The pace car at Monza that weekend was Lightning McQueen. Well… sort of.
F1, Disney, and Mercedes went all-in on the 20th anniversary of Cars, bringing McQueen to the Italian Grand Prix for a special appearance and honorary lap. The official Mercedes-AMG GT 63 Safety Car even got a Lightning-inspired livery for the weekend.
It was funny, but also a little weird if you were a NASCAR fan. Lightning McQueen is basically a NASCAR character, and now here he was at Monza getting the full Formula 1 treatment. A lot of NASCAR fans saw that as a pretty brutal sign of where the series was at. A character based on NASCAR was getting more attention at an F1 race than any actual NASCAR team was getting from Disney or the Cars franchise back home.
Hell, Disney could have taken a three-car NASCAR team and run Lightning McQueen, Chick Hicks and The King liveries at Darlington last Sunday! Wrap the cars right, get kids in the grandstands, sell a ton of die-casts, and make a whole weekend out of it.
Instead, Formula 1 got Lightning McQueen at Monza. That had to sting a little. Ka-chow!
Disney exec: Hey, let’s put Lightning McQueen in a real race!
Torquehead: When’s the next NASCAR race?
Disney exec: NASwhat? Just put him in a race already!
Oh my goodness these Disney guys are SO STUPID! The first race we see Lightning McQueen in is at the Motor Speedway of the South. This past weekend, NASCAR raced at Darlington—the Southern 500.
Instead, they bring a stock car to Italy. Not to race, just to pace.
What a missed opportunity. And I don’t care if Disney and F1 are in bed together now. This was a serious fumble.