MONZA, Italy -- It’s 20 years since the story of Lightning McQueen’s rookie season in the Piston Cup first captivated cinemagoers around the globe.
The original Cars movie, released in July 2006, follows the story of a cocky, young stockcar whose road trip to a season showdown in California takes a surprise detour down Route 66. Making friends with fellow anthropomorphic vehicles along the way, McQueen’s journey sees him transform into a character who values empathy over trophies and relationships over championships.
The original movie -- which was followed by sequels, Cars 2 and Cars 3 -- won the hearts of audiences around the globe while simultaneously laying the foundations for a new generation of car culture. Among the millions of kids who were gripped by McQueen’s story were a bunch of the drivers on the current Formula 1 grid, including championship leader Kimi Antonelli, Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar, and Hadjar’s replacement at Red Bull this weekend Liam Lawson (who has frequently referenced McQueen as his “childhood hero”.)
Before the lights go out at Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix, F1’s 22 drivers will share the grid with a life-size Lightning McQueen, who was invited to Monza in the capacity of an official “track vehicle” to celebrate the sport’s wider partnership with Disney. As well as lining up alongside F1’s safety car, which has a Cars-themed livery of its own for this weekend, McQueen will move under his own power to drive on the legendary Monza circuit before the 53-laps of the Italian Grand Prix get underway.
When news of McQueen’s paddock visit was announced on Thursday, it received over 1.8 million likes on F1’s Instagram page. It was followed up by Lawson paying a visit to McQueen, which included the Red Bull driver getting his hands on a real-life Piston Cup, before Antonelli was presented with a two-metre long model of Francesco Bernoulli -- the Italian single seater character from Cars 2 -- in front of thousands of Italian fans.
Jay Ward, the creative director of the Cars franchise, has been in Monza this weekend to oversee McQueen’s visit. Unsurprisingly, given his job title, Ward is a life-long car guy as well as being a dedicated F1 fan since he visited the 2009 Monaco Grand Prix on a research trip for Cars 2.
For years, Ward has witnessed the Cars universe capture the imagination of the next generation of motorsport fans, but in Monza his fictional world is merging with the real world of racing in a tangible way.
“It’s really amazing,” Ward told ESPN in Monza. “Because to me, I’ve always said, the goal for me is to bring cars up in authenticity, right?
“The goal for me is that both a parent and a child, father and son, mother and daughter, are all enjoying the event together and that it’s real to them.
“I always say Lightning McQueen is a character who happens to be a car, not the other way around. So if you hand the die-cast to a child, he doesn’t say, that’s a red race car. No, no, that’s Lightning McQueen, who happens to be a red race car.
“And that’s what we always have to remember, is that the children know him as a racer. That’s what he does, right? That’s the essence of who he is.
“So for him being here, it just adds to that validity of him as a character.”
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Although Sunday is McQueen’s first time on track at an F1 race, he actually made his debut appearance in the F1 pit lane in 2017 when a garage at the British Grand Prix was set aside to promote the release of Cars 3. Ward attended that race too and even though it was long before the likes of Lawson and Antonelli were on the grid, Cars fandom was already present in the paddock.
“One of the guys from Ferrari came down to see the cars, and he was fully geeking out,” Ward said. “He’s like, ‘Wow, I love this movie! I grew up with this movie!’”
The mechanic, Alessandro Fussaro, then rolled up his sleeve to reveal a tattoo of the character Guido -- a loveable Italian forklift truck who took charge of Lightning McQueen’s critical pit stop in the first movie -- only painted in Ferrari red instead of light blue.
“He is literally a tyre changer for Ferrari and he has Guido with Ferrari colours tattooed on his arm!” Ward said with a broad smile.
“That was a moment where I realized we are part of popular culture -- Cars is fully integrated with automotive culture now. It’s amazing.”
The warm reception to McQueen and the Cars crew in the paddock at Monza has already got Ward thinking about what comes next. Last month F1 and Disney announced an extension of their commercial partnership through to 2028, with the Cars franchise named specifically as part of the ‘Fuel the Magic’ campaign.
“This is our first time really seeing and understanding the impact and the excitement,” Ward said. “What’s been cool for us is seeing the socials blow up and the love for McQueen, because you don’t know if people are going to love it.
“The beautiful thing is people get it and they’re enjoying it and they’re loving it. So now we can kind of take a breath and go, this is cool, but what can we do next?
“I think it’s great for F1. It’s probably opened their eyes a little bit to the love of Cars. I think it’s great for Disney, for Pixar, for everybody.”
