Ferrari first to reveal 2025 F1 car launch date

Ferrari has become the first Formula 1 team to reveal the date of its 2025 car launch.

The Italian outfit posted on social media a teaser image above the 19 February date, with the message “Get ready to meet our 2025 challenger”.

While no further details were offered, the outfit has traditionally held such launch events at its Maranello base.

The Ferrari reveal will take place the day after F1’s official season launch at the O2 in London, where all 20 drivers and 10 teams are set to unveil their liveries in public for the first time.

While some teams may have elected to show off their new cars before the O2 event, it is likely that most will hold fire on committing to reveals until afterwards, with pre-season testing not set to begin until 26 February in Bahrain.

Ferrari is heading into a 2025 season where it will be gunning for world championship glory, on the back of a strong challenge it put on this year.

The squad will also face extra interest following its capture of Lewis Hamilton, who will be teaming up with Charles Leclerc, from Mercedes.

The timing of the official F1 season launch and Ferrari’s own event means the squad has ruled out any official presentation of Hamilton as a Prancing Horse driver, as famously happened when Michael Schumacher joined in 1996.

Speaking to media during an event at Maranello on Wednesday, team principal Fred Vasseur said: “We have to be focused on the season. It will be a very tight period between the first day and the launch, a matter of weeks. I want everybody to focus on performance.

“We will have the launch of the championship and we will have the launch of the car. It’s already two events and it’s far too much [to do another].”

Ferrari has not yet decided when Hamilton will get his first test in a Ferrari car, with the team hoping to schedule in a run in a previous car – most likely its 2023 challenger – at either Fiorano or Maranello.

Vasseur said the timing would be influenced by the weather but it was not something he was unduly concerned about.

“He is not the rookie of the year, I am not worried at all about this,” he said.

“We know that we have a lot of procedures to assimilate during this couple of days, but he is experienced enough to do it.

“We have the advantage to have the simulator and he will be able to do a race simulation and a…