Cars, stars and the shootout winners from the 2026 Goodwood Festival of Speed

Even though the sun never let up across the weekend, the soaring temperatures did little to take away from the action both on and off the track for the 2026 Goodwood Festival of Speed.

The theme of this year's vehicular extravaganza was ‘Rivals’, with plenty of machinery on show from some of the legendary duels of years gone by, but other celebrations were in full force too across the four-day event.

Of course, it's a challenge to do justice to all the evocative machinery, drivers and stories, but nonetheless here are our standout highlights of what was another unforgettable Festival of Speed.

Rivals celebrated

Lancia vs Peugeot was a rivals highlight to mark 40 years since their WRC battle

Photo by: JEP

Great Grand Prix rivals were celebrated and recounted, both individuals and teams alike. Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost. Niki Lauda and James Hunt. Even pre-war adversaries such as Mercedes and Auto Union were honoured.

However, it was clear that the festivities extended past single-seater heroics and included the dogfights between Lancia and Peugeot for honours in the 1986 World Rally Championship crown, as well as the legendary battle of Ford and Ferrari for Le Mans glory, to mention but two.

The stunningly prepared cars reflected all of this. McLaren brought along not only the last McLaren that Senna piloted to victory, the Ford V8-powered MP4/8 of 1993, but also the infamous B-spec test mule with its 3.5-litre Lamborghini V12 engine.

In addition, the M23 that Hunt drove to third in the pouring rain in Japan to win the 1976 drivers' title was present, which nicely dovetailed with the Ferrari 312T2 that Lauda so famously used to nearly come out on top that season despite his horror crash at the Nurburgring.

Damon Hill's title 30 years on

Hill gets back behind the wheel of his FW18 to mark 30 years since he clinched the F1 world title

Photo by: JEP

It's tough to believe, but this year marks 30 years since Damon Hill took the drivers' title and, in doing so, became the first son of an F1 world champion to go on and become a world champion himself.

Hill was a strong presence throughout all four days of the weekend, appearing on the Festival of Speed Fan Zone stage as well as speaking on the balcony of Goodwood House to a sea of adoring fans.

The highlights of Hill's participation, though, were his runs up Goodwood Hill in a selection of historic Williams machinery such as the FW11. Specifically, this was the 02 chassis that Nigel Mansell raced to three grand prix wins in 1986 and the car that Mansell himself was reunited with just last year.

The other Williams that Damon drove was his championship-winning FW18 that he shared on Sunday with current Williams team principal James Vowles. The particular car that was being run took five pole positions and four GP wins before being put into service as the team's spare in the latter half of the 1996 season.

75 years since Ferrari's first world championship win

From past to recent, Ferrari's F1 history was also celebrated at FoS

Photo by: Getty Images

A superb collection of Ferraris were exhibited as 2026 marks 75 years since Jose Froilan Gonzalez triumphed in the 1951 British Grand Prix and in doing so secured Ferrari's first F1 world championship race victory.

Among the scarlet selection of Maranello's finest was the 1512, piloted in period by John Surtees at the 1965 German GP before being passed on to Lorenzo Bandini and Pedro Rodriguez. Lauda's successful 312T/023 was also on display, as well as a trio of Michael Schumacher-era Ferraris from the 1998 to 2000 seasons. Marc Gene drove two of the SF21 machines from the 2021 season to give a nod to more contemporary machinery.

Dumas takes Shootout honours third year running

Dumas made it a hat-trick of Shootout wins for Ford

Photo by: JEP

The Sunday Shootout is always one of the main highlights at the Festival of Speed and the 2026 edition was no different. Romain Dumas was the man on form throughout the weekend, and the finale was a walkover as the Frenchman danced his Ford Super Mustang Mach-E to another victory to secure the Blue Oval's third Shootout victory in a row – each time with a different machine.

While Max Chilton’s 2022 run in the McMurtry Speirling fan car is still some way away with its 39.08s record time, Dumas just managed to dip below the 42-second barrier with his 41.98s time to win the event for the fifth time in his career.

Second place went to Dan Ticktum in a prototype of the new Gen4 Formula E car. Ticktum, who ran just before Dumas, had gone quickest but clearly not by enough. His twitch at Molecomb harpooned his chance of dislodging the Ford.

Alex Summers rounded out the top three and was the fastest internal combustion engine-powered car to boot as he managed a 46.31s time in his Shadow-Chevrolet DN4 Can-Am monster.

First public appearance of McLaren’s Hypercar

McLaren's Hypercar made its public debut

Photo by: Getty Images

In today's world of instant social media leaks and ever-present camera lenses, race cars are so rarely revealed to the public before their racing debuts. McLaren went against the trend, however, and brought the real prototype of its 2027 World Endurance Championship Hypercar to the event.

This was not just a tepid show car either, as demonstrated when Lando Norris took the car for demonstration runs on Friday. The car also appeared on Saturday as development driver Gregoire Saucy took over demonstration duties.

The car may only be in the 10th week of its development programme but already looked very polished. The Festival of Speed this year was a rare chance to see a modern race car in the middle of its development cycle.

Legends in attendance

Reigning F1 world champion Norris was a star of the show - while plenty of other legends also made appearances

Photo by: JEP

As with Festivals of Speed in the past, the 2026 edition had plenty of GP stars of both the present and the past. There were Norris, Hill, Gerhard Berger, both Racing Bulls drivers Arvid Lindblad and Liam Lawson, John Watson, Vowles and Adrian Newey to name but a few.

However, these big F1 names had very tightly controlled public appearances, so it wasn’t an easy task to catch a glimpse of their presence. The best fan moments were the drivers from other categories, still legendary drivers in their own right but ones that were of little interest to the videographers and social media personalities.

This allowed for little joyous moments such as Gerard Larrousse signing a fan's print of his Matra-Simca MS670B, which he piloted to victory in the 1973 24 Hours of Le Mans. Another small memory was touring car and Le Mans extraordinaire Frank Biela taking a photo of his son in Stig Blomqvist's 1984 WRC-winning Audi Quattro, while Blomqvist himself leaned against the open driver's door, thumbs up and smiling.

The 2026 Goodwood Festival of Speed seemed to be littered with such moments.

Another memorable Goodwood FoS is in the books

Photo by: JEP