-off launch event.
Ferrari ‘aren’t so happy’ with attending F1 75 livery launch event in London
Mitchell-Malm was asked to explain the upcoming F1 75 event and said: “It’s all 10 teams coming together to show off their liveries. It’s not more than that.
“You won’t have the 2025 cars on display, you won’t even have show car versions of the 2025 cars, they’ll be basic.
“It’s not that they’ll bear no resemblance at all to the final product, there might be a few bells and whistles on some of them, but I’d be very surprised.
“And I think the best example of how little relevance what you’ll see on the night is the fact that Sauber’s auctioning off the car that they show. So, that just shows that it has no real meaning.
READ MORE: Why some F1 teams were left ‘worrying’ about one aspect of upcoming F1 75 launch event
“It will have some value attached to it, literally, on the night, but that’s about it.
“It’s about celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Formula 1 World Championship, coaxing all of the teams, even the ones that aren’t based in the UK, and maybe aren’t so happy that they’re having to do this in the middle of their final preparations, like Ferrari, for example.
“And just trying to have something celebratory, you can sell tickets to it. I suspect F1’s not going to make any money on it from just a pure profit and loss perspective, but they’ll hope that there are intangible benefits.”
Ferrari’s plans with Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc ahead of the 2025 F1 season starting
After runs at Fiorano and Barcelona, Hamilton and Charles Leclerc will now continue their preparations in the simulator at Maranello.
Ferrari have done more running than nearly any other team this winter, with all of their TPC [testing of previous car] days already used.
The Scuderia also took part in a 2026 Pirelli tyre test which gave Hamilton a taste of what it would have been like to drive Ferrari’s 2024 F1 car.
READ MORE: All you need to know about Scuderia Ferrari from team principal to factory
Both drivers will rush back to Fiorano after the F1 75 event to launch Ferrari’s 2025 car the following day, where they’ll also take part in a shakedown run.
From there, they have a week to wait until official testing starts in Bahrain, where the two drivers will split three days of running.
The season begins just a week later in Melbourne and the world will get to see whether Hamilton and Leclerc have a car capable of finally ending Ferrari’s long wait for a championship.
