Francesco Bernoulli

"Francesco always-a wins. It's-a boring."

- Francesco Francesco Bernoulli is a anti-hero and the quaternary antagonist turned-minor protagonist of Cars 2. It is later revealed that he was the victim of manipulations by thereal antagonist, his lieutenant and his two pawns. He is voiced by John Turturro.

Biography
Francesco Bernoulli grew up in the shadow of the famous Monza race course in Italy where he and his friends would sneak onto the track and race the famous Pista di Alta Velocita bank turn. He was an instant winner on the amateur circuit and soon became an international Formula Racer champion. The ladies love Francesco’s open wheels, youngsters look up to his winning spirit and fellow racers envy his speed. But Francesco’s biggest fan is Francesco himself, as evidenced by his racing number. As the most famous race car in Europe, #1 Francesco is a favorite to win the World Grand Prix, which also makes him Lightning McQueen’s chief rival.

In the movie, he first appeared on the Mel Dorado show, when they talked about inviting Lightning McQueen to the World Grand Prix. Francesco then began insulting him. Being his best friend,  Mater didn't take kindly to Francesco insulting McQueen, so he called the show, telling Francesco to stop speaking that way about Lightning. McQueen, seeing Mater on the phone, drags him out and instead deals with Francesco himself, telling him that he doesn't like his best friend being insulted either. The pair argue, ending with Lightning calling Francesco fragile because he is a Formula 1 car. He takes it as a serious insult and starts yelling in Italian when he is soon muted. Then Axlerod formally invites Lightning to join the World Grand Prix, to which he accepts and joins.

Later, Lightning and Mater meet Francesco at the party in  Tokyo. Once they finished their conversation, Francesco shows Lightning a bumper sticker saying "Ciao McQueen", proving Francesco's arrogance. Soon after, Mater consumes some wasabi which he thinks was pistachio ice cream. Francesco laughs mockingly after Mater embarrasses McQueen and himself in front of the world when he drinks from the fountain.

At the beginning of the Tokyo race, he was announced to be good on the straight-aways. When the racers were lined up, he heard Lightning's catchphrase "I am speed!" He decided to mock McQueen again by declaring, "Francesco is triple speed." During the race, he fell behind to last place in the dirt section, but was able to catch up to 2nd place. Then when Mater was "going to meet his  date ," he accidentally gave Lightning some bad racing advice which was to race on the outside, and Francesco, who was shadowing McQueen, took the inside, passed McQueen and won the race, which only made their rivalry grow larger.

In the second race in Porto Corsa, Francesco hears about Lightning missing his friend Mater. Then he tells him that it's hard to be far away from home. However, Francesco was at home, and his mama was in the audience. He tells his mama that he will win the race. For most of the race, Francesco was in the lead, but then Lightning passes him and wins the race. Unfortunately, Lightning's taste of victory is promptly shattered when he notices the huge wreck on the LED screen (since nearly all the other cars used Allinol which explodes from a EMP gun). Both racers are horrified of the huge wreck of injured cars.

In the third race in London, he was at first seen in the lead, but then Lightning passes him. Then Mater, using a pair of rockets and had McQueen holding onto him, zoomed past Francesco, which makes him hope it was a bad dream. Then Holley, with her wings and afterburners, passes him, and he freaks out again.

By the Radiator Springs Grand Prix, the rivalry between the two had settled down a little, and they can be considered "friends" although they do seem to still be major rivals at times. Before the race,  Sally  meets him when Lightning introduces them to each other. Then Francesco sees Lightning's bumper sticker, which said "Ka-ciao, Francesco!" The race then started with Lightning in the lead (it was his home track), and Francesco following.

Personality
Francesco is cocky and self-centered, as proven on numerous occasions with Lightning McQueen. In Cars 2, Francesco serves as the main antagonist on McQueen's part of the film, and has a rather similar persona to Chick Hicks. However, unlike Chick, Francesco seems to have a good side to him somewhere in his transmission; for example, like McQueen, Francesco was horrified to see the huge wreck after the Italy race. Also, unlike Chick, Francesco is not a cheater, just very talented and extremely arrogant

Trivia

 * For some reason, Mater can't say Francesco's name right. He's always calling him "Mr. San Francisco."