F1 launch bonus revealed to ease fan 'pain'

A major benefit of the inaugural F1 Live season launch event has been identified by Esteban Ocon, as the championship prepares to celebrate its 75-year history at London's O2.

The new Haas driver believes having all 10 F1 teams unveil their 2025 liveries concurrently will remedy a long-standing "pain" for fans of the series.

Traditionally, each team holds its own launch event where it showcases its car for the campaign ahead. In recent years, that has often been distilled down to presenting just the livery.

On many occasions, multiple teams will reveal their new look on the same day, which Ocon feels is sub-optimal.

That, however, will not be an issue this season, with F1 breaking convention to put on F1 75 Live, in which each individual team will have seven minutes to unveil its livery.

"As a fan of the sport, honestly, it’s a pain to be watching a new livery every day," Ocon told media including RacingNews365.

"And sometimes you are missing it because you are doing something else and you see it at a different time.

"I think at least [now] we have one day where we see all the cars, which as a fan of the sport, I'm excited for."

The negative effect for F1's drivers

Not all the drivers have been keen to add another date to their pre-season calendars, including Lando Norris.

The McLaren racer joked he and Max Verstappen would fall prey to the same illness to get out of attending the event on February 18.

It is something Ocon understands, despite reiterating how much he is looking forward to the festivities.

"Of course, it's one more event for us, which is not ideal in that period because it's going to be very busy," he added. "We need to prepare. We need to be fully trained before we get into the season, etcetera.

"But I think it's much better organised than how it was before, especially when two teams were having the launch on the same day and it wasn't properly organised. So, yeah, I'm actually looking forward to it."