The 2006 Disney film ‘Cars’ is, predictably, a popular movie among Formula 1 drivers, particularly those who belong to Gen Z.
Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson is perhaps the biggest fan. Lawson has said he watched the movie more than 100 times as a child.
The film franchise generated around $1.4bn (£1bn) for Disney at the global box office. Protagonist Lightning McQueen, voiced by Owen Wilson, has become one of Pixar’s most iconic characters.
YouTuber Miloo Cars combed through multiple editions of the three films last year and shared all of the cameos from F1 drivers past and present.
Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso are among the F1 drivers to star in ‘Cars’
Seven-time F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton features in two of the films. He plays a motorised version of himself in Cars 2, and is an assistant to Cristela Alonzo’s Cruz Ramirez in the third instalment.
In the Spanish-language version of Cars 2, Hamilton’s former teammate Fernando Alonso appears next to him. German viewers can hear the voice of four-time champion Sebastian Vettel in this scene, while former Renault driver Vitaly Petrov featured in Russia.
In Cars 3, Vettel voiced Ramirez’s assistant for both German and Italian audiences. He learned to speak Italian following his move to Ferrari.
Three more Ferrari legends were involved, too. Both 1978 world champion Mario Andretti and 91-time race-winner Michael Schumacher played themselves in the first film.
Finally, while NASCAR legend Richard Petty originally voices McQueen’s rival Strip Weathers, Niki Lauda took on the role for the German edition.
Lewis Hamilton made a cameo appearance in another Owen Wilson movie
Hamilton has recently entered the movie industry himself by setting up his own production company, Dawn Apollo Films. He was both a producer and a consultant for Jerry Bruckheimer’s F1 Movie.
The British driver appeared on screen but didn’t have any lines of dialogue. Likewise, there was a brief shot of Hamilton in Zoolander 2, starring Wilson and Ben Stiller, in 2016.
Hamilton’s Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc, another trilingual driver like Vettel, lent his voice to the Italian dub of ‘Lightyear’ in 2022. Carlos Sainz is credited in the Spanish version.
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