Toto Wolff compares 2025 F1 launch event to the NFL Draft

While the 2024 Formula 1 is still in its final act, plans are already underway for the 2025 campaign. Next year looks to be a transformative season in F1, with Lewis Hamilton moving to Ferrari and the sport entering its final year under the current regulations before new technical directives are implemented in 2026.

2025 also marks the 75th season of F1, and to commemorate that fact the sport announced earlier this month a “season launch event” at the O2 Arena in London ahead of the season, featuring all ten teams and their drivers.

Tickets for the event sold out in less than an hour, signifying both the popularity of the sport and the excitement over the launch event.

Now the season launch event is drawing some lofty comparisons to another pre-season event in the sporting world that has taken on huge significance over the years, and become one of the tentpole events on the calendar each season.

The NFL Draft.

Speaking at the FIA Press Conference during the Las Vegas Grand Prix on Thursday, Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff made that comparison.

“I think it’s great. It is almost like a race weekend, we’re all coming together after the season, all teams will present, the drivers will present, there will be lots of media buzz around it, new liveries will be seen, and maybe for some of us hardcore fans you will be a little bit disappointed at not seeing the end product, but the truth is you will not see the end product until the end of the test anyway,” said Wolff on Thursday. “Regulations stay stable and it’s a little bit like the NFL draft, but maybe a little bit with less consequences than the NFL draft. And I think we should be promoting that. We should be promoting testing much more than that. And I think Stefano [Domenicali, President and CEO of F1] and Liberty [Media] are doing a really good job in doing that.”

As Wolff noted the consequences of the NFL Draft are a little different than what we will see at the O2 Arena next winter. While 32 NFL teams are drafting players they hope will get them to a Super Bowl, 19 of the 20 F1 seats for 2025 have been solidified — looking at you Visa Cash App RB F1 Team — so there will be little drama, other than seeing each team’s livery for the 2025 season.

And as both Wolff and Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur noted, teams will unveil their actual cars at standalone launch events later next winter, and fans will not see their finalized challengers for 2025 until pre-season testing.

Still, the excitement is already building for the event.

The comparison is likely music to F1’s ears. After all, the NFL does a tremendous job of driving the conversation year-round. Beyond the NFL Draft, the best example might be the yearly schedule release, which comes in May, a dormant part of the NFL yearly calendar. Even though we know each team’s 17 opponents due to the scheduling formula, schedule release day has become another fixture event on the NFL calendar, dominating media coverage each May. The 32 teams have leaned into this event, producing dramatic schedule release videos that go viral within minutes of the release.

Hamilton himself was featured in the one released by the Denver Broncos last spring, as Hamilton is part of the team’s ownership group.

As F1 continues to try and grow the sport worldwide, copying the NFL’s model of keeping itself in the conversation year-round is not a bad idea — and it is one we have advanced before. While we might not ever see something like an F1 schedule release event, given the logistical considerations of a calendar like F1’s, events such as the 2025 season launch event might become regular occurrences each season.

Just please don’t make me start doing mock F1 drafts, friends.