THE CURATED EDITION.
Reportage / West Sussex
Under the theme The Rivals, the 2026 Festival of Speed set Norris beside Rossi, reunited the Le Mans Ford GT40s and crowned a Lancia Aurelia on the Cartier lawn. On a hill in West Sussex, haste belongs to the stopwatch, never to those watching.
MOTORING
There is a kind of speed that does not need to shout to be taken seriously. It lives on a hill in West Sussex, in the park of Goodwood House, where for more than thirty years the Duke of Richmond has turned a climb of little more than a kilometre into the most coveted gathering in motoring. They call it the great summer party of motorsport. It is a fair description, provided one understands that here, a party goes hand in hand with composure.
From 9 to 12 July 2026, the Festival of Speed took as its theme The Rivals, a celebration of epic racing duels and the people who fought them. Rivalry, it turned out, is a generous subject. It can be read on the hill, on the balcony of the house, on the concours lawn and in the quiet of a paddock.
Every year, the festival begins with the sculpture in front of the house. In 2026, Gerry Judah’s Central Feature celebrated Singer and the craftsmanship behind its reimagined Porsche 911s. The Duke of Richmond opened the event alongside Singer’s Mazen Fawaz, at the wheel of a 1991 DLS Turbo Reimagined by Singer. It was a fitting overture for a weekend about rivalry: a restored car is, after all, a long argument with its own past.
The balcony of Goodwood House is where the festival says what it thinks. On Thursday, Ducati marked its centenary with a line of riders that read like a history of superbike racing: Carl Fogarty, Troy Bayliss, Casey Stoner, Shane Byrne, Josh Brookes and Dario Marchetti, alongside the marque’s current stars.
On Friday, Lando Norris and Valentino Rossi shared the stage. Two generations and two disciplines, one of them the new Formula 1 world champion, the other the most loved figure in the history of motorcycle racing. John McGuinness was celebrated the same day, thirty years after his debut at the event.
On Saturday, Norris celebrated his world title with McLaren, driving the MCL60 and appearing at the house with team principal Andrea Stella and Sir Jackie Stewart. Gerhard Berger was honoured forty years after his first Formula 1 victory. And on Sunday, the balcony belonged to Damon Hill, reunited with the Williams FW18 that carried him to the 1996 world championship, thirty years earlier.
Goodwood does not celebrate the machine. It celebrates the one who drives it, and the time it passes through.
The theme found its most eloquent image in a reunion. The Ford GT Mk IIs that won Le Mans in 1966 came together again, sixty years after Ford’s victory over Ferrari, perhaps the most famous duel in the history of endurance racing. On the hill, the cars that settled that argument ran once more, no longer against anyone.
The new cars made their own case. Among the debuts on the hill were the Ferrari Amalfi, the Aston Martin DB12 S, the GMA T.50S, the Toyota GR GT, the Renault 5 Turbo 3E and the Zenvo Aurora. The timed Shoot-Out went to Romain Dumas in the Ford Super Mustang Mach-E; Tom Williams took the Rally Shoot-Out in a Volkswagen Polo GTI Rally2.
The Cartier Style et Luxe concours offered a counterpoint to the noise. On the lawn, cars are read as objects of culture: through proportion, coachwork and the decisions that give a period its character. With Stanley Tucci and David Jonsson among the judges, Best in Show went to a 1955 Lancia Aurelia Spider, a car whose elegance owes nothing to haste.
Around the hill, the most memorable moments were often small. A finish, a stitched seat, a hand-painted number can hold a spectator in place long after a car has disappeared up the course. The hill shouts. The lawn answers softly. Both, in the end, say the same thing.
What lingers is the impression Goodwood has repeated for more than three decades: that haste belongs to the stopwatch, never to those watching. Rivals meet on the hill, champions wave from the balcony, and a Lancia waits on the grass for no one. Speed, here, has learned good manners.
Details and further reading: Goodwood Festival of Speed, Goodwood House, Chichester, West Sussex. The 2027 edition runs from 15 to 18 July. Festival of Speed · 2026 weekend review
Instagram: @goodwoodrrc and @gabrielsilveirado.
GABRIEL SILVEIRADO, FOR WAYFARER. GOODWOOD, WEST SUSSEX.
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