Formula 1 is set to axe the season launch event that was used to kick off 2025 in London as part of the 75th Anniversary celebrations.
It gained some criticism from Red Bull’s Christian Horner after Max Verstappen was booed by the live audience at London’s O2 arena.
According to Autosport, F1 is concerned that a big event like this year’s O2 launch would cause an unwanted distraction for teams ahead of preparations for their all-new 2026 cars.
Learning about the news, fans quickly took to social media to voice their thoughts on the news that it would not be taking place next year.
F1 fans glad that ‘waste of money’ season launch is not taking place in 2026
Verstappen was critical of the event and said that it was “not worth my time” (via The Independent), while his father Jos Verstappen called the jibes from the audience aimed towards the four-time world champion “unacceptable” in an interview with Dutch publication RaceXpress.
The FIA was left seriously unhappy with the booing directed towards Verstappen and Red Bull in the aftermath of the event.
Fans also felt the event was unjustified, given Red Bull spent six figures on putting together their presentation for the event, when speaking on Instagram.
“Good, it was a waste of money anyway, basically just for Hollywood and celebrities,” wrote one fan on Instagram.
Another fan also said: “Excellent. Thought it was a waste of money anyway. F1 is a sport not showbiz,” while one simply wrote: “Good riddance.”
Other fans also felt that F1 was pandering to the wrong audiences with the event: “Nice, F1 is a sport not some Hollywood show,” with another writing: “This is F1 even if they are desperately trying to make it into Hollywood.”
One fan felt that it was a good one-off event F1: “It would have gotten old very quickly. It was decent for a one-off as it was the 75th anniversary.”
F1 ‘exploring options’ for future season launch event
Although there was controversy over Red Bull, the event saw each team unveil new liveries for each of their cars, and it was a relative success online.
The venue was London’s O2, which seats 20,000 people and saw tickets sell out within minutes of going online last year.
At least 1.1 million concurrent live viewers tuned in to F1’s YouTube channel to watch, and an additional 7.5 million viewers across multiple platforms.
F1 is looking at exploring options to revive the event in the future, with the potential for it to take place in different key cities and markets around the world rather than London.
