Max Verstappen embarrassed, Christian Horner booed at F1's launch event in London
By Simon Head
The stars of Formula 1 took centre stage at The O2 Arena as all of the teams' 2025-spec cars were officially unveiled for the world to see at a huge launch event in London, England.
In something of a change from the usual, PR-heavy, team-specific launches – which are still set to follow – F1 decided to host a huge fan-attended spectacular at the iconic London venue, with each team given 10 minutes to reveal their cars in their own individual styles.
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The event was hosted by UK comedian Jack Whitehall, who was seemingly given a long leash to roast some of the key figures in attendance, and while the British crowd seemed to enjoy it, some of the drivers looked less comfortable.
One man who was paying close attention to the reactions on the night was body language expert Darren Stanton, who reported his findings to OLBG after paying particularly close attention to racers George Russell, Lewis Hamilton and world champion Max Verstappen, who looked particularly uncomfortable when addressed by Whitehall during the event.
Max Verstappen 'hated it'
"Despite what you'd think about Formula 1, a lot of these drivers are quite introverted. They're not all extroverts," said Stanton.
"You’d assume that to do what they do they would have to be loud, verbose and quite showy but when attention was drawn to Max Verstappen he hated it.
"Max gave the biggest fake smile I’ve seen in quite a while. There are no crow's feet. No laughter lines. The bottom half of his face is the only part that is engaged.
"He hated the attention of the whole room looking at him. He wasn’t happy. When Jack Whitehall told him to cheer up, Max's face said it all."
George Russell was loving the attention
While Verstappen was feeling out of his comfort zone, his on-track rival Russell seemed to be thoroughly enjoying himself.
"With George Russell, he is more of an extrovert than Max, so he was actually enjoying the adulation," explained Stanton.
"He was loving the fact that Whitehall was bigging him up, which Max again appeared to hate.
"The egos of these guys, even if a lot of them are introverts, must be massive to do what they have to do, and Max clearly has a huge ego, but in terms of personality he is focused and doesn’t like attention outside of his racing.
"Russell's facial expression suggested he was loving the attention on the other hand, and that Whitehall was dissing Max — George clearly enjoyed that in particular."
Lewis Hamilton is 'the daddy of F1'
Perhaps predictably for a driver who has been so unflappable on the track, seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton took it all in his stride as he made his first public appearance in Ferrari red outside of his early PR appearance at Maranello.
"When we come to Lewis Hamilton, he's clearly a man who has nothing left to prove," said Stanton.
"He's like the daddy of F1 in many ways. He has a genuine smile. There's no real arrogance or contempt from Lewis. He is just enjoying the attention too.
"Lewis has done it all, won it all, and he is self assured and so full of confidence."
Christian Horner's 'top dog' ego took a little bruising
But the biggest, most jarring, reaction of the night undoubtedly came when the London crowd mercilessly booed Red Bull team boss Christian Horner.
Horner has positioned himself as a bit of a heel character in F1, through his appearances on the Netflix series, Formula 1: Drive to Survive. And the way his team has ruthlessly treated their number-two drivers over recent seasons, coupled with his rather lop-sided view of some of Verstappen's on-track indiscretions, has put him at loggerheads with the British F1 fans, who let him know with a chorus of boos at The O2.
"His fake smile is what we call a case of a classic masking expression," Stanton explained
"He begins to also verbally address the booing, but stops himself and then tries to skate over it, which means he was perturbed and affected by it. We see that fake smile. He is clearly embarrassed.
"He is a little bit surprised and shocked but the overriding emotion is one of embarrassment because obviously he thinks he is the top dog despite the fact that people were loudly booing him."
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