P1 with Matt and Tommy - Our reaction to F1 75 Live

Episode Date: February 18, 2025

Despite a few dull bits, F1’s launch event was actually pretty fun - so let’s talk about it! We chat about what the teams got up to, which drivers got on stage to entertain the fans and how F1 actually managed to laugh at themselves (sort of). If that’s basically a dry run for Tommy’s 40th birthday, sign us up…Sign up to our Patreon here! You'll get access to extended versions of every Race Review podcast, every P1 episode ad-free, early access to live tickets and merch, and access to our Discord server where you can chat with us and other F1 fans!Follow us on socials! You can find us on Twitter, Instagram, Twitch, YouTube and TikTok. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello everybody and welcome back to the B1 podcast with Matt and Tommy. It was a while since I said that. We're off the back of enjoying, experiencing and just overall, I don't know. What word would you use, Tommy? I've done two, and it's quite late at night, and I've already run out of words of describing. I just think there was a lot to unpack there. It's a very chaotic launch event. Give me one word, chaotic.

No, because I was saying we were kind of. of absorbing it and enjoying it. So what would you say? Oh, I was going to say absorbing as well. I think that's the perfect word. Doubally absorbing. Okay, fair enough. Good intro. You can tell we've been really podcasting. But you love that, you audio listeners. You love a little bit of chaos. But yeah, the F-175 launch event is done. And I think that first and foremost, we just need to dive into the, yeah, the thoughts, the initial things that we want to say about it. it because of course we saw all 10 new liveries, some more new than others. All 20 drivers turned up, which was sometimes questioned.

There was roasting. There was all kinds of stuff. For me, I actually really enjoyed it at times. I think there were moments that were a little bit duller, a little bit more F1, PRE, which was basically every time Jack Whitehall wasn't on the screen. But overall, I would say I quite enjoyed it. I think that it was different. It gave us something to actually watch in the off season.

For those that weren't particularly pleased by it or thought it was cringe, yes, it was cringe at times, but it was kind of a good cringe. I like the fact they're putting Team Principal's drivers in slightly uncomfortable positions. And yeah, it just gives you content. So for me, I enjoyed it. Where else are you going to see some drum and bass playing as a zoomed-in picture of Flavio Brio Tori looking really unimpressed? Jackie Stewart.

Yeah, so many, so many moments, so many memes and just crazy things happened at that, that event. And it was a lot better than I expected, to be honest. I didn't think it was going to fail, but I thought, you know, I think let's be honest, as Formula One fans, we don't like change, we don't like things different. We joked about that when we were on stream and mentioning the F1 logo and now no one cares about it. Like, when something's new and different, it's all a bit like, what is this, this is different, I don't like it. but I actually thought it was a very enjoyable event to kind of watch together with other people like we did where we're doing our like watchalongs and things and get to kind of share a big moment with Formula One fans again and watch the reveals all as one thing. I was very skeptical, particularly as I kind of felt like, oh, particularly when we had the launch events before, as we mentioned about how weird car season is going to be, I thought, oh, it's kind of ruined all the team launches. but I thought the actual F1 event itself was very good

and surprisingly kind of went through quite quickly and not long moments of boringness. And surprisingly fun as well. I'm actually surprised to see just how far F1 let Jack Whitehall off his leash, like in the sense of the comedy. Roasting the FAA. You had the camera angles ready. All of these jokes were pre-prepared.

They knew exactly what was coming and they let it happen. So you've got to say F1, I tip my imaginary hat to you because that was actually, I thought you were doing it as well. That was crazy, but you were just in your glasses. You're tipping your glasses. But the fact that they allowed that to happen, I quite enjoyed because you don't usually see flexibility with F1 or fun usually. For the people as well that are like, oh, it's really cringe. And I totally understand. I said this to you on the stream that I think maybe around the world some of the humor might.

be very British or just maybe like doesn't translate if you're not into that kind of humour so I could understand why it would have been a bit weird but would you have rather had watching the drivers get roasted and then making jokes about George Russell and match for Stappen or would you have liked someone to go around and go Lando do you think you're going to win the championship this year what do you think shall that was the one point that I thought was really weird like that white hole literally went you're looking forward to the challenge can you win and all this sort of stuff

oh what's going on here yeah and it almost like brought down the vibe of the whole event going back to those and just think how boring that event would have been if it was just like an F1 presenter going around saying like are excited for the season because they'll give the same boring PR answers it actually made it

really fun okay let's get into some questions first and foremost P1 patron member Holm what was the most unexpected or chaotic moment of the night. It's a lot. Unexpected. I,

no, to be fair, my, and I'm going to sort of tie in, yeah, it was unexpected. The amount of booze the FIA got. Oh my God, that was cinema.

I loved that. The minute they got mentioned, they got mentioned once, I think, the entire night. The FIA, boo! Boo!

Boo! I was joining in as well and I think that for me was absolutely brilliant that was yeah I think just the initial setup of kind of the first initial jokes going okay we're going down this this kind of route are we

made it quite fun yeah the Flavia Briatore kind of zoom in when the music was playing was really funny Mercedes forgetting how to do a pit stop when they were live on stage that was quite something Lord, yeah, the front right literally didn't come off. They weren't even doing a pit stop.

There's no way that those wheel guns were on. That was literally just pull the wheel off and they went, oh. I feel so sorry for, yeah, the pressure. I love in a Formula One race, there was more pressure doing it in an arena. To be fair, though, the people doing it are probably what, dancers or start. I don't know. I don't think they're doing that fast. You don't know, actually know who they would have been, right?

They might have been members of Mercedes staff, but maybe not. It's not a good luck if they didn't have. have the pit crew there and they've kind of botched a pit stop. I think you said this on stream. If that had been Ferrari, that would have been memed for the rest of time, wouldn't it? But yeah, so many chaotic moments. And I think that that is the kind of, kind of lasting thing I'll think about is just how chaotic it all was. Absolutely. Let's get into the next question. That's no, Greg. Do you think the FIA will look inwards whatsoever to how much they were clowned during the show? I don't think they were clown that much, right? I think,

It was more just the doing. A little bit. They were joking about the swearing as well and go, yeah, I guess that's interesting. And all this kind of stuff. Yeah, that's true.

Because I spoke to Gordon Ramsey, didn't they? And he said what we all believe to be true, which is, yes, it's heat at the moment. It's, you're going 200 mile an hour, just let them be who they need to be.

And you police it yourselves, not police it, in terms of, you know, restrict it or whatever, right? So, no, I don't think the FIA will look inwards because they've had a huge amount of backlash as it is with some of the decisions that they've made in recent times

that it is very much just a dictatorship. It is MBS saying Mohammed bin Siliyam that is, he wants to be in control, he wants to be in power, he wants to almost take on Formula One and the world to make sure

he gets his way. These are my rules. Because Tommy, don't forget, he's a racing driver, okay? Just don't forget that because he does say that a lot as racing drivers. One that crashed to show current or war. Oh!

Oh, burn. Tommy, God, wow, straight to the point we love to say it. Do you think they'll look inwards? No, I think they'll double down and triple down and just continue to be the clowns. But they'll be embarrassed by it for sure because they've got, like we said, when the reaction to the swearing thing, I think is, as we said before, is the whole like, oh, the drivers aren't listening to as Max is laughing about it in the press conference. Lewis is wearing all this jewelry when we said there was be a jewelry ban and they want to kind of

stamp down on that. So the fact that F1, an event themselves are kind of mocking it and laughing about it is probably not going to go down very well with these people with big egos. Gosh, what are they going to do next? It's going to be a very intriguing one. And of course, involving the drivers as well, what do the GPDA say next? Because we haven't seen anything as far as I'm aware, unless I've missed something on social media, Tommy, that, you know, they have responded previously to FIA shenanigans. They haven't done since the swearing clampdown, but I wonder what they might do when we get into race one. Next question, JTF 094. To me, F-175 seemed like a pointless, purely marketing event. It was boring, uneventful, and I'd rather

not see it again. How would you guys do a big opening ceremony style event for F1? first and foremost JTF I'm really sorry that it was quite horrendous for you like the experience it's not worked out for you and look fair enough you didn't enjoy it

how would we do an opening ceremony style look I'm thinking a go-kart race start off with a little three-lap go-kart race get all the drivers involved oh yeah yeah little go-kart track Wembley Stadium forget the O2 let's go Wembley next time

go-car track in the middle boom five-lap race winner takes all, one million prize pool. And then we all go home because who cares about liveries? Exactly. I mean, we say that it's boring and pointless in a marketing event. I'd much rather, and this is what I was skeptical about, about, you know, kind of getting all the liveries and all the event in one go.

But in a way, I think I'd rather watch that than tuning in to the Alpine launch, if you like, from a couple of years ago. And it's like, here's the CEO of BWT talking about water pumps or whatever. And then now here's the driver. And then everyone's there just spamming goes, show the car on board. Whereas I have to say big credit Formula One, because I was very concerned when they announced four musical acts. And I was kind of going, is this a concert or a Formula One event? Why do you need four kind of music acts when you've got 20 drivers there?

defy the ticket price probably. True, but people are there for the drivers because they've already bought the ticket. And what I was concerned about was that we were going to be watching take that for an hour and going, oh my God, please just show a car. But actually they didn't really... And then I'll say, Tommy, just have a little patience. About 2% are going to get that reference, probably. Well, that's the thing.

They booked a band that like no one outside the UK probably have heard of. And yeah, I was concerned about that. that that side of it would take over too much. But I think they did a great job of kind of bit of like someone to open the show, one song, done, straight into liveries, a couple of cars,

a bit of banter, cars, banter, cars, banta. I think it flew by very quickly. It could have been, it could have been a very easy event to drag on and be quite boring, but I thought it was fun. I enjoyed it. Yeah, I found myself looking forward

to the next Jack Whitehall segment. I think that was the thing that I was really holding out for. What I will say is that I think as an F1 fan, I would have liked to maybe see a little bit more from the drivers, especially if I'm buying a ticket to the event. Yeah, yeah, true. There wasn't much that it was like, so, Lewis, you're in red, how are you feeling?

And then maybe one more question and then done. That being said, and this is an interesting kind of how teams have decided to do it, And I wonder how much of this is because of the reaction and how teams and how PR driven their drivers are and whatever. But each team got 10 minutes to do whatever they wanted. And I quite enjoyed the fact that we saw different things. You know, Aston Martin Shock did the James Bond thing. Who saw that coming? But, you know, other people did different launches.

You had people on stage. You had the drums at the start for stake. you had Brian Tyler doing a full 10 minute DJ set which went on 10 minutes too long The amount of people that were like Who is this bloke? Oh my God, why's he doing a DJ set? He's literally the guy that made the F1 theme change But also play the F1 team change

It needs to be a slight yeah there needs to be a slight Level of respect for the man that gave us the song that we all know and love But it was a very odd choice Yeah but I like the fact that every team did something a bit different But it is true that Some teams yeah, you know, 10 minute DJ set, drivers come on. How are you doing? Yeah, great to be here. Goodbye. And we didn't even hear from Red Bulls. Yeah, exactly. When it's, when it's sold as we've got all 20 Formula One drives, I do understand from that that maybe it's a bit of a missed opportunity when you've got 20 drivers all in the same place and a chance to do something fun. And this is what you've kind of done.

I do wonder what Red Bull's decision there, because they've clearly been like, no, no PR. We're not having any. anything. We're not having Jack Whitehall speak to our drivers. We're not having anyone be involved in the Red Bull launch. And it did feel a little bit disappointing, I guess. Do you think it's because they would get booed? And they did. I mean, they had Christian Horner on the mic. If they were doing some kind of decision there in terms of getting booed, surely you wouldn't put Horner on, unless he literally was like, I want to do it. And then he got massively booed. And then he almost like spoke about it. But I think the booing was, was a shame to see. And you've seen before that like Max Verstappen.

for example, hasn't kind of, he doesn't do the sky thing, does he at Silverstone, where he goes out on the stage, because he knows he's going to get a bad reception, which is a shame to see. Because however much it's like, oh, it's a British crowd, it's like,

it's a Formula One event, and it's a global sport, like it shouldn't just be British. Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it? We'll go into that question now, which is from Anne WLL. If this was a celebration of F1, why all the booing for one team and drivers. Very disappointing from the British crowd.

I would say, yeah, absolutely it was a shame, especially for Max Verstappen and stuff like that. The actual drivers. It's the world champion. I get the FAA. Yeah, I'm kind of like put some respect on Max's name. When I look at like Christian Horner, for example, I think he kind of plays up to being the villain in a lot of ways.

You look at DTS, things like that. He's had controversy. I'm not surprised that he was booed in some way. But when it comes to the drivers, I think it was a bit of a low blow for you, as you said, literally the world champion, Max, and how you sit on potential instance. If people are booing because of 2021 Aby-Dabby,

that wasn't his fault. Do we have to remind people that literally wasn't his fault? Yeah. And you're doing an event in the UK when he is a driver that's basically beaten two British drivers to the World Championship in the last few years

and is dominating. So, yeah, from that side, it is probably a shame for them that, you know, you do that in a different country, for example. And maybe F-180, if they do it again, they might mix it up and go to, I think they should, like, you know, try it in different places and bring it around the world. Yeah, I imagine it'll be in America, for sure. And I guess the last thing on Boeing is they can boo all they like to be in by now. Okay, next question. one Patreon member Alan Enderpe. Why didn't the top teams change up their liveries with a milestone season like this?

Because it's not really a milestone for them. I feel like teams are very much about their own history. And if they've been around for 10 years like Hass or whatever, they want to celebrate their own history. They're not here to particularly celebrate Formula One being around for 75 years. So, and also, they don't really care. They just want to be fast. So if they feel like they're going to do a certain,

either fast or make money through sponsors. Those are the two key things for Formula One teams. Yeah, just look at that HAPLAG. Yeah, let's not talk about that. We will, by the way, be getting into every single one of the teams and their liveries. We're going to be doing a ranking, a grading in a later podcast. So if you're looking forward to our grades for that, then it'll be coming at the end of the week. So yeah, it's an interesting one.

But it makes sense, right? I'm not surprised to see McClaren changing 75 years of Formula One. We can see why McLaren kept their livery because they've just literally won the Constructors' Championship so they're trying to make their new papyr and black their kind of brand identity

and so no wonder they're going into a new season. They want to make that livery just as iconic as the Marlborough McLaren's, the Vodafone McLaren's. You know, those liveries were the same year after year after year after year after year, and that's why they're iconic because they were and yes we all want to see something new and I must admit that when we saw the first four cars and they were all different liveries I was like oh have the team's almost been like forced to do a new livery and then you kind of realize okay no Mercedes is very similar ass and very similar Red Bull so they're not going to do that I said something when when I streamed the the Williams launch about how you could potentially make f-175 if you're not going to do that I said something when when I streamed the the Williams launch about how you could potentially make f-175 if you're it is all about the anniversary in a way to make it something a bit different with the liverys and a bit of a surprise is that teams can have their own car launches where you'll see the

basically the paint work and the car so they don't have to do this silly thing where they're revealing camo livery because they can't show the actual paint scheme and then for f-175 on stage you run a classic livery that you can use once in the season or something and then it plays up to the anniversary thing, we saw McLaren with the golf livery. Like one... Would people watch? Yes, because it's F1 drivers. You know, as much as everyone moaned about that.

Do you really think that just a one-off livery would change that event? Do you think less people would watch it? Probably, because they'd be like, ah, it's just a one-off livery that's going to be shown during a season, whereas I think this obviously is the hype of the upcoming season. and the fact that they are unveiling the livery that they're going to be running for the, for the entire calendar year. So I feel as though I know what you're saying and I think it's a nice thought,

but I don't think it could be the overall focus of the event. Yeah, fair. Yeah, I think it's all about the hype for the new season and what we're going to see for the whole year. But, but yeah, I'm not against them doing that kind of stuff. And I know for a fact, you're just like, come on, give me some fresh new camo liverys. Give me something nice for Monaco, please. But yeah, it's an intriguing one. And let us know in the comments, let us know you can leave podcast audio comments and stuff like that, your ideas as well for how you would improve it.

And a question from people on Patreon member, Piano Juggler, should they ever do something like this again? Yeah. What I will say to this is you haven't, you don't, well, apart from if you've bought a ticket, although apparently there's a huge amount of tickets that were held for teams and stuff like that. For us watching at home, we lost nothing. We didn't have to pay to watch it. It was a bit of content in February. If you're not happy with that, don't watch. Yeah, literally don't go on YouTube.

What are you expecting from a launch event? F1 tried to be a little bit different. They were, they were edgy, they were a bit cringy at times with the host. But it was a bit of entertainment for a couple of hours in an evening before the season. So for me, if they'd charge like a £10, you have to pay, paywall kind of thing, fair enough, we can get into a lot more criticism of it. but it wasn't. It was just a celebration of Formula One.

And for me, yes, they should do it again. They should continue celebrating about Formula One. And what I will say is people on social media will obviously shout very loud and the ones that are negative shout the loudest by a serious margin. When we were live on Twitch and YouTube, multi-streaming, I think we had maybe 20,000 concurrence overall with both platforms. And all I could see at the beginning was L, L, L, oh my God. Gringes.

It's horrendous. I then asked, do you find Jack Whitehall funny in a poll and 86% said yes? So that just shows you the people that are enjoying it are sat back enjoying it.

The ones that aren't a MAMURAWWWWW So don't be meh, me, me, meh, meh, and be the one to enjoy it. Don't be me, ma'am, Mac Gallagher, 2025.

Yeah, put that on a plaque. Yeah, they should do something like this again. Do I want to see it every year? No. No. Maybe do it for the 80th, anniversary and it's a cool idea.

You know, 75th. It's something to, I will. Something to celebrate. That's actually what the next event, the Tommy's 40th birthday batch. Please be upstanding for Tom Bellingham's 40th birthday. All 10 liveries revealed for Tommy's 40th birthday. God see. Oh, anyone after duck.

Here we are. Yeah, I think they should do it again, but not for five years. Okay, so as I said, if you're wondering our thoughts on the liveries, we'll be doing a livery ratings video and podcast very soon. But I think that pretty much sums up our thoughts, Tommy. Indeed. Do you have anything else to add? What are your final conundrums?

Mine are, for all the people complaining, just, if it's not for you, don't let it trouble you, you know. Don't let it try. Sleep tight. And as much as you're angry watching Flavio Briotori dancing to a DJ set. Was he dancing? I missed that.

Or not dancing. And a comedian rasting Formula One drivers, I'm sure you'll wake up tomorrow morning and be over it. With similar levels of hatred for something else. Okay. Thank you, everybody. We really enjoyed it. Not thoroughly.

I wouldn't say thoroughly. No, it's just good fun. It's just a good fun. It's an event that at the end of the day, we're all Formula One fans and we can enjoy. An event together. It's something to talk about and enjoy, right? Exactly. There's nothing going on in the off-season. So it's something we can laugh about at the cringe moments, funny cringe, bad cringe, good cringe,

and see some cars and get as excited for the season. Indeed. So we'll leave it there. Thank you, everybody. We'll see you very soon. Testing is not long away now. And we cannot wait. And when we could all complain about how boring it is and they need to spice up testing. Eight hours. Unbelievable. Okay, see you, so take care.

Bye! Bye. We're still here. Oh, yes, we are. So, February, what chores could you be de-ice the car? Is that a chore? No, that's kind of like,

that's not really a chore, is it? It's more of a household thing. Mo the lawn. Do you know what I'm saying? No one's mowing the lawn this time of year. Yeah, but I think they should. Like, why does the lawn have to be left like that? You can't have it like a flipping rainforest out there

Just because it's February and cold and wet And what I'm saying? It's not cold and wet everywhere, Matthew. It's not just Britain, you know? For those of you living in the Sahara Desert, I apologize for any offence that was caused. My takeaway is on the way. It's 5 to 11 and you need to go and take the bins out again.

I ordered a chicken burger because that's, that is, I, my blood is full of chicken burger. So, well, what an end is. to the podcast. If you actually enjoy these waffles and things like that on our Patreon, P1 Patreon, we're going to be doing 15 minutes of waffle at the end of every race review. It's probably going to be slightly more high quality than whatever the end of this podcast is. All right. It's chicken beggar reviews I heard.

Not for you. You're a vegetarian, mate. Yeah, unbelievable. You can do your mushroom wagu burger. Yeah. Wag. I don't know why I said wagu. That's literally. I know. That's beef. I know. Crazy. That's how little I'm able to think. Anyway, this is a very long thing to a podcast.

Goodbye. Create dreams. Adios. P1 is a stack production and part of the Acast's creative network.