Lightning McQueen took a lap of Monza, and the safety car went full Ka-chow
Speed. He is speed. And for one weekend at Monza, so was the Formula 1 safety car.
Formula 1 does not always let its hair down, so it is worth enjoying it when it does. At the Italian Grand Prix, the sport handed Monza over to Lightning McQueen, with a physical version of Pixar's most famous racing car turning a lap of the circuit and the official Mercedes-AMG safety car dressed up in a Cars-inspired livery for the weekend. It is gloriously silly, and all the better for it.
A movie star at the temple of speed
The car that appeared at Monza was made to look virtually identical to the animated Lightning McQueen, red bodywork, lightning bolt, number 95 and all, and it completed its own lap of the famous Italian track. Alongside it, the F1 safety car swapped its usual look for a Lightning McQueen-inspired design, so the vehicle that leads the field under caution spent the weekend cosplaying as a cartoon. Of all the circuits to do this at, Monza, the self-styled temple of speed, is about as fitting as it gets.
Why now
There is a real anniversary behind the fun. Pixar's Cars turns 20 this year, and the Monza celebration is the centrepiece of an expanded partnership between Formula 1 and Disney, the “Fuel the Magic” campaign, which has now been extended through the end of 2028. It comes with the expected wave of merchandise, from Mattel die-cast models to apparel, and a clear commercial logic. As F1 chief commercial officer Emily Prazer put it, the tie-up shows “what's possible when two globally loved brands come together,” noting that for a lot of people “Cars was an early introduction to the thrill of racing.”
The internet's favourite subplot
No prizes for guessing which driver the paddock immediately thought of. Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson is a well-known Lightning McQueen superfan, a detail that has followed him around for years, and fans were quick to point out that the one man on the grid who would be most delighted by all this was the New Zealander who stepped into the senior Red Bull seat at Zandvoort. If anyone was going to enjoy sharing a track with Lightning McQueen, it was him.
AutoNext Take
This is marketing, obviously, but it is the good kind. Cars genuinely did introduce a whole generation to the idea that racing is exciting, and plenty of people watching Formula 1 today can trace at least a little of that back to a red cartoon racer shouting Ka-chow. Letting Lightning McQueen loose at Monza, on the weekend of the Italian Grand Prix, is a lovely acknowledgement of that, and a reminder that a sport can be deadly serious about lap times and still have a sense of humour.
More of this, please. Formula 1 spends most of its time being intense, expensive and tightly controlled, so a weekend where the safety car turns up dressed as a Pixar character is a welcome release of pressure. It will sell a lot of die-cast models, it will make a lot of children very happy, and it did not cost the racing a thing. Everybody wins, which is exactly the sort of story a paddock could use more of.
