These are his first of many stabs at puncturing F1’s pomposity and at times tendency towards the unsavoury – highlighting the suits, corporate band-wagoning and potential off-shore tax avoiders populating the event. The world championship doesn’t do fun very often – it makes a change.

The tempo is necessarily high, as musical acts, video montages and ten launches were packed into two hours.

Each team has a seven-minute slot to show off their new colour-scheme on a show car, do some brand promotion and give sponsors their money’s worth.

Your £9.50 pint shaking to each thunderous intro tune, retinas burning and head swimming as LED lights fire all around you, each presentation is an assault on the senses.

Rolled out in reverse championship order, the crowd erupts as the first team is revealed by virtue of being last year’s slowest – one thing’s for sure, no one’s ever been this excited about Sauber before.

The shift in demographic is eye-opening. A Force India launch a few years years ago was something you couldn’t pay most people to go to but now, dressed up as Aston Martin, it’s become part of the hottest ticket in town.

It is largely those in the 16-24 age group excitedly bouncing down the Dome concourse, some accompanied by their parents. Before, it wasn’t cool to wear a baseball that said ‘Moneygram’ or ‘Visa Cash App’, but thousands of people here are thrilled to be squinting at F1 stars and their liveries from a distance. It’s a triumph in marketing.

Sauber’s lurid green show proves to be one of the better presentations. Despite said baseball caps, the energy dips as the crowd struggles to remember why it cares about Haas or the newly named Racing Bulls.

Things pick up as we get to the bigger teams.

Alpine goes for a rousing long DJ segment to accompany its blue-again car. Aston Martin slightly fudges its by trying to combine the James Bond theme, an animated historic graphic which inadvertently emphasises there was an almost 50-year gap between the brand doing much at all in motor sport and the drivers being led onto the stage by singer TEMS. Maybe it should have gone for Lawrence Stroll sat in a chair stroking a white cat a la Blofeld instead.

The boos which rain down on the presentation of Red Bull, Max Verstappen and particularly Christian Horner highlight their anti-hero stance anywhere outside of the Netherlands and Austria, but particularly the UK. Horner is almost lost for words. The team gives no driver interviews – are they too scared?

A segment on the FIA gets a good booing too. Nothing like a bit of pantomime. This is what happens when you cultivate fandom.

In contrast, the wild crowd reaction to Hamilton – and even any briefest sight of him in highlights reel links – emphasises just how popular he is. In the Millenium Dome at least, cheers for Norris came a very distant second.

McLaren celebrates by bringing five of its most significant cars on stage, before Take That serenades the mums and dads ahead of the grand finale – well, those that were there to see it anyway.

A fair number of the audience leg it at the sight of Gary Barlow, meaning that what follows – where the whole grid is presented in one go, complete with drivers – is Hamilton and co waving to a sea of empty seats.

Putting that aside, it’s clear what F1’s trying to do. Just like its touring exhibition, it wants to bring the world of grand prix racing to those who aren’t attending races. More than that, it wants to elevate itself from a sport to an entertainment-lifestyle brand. You can envisage F175 becoming a yearly event (with a different name, natch).

The corporate element is difficult to get away from. As well as the tickets themselves, and the exorbitant merchandise stands, just buying a drink from one of the O2 bars, like All Bar One, requires you to have paid even more premium access seeing as it’s temporarily been turned in the ’75 Lounge’. So essentially like the Paddock Club, but you’re almost in Charlton.

As much as the purists might moan though, it’s uplifting to see teams like Ferrari, McLaren and Williams lean on their history in their car presentations to get people excited about what’s going on today and tomorrow.

In the most unlikely turn of events, F1 has managed to use Netflix, social media and spectacular shows like these to transform itself from a niche interest to arguably the fastest growing sport on the planet. The world championship has finally mastered the art of showing just how exciting it is – and that can only be a good thing.