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Little did the Earl of March know of the dimensions the FoS should reach in its 25th edition when the first cars
drove up the driveway in front of Goodwood house in 1993 both concerning the huge crowd of spectators as
well as the importance for the various manufacturers. Weeks before the actual event the preparations of the
two-story displays are on their ways to present the latest cars be it the family van or the latest Supercar to
the public. The Supercar run on all days showing the biggest engines and most refined technique they have
on offer is one of the key features of the weekend and might even attract more people than the classic cars.
Since a few years an additional day for these new cars on Thursday even gives the families the possibility the
view they moving motor show at a reduced ticket price apart from the hospitality and sponsor tents of the
following days.
But sometimes one might forget with all the admiration for the cars of the different brands that it is not all
about the manufacturers but also about the individuals that are standing behind them and few editions made
this clearer than this year’s FoS. For the first time not a manufacturer was celebrated with the big sculpture in
front of Goodwood house but the lifetime achievement of Bernie Ecclestone with a 4-car display of his different
stages of life that shaped Formula 1 like nobody else making the racing series of the “Garagists” the
billion-dollar business it is today.
Although Ecclestone started as a driver and owner of the small Connaught team his first real input in F1 was
as a manager of Jochen Rindt, the only driver to become F1 Champion posthumously. With Ecclestones
talent for managing he went into becoming team owner of Brabham that had its own celebration this year at
the festival with several red livered Brabham-Alfa Romeo and both the Cosworth-powered BT49 and the
BMW-turbo BT52 that gave Brabham his two WDC of Nelson Piquet during this period. But even deeper goes
the impact of Ecclestone taking over the commercial interests of the highest motorsport series making F1
what it is today. Over more than 4 decades Ecclestone led F1 into the business it is today not only making
friends but certainly F1 would not exist in the current shape without him. After a long period of management
symbolized by the Ferrari F2001 from the Schumacher era as well as the last years winning Mercedes-AMG
W07 in the height of the sculpture Ecclestone finally ended his longtime F1 career just recently with the sale
to liberty media. Ecclestone was present during the whole weekend and took part in the celebration of another
heavyweight in F1, the 40th anniversary of the Williams F1 team. Just as many other teams the Williams
team is based on the passion of a single person giving it birth and name 40 years ago: Frank Williams.
Although Williams was in racing before, founding what should later become the Wolf racing team, it was the
successful cooperation with Patrick Head that led to no less than 9 constructors’ championships and driver
champions like Jones, Rosberg, Piquet, Mansell or Prost. Williams brought a great selection of cars including
the 6-wheeler FW08B that never made it to the GP due to the upcoming restriction to 4 wheels. All the
famous liveries could be seen from the early FLYsaudia, yellow-blue-white of the Honda and Renault year and
the likes of Mansell and Prost to the last championship winning Rothmans-livery of Hill and Villeneuve twenty
years ago. Unfortunately this also marks the last championship won but Williams is still a big part of the F1
circus, now in the famous Martini colors. Martini also celebrated their race heritage with an own paddock
building, the Martini drivers club and a mouthwatering display of Lancias (rally cars and LC1/2) as well as the
works Porsches 917 or 911.
Williams had their bid moment on Sunday when the cars were lined up in the assembly area and although Sir
Frank did not make it to Goodwood it was Claire Williams to represent the Family business. None of the
current drivers were present but Damon Hill was seen alongside Patrick Head on the group shot. As this took
quite a while to set up as more and more people like Nico Rosberg came in somebody in the back assumed
that this might have been the longest time Bernie Ecclestone held a smile over the last 4 decades although
one had to say that he seemed rather relaxed in his retirement.
Today F1 is very much about money and there were a lot of talks about pay drivers over the last years and the
latest entry in F1 is Lance Stroll who gave Williams just another podium days before the FoS. His father
Lawrence is one of the financiers of the current Williams team and took the opportunity to visit Goodwood to
follow his other passion: classic Ferrari.
With all the celebrations and round anniversaries one has certainly to pay tribute to the 70th of Ferrari as
seen on virtually every classic car event on the planet with own displays and classes. Maybe no other
individual had so much impact in motorsport like Enzo Ferrari who formed his own company in 1947 after
running Alfa Romeo in his Scuderia Ferrari pre-war. Ferrari still is the only remaining F1 team that was
present in every season since the start in 1950 and does attract more fans all over the world than any other
F1 team. But Ferrari is not just about open wheeled cars, the racing sports cars of the last decades ranging
from the reconstructed Ferrari 125 of the museum to the 512M and BBLM as shown on the hill are the most
sought after examples in the market setting record after record every year. Goodwood had both a class for the
open wheeled cars as well as the sports cars including the fireworks celebration midday both on Friday and
Saturday when the cars where lined up in front of Goodwood house.
The early F1 history unfortunately today is represented mostly by reconstructions as Enzo Ferrari is known
not to be too interested in cars that were not winning anymore and unlike the sports racing cars the dated
open wheelers were less interesting for privateers and so many of them were simply scraped after their active
career. So it is thanks to accurate reconstructions one could see the famous shark nose 156 as driven by
Phil Hill in action today as well as the 246 Dino. Some of the most fragile and sophisticated examples where
the 158/1512 both with 8 and 12 cylinder 1.5 litre engines as raced by John Surtees who was certainly
missed after passing away earlier this year. Still the only champion on two and four wheels he had his own
celebration including the mentioned Ferrari.
Unfortunately none of the current F1 drivers nor any of the former Champions of the Scuderia made it to
Goodwood this year but to see their cars lined up certainly was a sight to be remembered in an all red
assembly area.
As mentioned above Lawrence Stroll brought two of his gems with the 512M Sunoco and the famous 330 P4
that is considered as one of the most beautiful and iconic sports racer ever produced. Few people associate
Jackie Stewart with Ferrari but he actually drove one of the sister cars back then and at Goodwood this year it
was a rare opportunity to see him in a red car as he drove the P4 up the hill joined by Brian Redman in the
512M. After attending the Williams celebration on Sunday Stroll took the hill himself and judging the grin in
his face on the way down he had as much fun as we had seeing and hearing it up the hill. Not less exciting
but more regularly seen on European events were a duo of 250 GTO and 250 TR as well as two competition
Daytonas.
At the end of the weekend one has to say that no matter how often one attends the FOS it does never get
boring. Although one might have seen a lot of cars in the past it is always great to see the variation on the
display, something for every taste. There are spotters standing next to the hay bales that can name every
single Supercar in the Michelin Supercar run as well as its power output and numbers produced on the limited
editions. There are people in full team gear waiting for their favorite F1 team doing the donuts and burnouts in
front of Goodwood house (Bottas and Rosberg were particularly successful in destroying the rear tires on their
run) as well as those cheering to the drift cars for the smoke. Most of the entrants simply enjoy their time up
the hill that is the rewards for waiting hours in line, others take the timed run very serious chasing the day’s
best and few of them were as entertaining as Julian Majzub in the Bugatti T35B whose fearless run up the hill
might be one of the highlight on youtube. Once the smoke cleared both from the hill climb and the forest rally
stage the team of Lord March is certainly busy taking all things down while moving over to the motor circuit for
the Revival in September as well as preparing next year’s FoS. Some things are decided just in the last
seconds like the appearance of the almost LM winning by surprise Oreca of the Jackie Chan Racing team,
others need a full year of planning. We certainly plan to be back in 52 weeks and leave you with a massive
gallery of all cars on the hill climb for now.
Report & images ... Peter Singhof
www.ClassicCarPhotography.de
... Ferrari Entries with Chassis Numbers complied by Keith Bluemel >>>
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