Monza Crowd Divided by F1's Grid Gigs Performance

The tifosi came to Monza for engines and jeopardy. For a few minutes before lights out, they got Laura Pausini instead.

As the Italian Grand Prix build-up reached its usual crescendo, Sky Sports F1’s coverage abruptly stepped away from the garages, strategy talk and grid tension. In its place: a full two-song set from Pausini, the Grammy-winning Italian star, on a purpose-built stage with a live band, beamed out live as part of Formula 1’s returning ‘Grid Gigs’ series.

The performance, sung in Italian and Spanish, played out in full. No split screen. No cutaways to cars rolling to the grid. Only once Pausini walked off stage did the cameras swing back to the paddock and the familiar pre-race rhythm.

For some, it was a welcome jolt of showbusiness into a sport that increasingly leans into entertainment. One viewer called for Grid Gigs to become “a permanent fixture”, hailing the set as “absolutely brilliant” and saying they “thoroughly enjoyed it”. Another admitted they had never quite warmed to previous iterations of the concept, but felt Pausini’s turn “can persuade me”.

Others were far less impressed. The frustration wasn’t so much about the singer, but about the timing – and the airtime.

“If ‘Grid Gigs’ are going to be a thing in the future, I might have to rethink when I start watching this coverage,” one fan wrote, summing up a growing sense that the coverage had strayed too far from the core product. Another simply asked: “Was Sky F1 forced to show this?”

That suspicion kept bubbling up. “Have FOM forced Sky F1 to show this Grid Gigs thing, I wonder?” another viewer posted. “I’m pretty sure they’ve never bothered with it in the past.”

The reaction split sharply. While some praised the show as “amazing” and “emotional”, others dismissed it as “embarrassing” and “drivel”. The divide cut along a familiar fault line in modern Formula 1: sport versus spectacle, grid walk versus gig stage.

Pausini is no stranger to the global spotlight. Earlier this summer she performed at the World Cup final in New Jersey, sharing the stage with Robbie Williams and Nicole Scherzinger as they delivered the ‘FIFA Anthem’, Desire, to a worldwide audience of millions. For Monza, F1 billed her appearance as its “biggest ever” Grid Gigs show, underlining the scale of the push.

The Grid Gigs concept itself is still relatively new. It first surfaced in Austin last year, when country singer Drake Milligan played ahead of the United States Grand Prix. The series reappeared in Las Vegas with former One Direction star Louis Tomlinson, then rolled into Miami in May with Colombian singer-songwriter Manuel Turizo fronting the pre-race show.

This time, F1 leaned into home advantage. Pausini, the only Italian artist ever to win a Grammy, was a clear statement choice for Monza, the sport’s temple of speed and one of its most tradition-soaked venues. The announcement press release trailed a live stream of the performance across F1’s social media platforms, but stopped short of specifying whether television rights holders would carry the concert in full.

Sky did. And that decision, more than the music itself, lit up social media.

On one side, fans argued that Formula 1 has room for both the roar of V6 hybrids and a pre-race show, especially at a venue capable of staging a spectacle on and off track. On the other, purists bristled at losing precious minutes of build-up – interviews, technical insight, last-minute grid intrigue – to what they saw as a bolt-on variety act.

Monza has always been about noise. This time, the loudest debate came from the living rooms. As F1 doubles down on its role as a global entertainment brand, the question now is simple: how much show are fans willing to accept before the lights go out?