Goodwood Festival: Saturday round-up

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Lewis Hamilton will not get to drive Senna's 1988 McLaren

I spent the first day at the Goodwood Festival of Speed running around taking tons of pictures.

Today I snapped a few more, but I also had a lot more time to talk to people and soak up the atmosphere.

A few of the F1 cars that failed to appear yesterday got running today. They included the gorgeous Lotus-Cosworth 79 (Mario Andretti’s championship-winning car from 1978) which was driven byformer Lotus pilot Martin Donnelly.

The Williams-Renault FW16 from 1994 appeared, driven by its designer, Adrian Newey, who drove another of his Williams creations yesterday.

Newey’s boss – Christian Horner – was also in attendance, taking to the hill in the Cooper-Climax T51 which won the championship 50 years ago.

There was one final F1 car which made it onto the Hill today – the Life L190, after three failures to get going, was finally coaxed up the hill and over the line by the man who rebuilt its engine, Lorenzo Prandina. I had a chat with Lorenzo and got lots of pictures of this bizarre car, and will write some more about it later.

Several F1 drivers past and present popped up in different cars. Kazuki Nakajima and Timo Glock were both present, driving a Williams and a Toyota respectively.

Alan Jones got behind the wheel of a Le Mans-specification McLaren F1, and succeeded in spinning it (thankfully without hitting anything) at the second corner. He also drove his old Williams-Cosworth FW07 from 1978, thankfully without damaging it.

But Lewis Hamilton’s hopes of driving Ayrton Senna’s 1988 McLaren-Honda MP4/4 may be dashed. As Bruno Senna came past me at Molecomb in the afternoon it juddered to a halt. Senna said he suspected a failure in the clutch or gearbox, and the latter could prove difficult. Senna mentioned he’d been preparing to do a burn-out at the time, which we hadn’t been expecting the the 21 year-old car to be subject to for pretty much this reason.

Also due tomorrow are Jenson Button and Frank Williams, the latter celebrating 40 years in Formula 1.

I’ve added a couple of my new pictures below, the rest from today will be added to these artcles:

Update: McLaren have now confirmed Hamilton won’t be driving Senna’s car tomorrow.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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18 comments on “Goodwood Festival: Saturday round-up”

  1. Rough deal for Bruno Senna- perhaps damaging his F1 chances, but no worse than Piquet Jr. would have done ;)

    Seriously, great photos and some fantastic events. It just makes me more eager to visit the event in the near future.

    1. Just remember bud, goodwood is not cheap for the full weekend. But if you have the money then fully worth it i reckon. I have never been, but would love to one day if i can persuade the missus to go visiting family at the same time as Goodwood.

    2. You may actually be correct about it damaging Bruno’s chances for an F-1 drive. It all depends on if the plans were for him to do a burn-out, or if that was something Bruno was planning as a surprise. If he decided to prepare for that on his own, and that’s what blew the gearbox, knocking the car out of the festival, I have little doubt that it dinged his image with potential employers and may have cost him a ride for next year.

      1. Four Six Tango
        8th July 2009, 17:51

        lol are you serious? okay….

  2. great photos

    I wonder why the Brawn BGP001 can’t be driven up the hill?

    1. “Testing” ban.

    2. Yes because they could put new parts on it and it could be testing. The Renault at the Renault World Series this weekend was a 2009 livery painted on a 2008 car

  3. @ Michael

    Driving a 2009 spec F1 car up the hill actually constitutes “testing” under the regulations; and testing times are regulated by the FIA.

    Such a shame!

  4. Wondering where the drivers whom previously drove for Williams are. Yes, I know Alan Jones was in attendance and drove the FW28. And, I believe Damon drove his car as well? But, where is Villeneuve, Frentzen, Laffite, Keke (especially since the kid drives now for Frank), Mansell, etc.? I know some of these guys might have left not on the greatest terms, but it is the 40 year anniversary for Williams. What gives?

  5. Frank Williams: 40 years in F1 – what an outstanding achievement…

    Thanks for more updates Keith – without a doubt the best source for up to date Goodwood FOS pics on the web!

    You were made for this lark…

    Of course the Life L190 just had to be true to form :)

    1. You were made for this lark…

      I consider that a compliment of the highest order!

      Of course the Life L190 just had to be true to form :)

      The chap I met who’d done the work on it, a guy called Lorenzo, who drove it up the hill today, seems a cracking bloke. Lives for rebuilding obscure engines on old Grand Prix cars, most of which were rubbish when they were new! I’ll do a write-up on it later this week.

    2. Of course the Life L190 just had to be true to form :)

      And me, thinking that the car in restored form would properly make it up the hill… :) It just HAD to be unreliable as usual.

  6. my thanks to ColoradoF1 and MattB

  7. The FW16 is one of the best-looking F1 cars ever, I reckon. Stunning proportions and curves. Ban those high noses, I reckon.

  8. The pics of Newey driving his own handiwork are brilliant!! How rare is that to see…

  9. Any news on how much life the Life had left in it and whether it actually managed to complete a run up the hill? :)

  10. These cars braking really shows us how strung out the machines are. They have mechanics preparing them for hours or days to make a lap and they break.

    I think if anyone was to do burnouts in Ayrtons car it should be Bruno. If he ever makes it to F1 Lewis is gonna hate him for this. They might fight over helmet design as well. I still don’t see how Lewis just decided to incorporate Ayrton’s helmet design in his own.

    Thanks for the report.

  11. I was there on Saturday watched Senna’s break down right in front of me! Did you see the blokes in the army carrying the car up the Hill!

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