Goodwood Festival of Speed 2026: Which F1 champions and star drivers will take on the hillclimb?

Max Verstappen, Kimi Antonelli, Lando Norris, generic, 2026 — Photo: © IMAGO

Goodwood Festival of Speed

Goodwood Festival of Speed 2026: The F1 champions and star drivers taking on the hillclimb

Antonelli, Norris and Newey are all in action

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Thursday 9 July 2026 15:30 Updated: 16:16

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The Goodwood Festival of Speed is under way today (Thursday July 9) giving excited fans a fabulous motorsport extravaganza in deepest Sussex, England.

Over the four days - concluding with the prize giving ceremony on the Sunday - a plethora of modern-day race cars and supercars will be on show for fans to catch a glimpse of, as well as watching some famous faces take on the iconic hillclimb.

The event takes place at the Goodwood Estate, which is well known for its motorsport events, with the Goodwood Revival also taking place at the circuit there every September.

The Goodwood Festival of Speed, however, is more for your modern racing fan, with a supercar paddock and an F1 pit lane, not to mention the amount of celebrities and racing stars who will be on show.

Goodwood's Festival of Speed always takes place during the height of the British summer but, unlike in previous years, the globally-renowned motorsport festival will be taking place in glorious sunshine this week, as the UK basks in a summer heatwave.

And here are some of the famous faces attending who will be very familiar to F1 fans.

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Which F1 drivers will be taking on Goodwood hillclimb?

There are two F1 world champions who will be taking on the Goodwood hillclimb this year, as well as a man who has claimed 26 world championships across his illustrious career.

Adrian Newey has won all those championships across spells with Williams, McLaren and Red Bull, but is now working for Aston Martin.

However, just before he left Red Bull back in 2024, the Brit was working on a hypercar design, the RB17, which blends racing prowess with an accessible machine which anybody can own, if they have a spare £5million.

That RB17 will be making its running debut this weekend, and Red Bull have confirmed to GPFans that it will be driven up the hill by design legend Newey on Thursday at Goodwood, as well as Red Bull drivers Isack Hadjar, Yuki Tsunoda and Alisha Palmowski throughout the course of the weekend.

The two F1 champions who will be present are 1996 champion Damon Hill, and 2025 champion Lando Norris, who will be exalted on the Balcony of Goodwood House on the Saturday of the event after taking on the hillclimb in the MCL60, McLaren’s 2023 F1 car.

There will also be somebody at Goodwood who harbours ambitions of becoming a world champion in the not so distant future. 19-year-old world championship leader Kimi Antonelli will be making his debut at the event, and he and his Mercedes colleague Frederik Vesti will be taking on the climb, Vesti in Mercedes' 2022 F1 car.

Elsewhere, current Alpine F1 drivers Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto will be at Goodwood, while Aston Martin reserve drivers Jak Crawford and Jessica Hawkins will also be in attendance.

As for Williams, their team principal James Vowles will be taking on the climb, and they will also have Luke Browning and Jamie Chadwick representing them at the event.

Although neither have been confirmed for 2026, British F1 personalities Martin Brundle and Christian Horner also tend to make an appearance at Goodwood, and Horner was recently a guest at the British Grand Prix.

Plenty, then, for F1 fans to get their teeth into over the next four days. To view the full four-day schedule click here.

How to watch the Goodwood Festival of Speed

All four days of the Goodwood Festival of Speed will be able to be viewed for free and live via the Goodwood Road & Racing YouTube channel.

You'll be able to tune in and out of the broadcast, depending on which events you want to see.

You can catch all the action without leaving GPFans - check out the live stream below:

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Written by

Sam Cook - Digital Journalist

Sam Cook is a talented young sports journalist and social media professional who now specialises in Formula 1, having previously worked as a football journalist and a local news reporter for a variety of different brands.

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F1 Lando Norris Adrian Newey Kimi Antonelli Goodwood Festival of Speed