REVIEW | The Formula 1 Exhibition London
F1 is back
This weekend saw the beginning of a new Formula 1 season, as ten teams and twenty drivers battle it out to see who is at the pinnacle of world motorsport.
For the past few years, the sport has become a predictable affair, usually with one driver - *cough* Verstappen/ Hamilton *cough* - dominating the field from the offset with little to no competition throughout the twenty-odd race calendar.
This year looks different, however, and last season, there were signs of what was to come, as Max Verstappen’s grip on the championship loosened thanks to a sustained challenge from McLaren - who went on to win their first constructors’ championship since 1998. There were seven different race winners across the season, a stark contrast from the season of domination from Verstappen in 2023, where he won all but three races.
The 2025 season kicked off with the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, start time: 04:00 AM GMT. I tried as hard as I could (even considering setting an alarm at one point) but ultimately decided to benefit from a full night’s sleep. It is likely to be a similar situation in the upcoming Chinese and Japanese Grands Prix, although I shouldn’t complain really, as European viewers are spoiled by so many races starting at a sensible time.
The race itself turned out to be an intense one, seeing crashes on the formation lap from rookies, crashes in the race itself from seasoned veterans and an impressive drive from Britain’s Lando Norris, who now has a chance to establish a lead in the early part of the season. Many eyes were on Lewis Hamilton in the Ferrari, however, a combination of strategy issues and lack of pace resulted in a tenth-place finish in his debut race for the Prancing Horse.
London Excel, a new motorsport hub
Ahead of the new season, I got into the spirit of things by visiting the Formula 1 Exhibition, a pop-up experience located at the Excel Centre near London’s City Airport.
I had wanted to go to this for a while, but never got round to it, however just after Christmas, I noticed that the exhibition would be finishing its run in early March, so took it upon myself to get up there while I still had the chance.
Excel is a place that has recently muscled its way into the motorsport picture as a location for the London leg of the Formula E calendar, something I was reminded of when getting lost trying to find the entrance to the exhibition.
F1’s booming popularity
Joining the queue ten minutes prior to my allocated entrance time, it fully dawned on me the wide demographic that Formula 1 is now attracting. Usually, when going to a concert or sports event, you’re able to see the typical idea of a fan of that artist or event. This was different, however. Ages spanned from young children to retired adults, with an equal split in gender. This is symptomatic of the growing influence of Formula 1 since the release of the Drive to Survive documentary series on Netflix, something that has grown the sport tenfold and inspired nearly every other sport to try and create its own version.
You only have to look online to see the influence of Formula 1 in real-time. Drivers, teams and broadcasters’ follow-up numbers are massively up, while X (formerly Twitter) is awash with tribal-like fandoms akin to Swifties or K-Pop fans. This has led to increased attendances on race weekends, larger sales of merchandise and new sponsors tripping over themselves to get involved in the action.
A look back at F1’s history
After plenty of queuing to get in, I navigated my way through security and made my way up to, yep, another queue. However, this time, I could at least watch people putting lap times on the board with the Fastest Lap simulator experience. The queue for that was longer than the queue I was in, so I decided to stick to my guns and get in the exhibition itself. There would be time for that later. Upon arriving at the front, I was presented with a pair of headphones which could be used to guide you through the exhibition, providing commentary and information about everything on display.
The first room was a journey through time, providing a look back at Formula 1’s history with a Ferrari 156, Lotus 72, Williams FW07–C and McLaren MP4/14 all on display. This was accompanied by trophies from some of the races on the F1 calendar, magazine and newspaper clippings throughout the years and photos of old drivers. Some of the magazine covers featuring James Hunt were hilarious and definitely of their time.
Looking at some of the older F1 challengers - and after seeing the modern Red Bull and Mercedes cars later on in the exhibition - you do realise how big the cars have become in the last decade. Is it any wonder that overtaking during street races is now so difficult? If I could make one change to F1, it would be to reduce the size of the cars by as much as 50%. The chances of that happening are close to zero, I know, but it would be epic.
How to build an F1 car
The next room detailed how a Formula 1 car is put together. Everything from chassis design, tyre types, 60% scale models, wind tunnels, and engines was all documented in great detail, providing a deconstruction of the most powerful machines in all of motorsport.
Only up close can you appreciate the sheer size and detail of these machines. They are massive. And I mean massive. Yes, they are low to the ground, but they are incredibly wide. Stick some massive tyres on and it just makes them even wider. There has been discourse for years about how to make the Monaco Grand Prix more interesting. While cars are like this, that task is pretty much impossible. Thank God we have tracks like Monza, Silverstone and Texas on the calendar to see some form of competitive overtaking.
Seeing an F1 car separated into its various components was fascinating, though. If you think it was harsh for a team like Williams to be dropping Logan Sargeant after his various crashes last year, then seeing the intricacies of an F1 car turned into rubble in the middle of a racetrack will make you understand it more easily. It’s a bloody tough job and while the drivers will take the majority of the glory, it is the mechanics and engineers who are the heart and soul of the operation.
There was also a look into how the F1 race suit has changed over the years, from something you’d wear when clearing out an old garage to the sponsor-filled space suits used today. I liked the way it was set up (see photo below) showing the position that an F1 driver adopts in the car. My back is hurting just thinking about it.
Man on fire
Then came my personal highlight of the exhibition.
Avid viewers of F1 in recent years will remember Romain Grosjean’s crash in Bahrain that saw his Haas VF-20 split and catch fire after penetrating a metal barrier. Miraculously, the French driver was able to escape with his life and race another day. These days, Grosjean can now be seen racing for Lamborghini in the IMSA SportsCar Championship.
The remains of that very Haas were on display, and its presence attracted the most attention of any of the items in the exhibition. It was a memorable and harrowing moment of the sport in recent years and took on another level of poignancy when seeing it up close. Thankfully, motorsport has come a long over the years in terms of safety meaning such incidents now are extremely rare.
An abrupt end
More queuing ensued as I approached the final part of the exhibition, which leads you into a darkened room with three cinema-sized screens while an ‘immersive’ video plays of a driver doing a lap of a race. It was pretty cool, I guess, until the video ended, the lights came on and the member of staff that had shown us into the room said, “Thank you for coming to the Formula 1 Exhibition London…”.
And that was it.
I’ll be honest, I know £30 is a drop in the ocean compared to most ticket prices nowadays (yes, I’m looking at you Oasis) but for the entrance fee, I’ll admit I was a little disappointed. It could have been so much more. I had only found the Formula E car earlier at the main entrance of Excel as I had wrongly assumed that the exhibition would be in the main, larger part of the arena. When I saw the crowds of people, I figured my assumptions about the growing popularity of Formula 1 were confirmed, only to later find out that they were there to attend an event called the International Confex 2025. I’m not entirely sure what it was about, but it was filled with people wearing suits looking serious and business-like.
The cost of being an F1 fan
Value for money is a hot topic in Formula 1 at the moment. Plain and simple, does the experience justify the ticket price? In 2024, Autosport did a brilliant deep dive into the cost of being a Formula 1 fan. I recently saw an article on the F1 website about the price of tickets at this year’s Las Vegas Grand Prix. To put it simply, it ain’t cheap. Some business-minded people might say, ‘Make hay while the sun shines’, but charging thousands of pounds/dollars for a race ticket seems obscene. This isn’t solely an F1 problem. It is the case across football, tennis and concerts, where people’s desperation to attend an event is exploited to the nth degree.
But it is important to remember that while Netflix has brought in a young, enthusiastic crowd to the sport, it doesn’t mean you have the right to take it for granted.
Yes, there were many good parts to the Formula 1 exhibition. Is it cheaper than a ticket to the British Grand Prix? Yes. Is it as exciting? No. Was it value for money? I’d also say no. I’m still a fan, though, and still excited to see what this season brings. Hopefully, a Lando Norris championship win and plenty of competitive races.
words: Mike Booth
pictures: Mike Booth