At this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, which ends today, no less than seven F1 world champions gathered to celebrate the 75 years of Formula 1.
The drivers included Alain Prost, Jackie Stewart, Emerson Fittipaldi, Mario Andretti, Nigel Mansell, Mika Häkkinen, and Jacques Villeneuve who each got to pilot their championship car such as Alain Prost in the McLaren MP4/2B and MP4/4, and Nigel Mansell in his Williams FW14B.
The annual 4-day Goodwood Festival of Speed is the world’s premier motor sport festival, welcoming a huge mix of race cars and bikes from just about every form of motor sport on the planet, including F1, Le Mans, WRC, Formula E, Formula Drift, NASCAR, Indycar, and MotoGP. And the Goodwood FoS is the only event with the pull to draw in a huge gathering of present-day racing drivers as well as heroes from yesteryear.
For Formula 1 fans, the event is hard to ignore. As well as seeing current drivers Esteban Ocon, Ollie Bearman and Gabriel Bortoleto on the Hill (plus Valtteri Bottas), the crowds outside Goodwood House enjoyed a moment they’re unlikely to forget, with no fewer than seven former F1 champions on the balcony.
One by one, well-known interviewers questioned Jackie Stewart, Mario Andretti, Jacques Villeneuve, Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Emerson Fittipaldi and Mika Häkkinen about their impressions of the event and what it was like to get behind the wheel of their championship machines. Prost said, “I haven’t driven that McLaren MP4/4 since the late 80s.” There was even a surprise appearance from former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, who witnessed the success of every single one of those drivers as ringmaster of F1 for more than four decades.
CARLIST THOUGHTS
The event welcomes around 50,000 fans each day over the four days, and this year, the weather didn’t only stay dry but it was one of the hottest on record with midday temperatures hovering around 30C. Apart from the F1 heroes driving their winning cars, the highlight if the last day with undoubtedly be the Timed Shoot-Out where the fastest cars vie for the title of “quickest up the hill.”