Barilla, the Italian pasta producer as well as Formula 1’s official pasta partner, recently released an interesting new pasta shape: the F1-inspired Racing Wheels. No, these aren’t a particularly late April Fool’s joke—these are on stock right now in retailers abroad, and hopefully soon in our local grocery stores.
With this special edition pasta shape, Barilla hopes to bring families together on Sunday for its own Domenica Italiana—a Sunday family meal in Italian tradition—over good food and a Formula 1 race weekend.
As silly as an F1 wheel-shaped pasta might sound, it’s not actually new in the pasta world. Before the Racing Wheels, rotelle (Italian for ‘small wheel’) had already existed. In fact, Barilla itself already carried a simpler design branded as ‘mini wheels’ before this special edition.
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Wheel-shaped pasta, often shaped thick and chunky, is designed to capture sauce in the gaps between its spokes to deliver maximum flavor. The Barilla Racing Wheels in particular have a more complicated shape with all the little gaps meant to mimic features on a real F1 car wheel. Probably an interesting test to see how well this modern design holds against the traditional design in terms of sauce-capturing capability.
Barilla has actually been Formula 1’s official pasta partner for almost exactly a year now, having announced the partnership in April 2025. Dishes using the brand’s pasta have been served at events throughout the race calendar, with the upcoming 2026 Miami Grand Prix featuring two ‘lasagna bars’ serving classic Bolognese and Ricotta and Spinach recipes. Yum.
