Automotive fandom doesn’t get any bigger—or stranger—than this, folks. Scuderia Ferrari is celebrating its 1,000th Formula One race today. In celebration of this historical event, the Tuscan Grand Prix is being hosted at the Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello, and the team’s F1 car is wearing the same shade of red used the Ferrari 125 F1 during its debut at the Monaco GP in 1950. But besides the nostalgia, we need to talk about the bonkers Ferrari dance performance that happened on Saturday.
The event took place at Florence’s Piazza della Signoria. The celebration had everything: a scenic location, a selection of historic Ferrari F1 cars, and the street cars inspired by them. Classical music fills the air with sentiment for one of Italy’s more passionate exports.
Then, at the five-minute mark, a dance routine breaks out.
Now, there is nothing wrong with choreographed dance routines. There are currently several reality TV shows dedicated to judging dance numbers. But this one… well, just watch it. “Jarring” is the word we’d use. It certainly wasn’t expected, and I cannot imagine it’s what any fans asked for.
Perhaps it was the fact that the cameras filming the dancers were placed at a social distance, and we could only see red figures moving about. Maybe it was the routine itself that made dancers run laps around an F1 car like a West Side Story gang and making the universal hand gesture for starting a lawnmower.
Most of all, why? I’m not dismissing the dancers here, because it takes a tremendous amount of work to do what they did. However, this is a celebration dedicated to Ferrari’s racing pedigree. Have some legendary drivers or engineers give some speeches. Rev some vintage F1 car engines. Do a socially distant parade around town using only Ferraris. Hire Morgan Freeman to read a Ferrari owner’s manual.
There were better alternatives, is what I’m saying.
The internet has been going to town on this performance with memes and video edits with different audio. Twitter got jokes, y’all.
In the year of the double 2-0, nothing seems too ridiculous anymore, and there are still 3.5 more months to go.
Got a tip? Send us a note: tips@thedrive.com