F1 75 Live: It Happened, and Everyone Had an Opinion
It didn't quite know what it was
Thank you for being here. You are receiving this email because you subscribed to Idée Fixe, the newsletter for curious minds. I’m Toni Cowan-Brown, a tech and F1 commentator. I’ve spent the past five years on the floor of way too many F1, FE, and WEC team garages, learning about the business, politics, and tech of motorsports. I hope you’ll stick around.
F1 75 Live: Everyone Had an Opinion
A Success? Absolutely.
Anyone calling F1 75 Live a failure is being unfair. Pulling off an event of this scale -especially a first-of-its-kind showcase - without a single visible technical hiccup is impressive. I was at the O2 the day before filming with AWS and I couldn’t believe we were going to have an event of this magnitude just 24 hours later. Then again, if there's one thing Formula 1 knows, it's how to deliver global, high-production-value broadcasts.
But from the moment it was announced, one big question loomed: Who was this event actually for?
At first glance, it felt like another exclusive, high-roller affair - VIP tables, red carpets, and sponsor-filled suites. But walking into the O2 on Tuesday evening, I was pleasantly surprised: the place was packed, and the energy was incredible and full of excitement from fans. This wasn’t just an event for the ultra-rich, sponsors, VIPs or industry insiders. It was, in many ways, for the fans. Was it going to appeal to every fan? Absolutely not.
Note: I was a guest of AWS and Just Walk Out for the evening. As ever, thank you for having me.
Visual Diary | F1 75 Live
The Hits and Misses
The show had some high points - Jack Whitehall’s F1 roast was a refreshing moment of self-awareness. Formula 1 is an absurd sport with even more absurd characters, and it was fun to see the community and ecosystem laugh at itself - something it almost never does. Jack Whitehall was the right choice for this as he knew enough about the sport but wasn’t afraid to ruffle feathers either.
The red carpet? A rare chance to see legends of the sport come together, and honestly, I wanted more of that. And as for unveiling all ten liveries in a single, open-to-all format? That felt modern. It worked. Formula 1 should embrace that. And the teams seem to have all embraced the brief in their own way and leaned into the exercise so hats off to them.
But then, there were the misses.
Formula 1’s musical lineup was a disaster (not the teams’ but F1’s lineup). It felt thrown together, culturally irrelevant, and, frankly, uninspired. Worse still, in 2025, having a lineup with not a single woman is unacceptable and embarrassing. The crowd’s energy said it all - few people were standing, dancing, or even pretending to care.
And for an event billed as a celebration of F1’s 75-year history, where was the real celebration of the fans? These are the people who wait for hours in the rain just for a glimpse of a car, will travel the world for a race weekend, save up a month’s worth of salary to spend it on tickets, endure the scorching heat with no shade, and witness terrifying crashes, all for the love of the sport. A moment to acknowledge them - just a moment -would have gone a long way.
An Event With an Identity Crisis
F1 75 Live felt like two events battling for dominance.
On one hand, it wanted to be F1’s version of the Golden Globes or the White House Correspondents’ Dinner - a night of industry celebration, self-awareness, and viral TV moments. Imagine if it leaned into that even more: a Tom Brady Roast-style night where drivers, team principals, and F1 executives take playful jabs at each other. That would have been must-watch content. We got glimpses of this throughout the evening and I was left wanting more - it was humanising the sport and its characters.
On the other hand, it wanted to be a fan-first, season-launch event but there was simply too much to get through and just not enough time and every team clearly wanted to outshine each other meaning the emphasis was often on everything else but the car - which isn’t a problem in of itself. And that model does have potential. But the ratio was maybe wrong for such an event - 80% entertainment, 20% actual F1.
To fix that balance, imagine this:
An unveiling of all new cars (okay maybe just the liveries - I get it), highlighting technical innovations, and setting the stage for the year ahead.
A live press conference featuring all ten team principals.
A driver panel with all 20 drivers - the kind of interaction fans rarely get in one place.
A proper state of the sport address from Stefano Domenicali, laying out 2025, teasing 2026, and setting the tone for the season.
Will They Do It Again?
The brilliance of tying this event to F1’s 75th anniversary was that if it bombed, they could say, Well, that was a one-time thing. But it didn’t bomb.
They may have also just created a whole new revenue stream. The question is: Can it be profitable? Right now, it’s hard to see how. This event probably cost Formula 1 somewhere between $8 and $10M and each team probably had to chip in another $500k and $1M each for their own set. Without a clear commercial model - ticket sales alone won’t cut it (especially if you want to keep the price point low to allow access to as many fans as possible) - this is an expensive experiment. But if they refine the formula? There’s something here.
The ‘Downfall’ of F1? Not Quite.
Every time F1 tries something new, purists and new fans alike cry foul. But two things will always be true:
Not everything on the internet is for you. Don’t like it? Scroll. The same is true for any form of content, art, music, entertainment…
Formula 1 is one giant ad campaign - they are after all the fastest billboards in the world.
The ratio of entertainment to sport has been shifting for years. Some might argue it was always tilted in entertainment’s favour - just in different ways, and as such this shouldn’t surprise us.
Let’s also not pretend this is the first time anything like this has happened, back in 1997, the West McLaren Mercedes team unveiled their car and livery with none other than the Spice Girls and Jamiroquai performing live to an assembled audience of five thousand, comprising of media, sponsors, VIP guests, and fans in attendance.
Beyond the headlines
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The racing series that holds the largest single-day sporting event in the world is about to get the Super Bowl treatment in front of a television audience that a year ago marked the most-watched U.S. TV program ever. Read here.
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I couldn't agree more. It was a great idea and opportunity to make something new and interesting, but some things just felt very off. The musical acts were so out of everything, I can't believe how that happened when they could clearly have had absolutely anyone they wanted, and that would have made a huge difference, I'm sure. Some drivers were clearly not happy to be there, but that's nothing new. And nothing to make the fans part of it. But the presentations were quite something. I'm sure watching live they looked incredible. If they do it again, I hope they learn and take your ideas to improve it 😄
Loved this!