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Lewis Hamilton made his first global appearance as a Ferrari driver as Formula 1 launched its 2025 season with a glitzy, ground-breaking show at London’s O2 Arena.
The biggest cheers came from Hamilton, whose first Ferrari laps were watched by a few hundred people in Italy last month at the team’s test track.
However, the 15, 000 people who attended the event, whose tickets sold out in 20 minutes last year, were overwhelmingly positive.
“Good evening everyone”, Hamilton said as the crowd celebrated him and their first sight of the seven-time champion in Ferrari’s red overalls.
Host Jack Whitehall, meanwhile, joked about what it must have felt like for Mercedes to see their former champion walking out for their rivals.
Hamilton won the Silver Arrows’ F1 championship race and became the team’s most successful driver. Now, he is turning out for the biggest, most celebrated, most historic name in the sport, in a partnership that has created a huge buzz already, with the season still just under a month away.
“It’s everyone’s worst nightmare”, Whitehall said. “Your partner of 10 years running off with an Italian stallion”.
Hamilton, team-mate Charles Leclerc and Ferrari team boss Frederic Vasseur flew back to Italy straight after the show, to prepare for the official launch of Ferrari’s 2025 car in Maranello on Wednesday. As with the other teams, the car on stage was a show car in this year’s paint job, not the machine that will contest this championship.
But Hamilton, who has gone to Ferrari with the aim of securing a record-breaking eighth title, was far from the only driver feeling the love of the audience.
The most popular names were no surprise – Leclerc, Hamilton’s fellow Briton Lando Norris, his McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri, Aston Martin’s veteran legend Fernando Alonso, Carlos Sainz, now at Williams, and Mercedes ‘ George Russell all raised the roof.
Leclerc’s performance received the most applause from Whitehall, who joked about the Monaco native’s attractiveness whenever she had the chance.
And there was a dash of irreverence. During a friendly exchange with Whitehall, Norris even made a crude insult out of a joke. One can have faith in FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem, who is known for his guerilla language use and poor handling in the majority of F1, but who won’t pursue it in this instance.
Gordon Ramsay, a celebrity chef with a deal with the sport, will undoubtedly agree. As Ramsay was being interviewed about the topic in the VIP area, he said, “If it comes out, it comes out.” “Let them be real”.
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In among the well-choreographed but also genuine celebrations of a new season, though, there was one ‘ gulp ‘ moment, when Christian Horner was booed loudly as he came out on stage to host during his Red Bull team’s presentation.
Anyone who was wondering whether that was directed at Horner directly or the team soon after when the team’s cheers for four-time Olympian Max Verstappen ceased to roar.
F1 had pulled out all the stops for this event, the first of its kind. Although it was intended to commemorate the 75th World Championship anniversary, one can assume that Liberty Media, the owners of Formula One, will soon be pushing for a repeat.
The attendance of all 10 teams and 20 drivers was required, and while some were more willing participants than others – Verstappen, in particular, was known not to be a fan – all were on their best behaviour, during the seven hours of media build-up to the event at a next-door hotel, and during the show itself.
Take That closed the show, which featured rock musician Machine Gun Kelly, and other performers who performed.
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Each team used their seven-minute break throughout the evening to create their own distinctive presentation style. Everything worked out almost military precision.
Many in F1 had questioned what the show was for, but on the evidence of the night, that was obvious.
A typical pre-season is marked by individual team launches on a whim. Some receive more attention than others, but none seem to have attracted the kind of global attention that this event seems to have attracted: F1’s YouTube channel had 1.1 million concurrent viewers, or 4.6% of the live broadcast audience.
“This is a new milestone, such an amazing event”, Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff said.
The presentations were done in reverse order of last year’s constructors ‘ championship, so the last team to do their presentation were McLaren.
“It’s a pleasure to be here tonight”, Norris said. “We’re all excited. After much effort, today it begins.
McLaren Racing’s CEO, Zak Brown, was the last competitor to address him at the end of the evening. He judged it perfectly.
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