F1 at Goodwood

F1 at Goodwood (photo by Marc Waller)As ever this year, the line up of F1 cars and drivers at the Goodwood festival of speed is impressive.

From current stars to past legends there are star cars and drivers everywhere you look. Our last two British F1 world champions, Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton are both here, Button driving a Mclaren Can Am car as part of the Mclaren anniversary celebrations as well as his usual F1 machinery.


Although current testing rules prohibit teams from running current cars on the hill itself, there are 2013 cars on display. Even so the oldest of the contemporary cars on the hill is only from 2008 with some teams running two year old cars.

Mclaren have several F1 cars on the hill from throughout their history for their anniversary celebrations, including current course record holder the Mclaren Mp4/13 complete with the driver that set that record, Nick Heidfeld. This time Nick is sticking to demo runs and won’t be breaking any more records.

F1 at Goodwood (photo by Marc Waller)F1 at Goodwood (photo by Marc Waller)F1 at Goodwood (photo by Marc Waller)World champion Nelson Piquet is back at the festival for the first time in ten years and is reunited with his championship winning Brabham BT52, the car having been restored by BMW especially for this event. Another world champion, Alain Prost returns this year having visited the festival for the first time last year. This time he drives his Renault RE40 from 1983, the car with which he fought Nelson for the world title.

The Lotus Renault from 1986 is here. It scored two wins the Ayrton Senna although led 8. It had a substantial shunt into the bales at Molecomb on its first run of Saturday. It ripped off a front wheel and it looks although the valuable car will not run again during this event.

Rene Arnoux drives the first Renault F1 car the RS01 from 1977 and it’s significant asn it was the first turbo charged F1 car.

Stirling Moss is reunited with his Mercedes W196 from 1955 and one of its sisters cars driven by the great Fangio fetched nearly £20 million in the on-site Bonham auction on Friday. Whether the new owner will be brave enough to risk taking his new investment up the hill at future festivals remains to be seen!

This being Girlracer, we can’t forget fast lady Lorina Mclaughlin in her Benetton B192, a past winner of prizes at the festival she is going for times once again although she is sharing it with one of the original drivers sons! Alex Brundle, son of Martin is trying out one of his dad’s most successful F1 cars.

F1 at Goodwood (photo by Marc Waller)F1 at Goodwood (photo by Marc Waller)F1 at Goodwood (photo by Marc Waller)F1 at Goodwood (photo by Marc Waller)If you are hunting for autographs other current F1 drivers present include Nico Rosberg, Romain Grosjean, Sergio Perez, Adrian Sutil Max Chilton, Jules Bianchi and Charles Pic.

John Surtees is driving his Honda RA300 from 1967. Built with help from Lola the car was nicknamed the Hondola by the british press but it gave the manufacturer their first win at the Italian Gp! Surtees has a busy weekend riding as well as driving!

Adam Tyrell, Grandson of former f1 constructor Ken Tyrell is driving one of his Grandads first F1 cars the Tyrell 001. Built when Ken decided he couldn’t buy a competitive car Jackie Stewart put the car on pole on its debut in Canada in 1970.

An interesting car on the hill is the Lotus 88 from 1981. The car was designed with an innovative twin chassis design which potentially would have given it a huge advantage but it was banned before it could enter a race. The car won the 2011 festival of speed shoot out and will be aiming for another win this year.

Yet another world champion is present in the form of Emerson Fittipaldi. He is driving his Lotus 72E with which he won his world title. The 72 had an incredibly long career for an F1 car. First introduced in 1970 it raced until 1975 winning drivers titles for Emerson and also Jochen Rindt (Very sadly Posthumously.) plus three constructors titles

There are cars here from every decade of F1 and we’ve only covered a handful here but hopefully it has given you an idea of the huge range of cars present at the festival. Given that at a modern F1 race it’s nearly impossible to get near the cars or drivers, Goodwood is the best opportunity of the year to get close to both the cars and drivers. By Marc Waller


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