Formula 1 hired comedian Jack Whitehall to host their season launch event at the O2 Arena this week. Whitehall was joined by some of the more familiar faces in F1 broadcasting, but he added a humourous touch to the coverage.
The sport also dispatched members of its F1TV presenting team, including Laura Winter, Lawrence Barretto and Ariana Bravo. Sky Sports pundit Martin Brundle interviewed the McLaren drivers on stage.
A compilation of Whitehall ‘roasting’ drivers and team members has been viewed nearly 400,000 times on the official F1 YouTube channel. His first target was Max Verstappen, who had expressed very little enthusiasm for the launch.
David Croft says Verstappen wasn’t ‘full of joy’ in the press conferences earlier in the day, while another journalist says his positivity about the event was ‘laced with sarcasm’. Whitehall quipped that he was ‘so excited to be here’.
He also made light of his feud with George Russell, telling him to ‘cheer up’ because he wasn’t sat next to the Mercedes driver. Whitehall then told the crowd to ‘pray for Toto [Wolff]’ after Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari move.
“Toto, I hope you changed your eyeballs to wets,” he said.
Jack Whitehall was stopped from making certain jokes at F1 75 launch
Brundle, Hamilton, Charles Leclerc, Zak Brown and James Vowles didn’t escape Whitehall’s attention either. But speaking on ESPN’s Unlapped podcast, journalist Nate Saunders revealed that F1 bosses had modified his script.
Whitehall wanted to make more controversial jokes, but his plans were ‘massively watered down’. The sport was eager to keep the teams happy, having worked hard to convince them to attend.
It’s not yet known if there will be a follow-up next February. The sport’s next major anniversary (its 80th) comes in 2030.
“There was a bit of a roast of some of the drivers in terms of what he said,” Saunders said of Whitehall. “I think that script was actually massively watered down from what he wanted to go out there and say. I think F1 had to play a pretty clever game, signing everything off with the teams.”
Red Bull surely ruing one big mistake they made with 2025 F1 car launch
In the end, the biggest controversy of the night didn’t concern Whitehall. Instead, it was the fans’ reaction to Christian Horner on stage.
Horner received loud boos as he introduced Red Bull’s RB21 car. There had also been some hostility towards Verstappen, but he didn’t carry out an interview.
The FIA were unhappy about Red Bull’s reception, viewing it as a sign of rising toxicity. But some might have seen it coming.
Red Bull may now regret handing Horner the microphone given the PR hit they’ve taken. The response may be different if the ceremony is relocated to another country in future.
