2019 Goodwood Festival of Speed pay homage to the Monaco Grand Prix

This year’s Festival, taking place from 4^th–7^th July, will feature a unique gathering of previous race winners, both cars and drivers, which will wow spectators on the famous Goodwood Hillclimb throughout the weekend. 

Arguably the grand-daddy of European Motor Racing, the Monaco Grand Prix first brought speed and style to the Principality’s streets in 1929, when William Grover-Williams skittered to victory in a bottle-green Bugatti. Since, the hallowed street circuit has played host to countless epic driver battles, from Tazio Nuvolari versus Achille Varzi in the 1930s to Nigel Mansell against Ayrton Senna in the nineties.

Leading the charge will be the Maserati 250F in which Stirling Moss took a closely-fought Monaco victory from a hard-charging Juan Manuel Fangio in 1956. Hot on its exhaust pipes will sit the mid-engined Cooper T45, which veteran driver Maurice Trintignant pushed to victory in 1958, beating the mighty front-engined Vanwalls, Ferraris and Maseratis. The Surbiton-based manufacturer’s victory marked the start of a new era and helped to lay the foundations for modern Formula 1 design. 

Joining the Cooper is another British success story, the Lotus 18. In 1960 and 1961, Stirling Moss piloted the tiny racing car belonging to Rob Walker’s team, claiming back-to-back victories against some of Ferrari’s finest.

By the mid-‘60s, Formula 1 had entered the 3.0-litre era. After making history in 1966 as the first and only man to win world championships as both driver and constructor in the same season, Jack Brabham’s success continued at Monaco 1967 when the BT20 driven by Denny Hulme took victory in a traumatic race that claimed the life of Ferrari’s Lorenzo Bandini. This very Brabham, in which Hulme also won that year’s drivers’ championship, will join the revered FOS line-up.

Finally, a Formula 1 car from an entirely different era, the McLaren MP4/15 will rocket past Goodwood House. The 2000 Monaco Grand Prix saw Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher take a huge lead from pole,with McLaren-Mercedes’ David Coulthard breaking free of the pack in hot pursuit. Suspension damage later eliminated Schumacher from the race, allowing Coulthard to take the victory. 

Commenting on the special FOS feature, the Duke of Richmond said: “Monaco is the race that every driver who sat in an F1 car has wanted to win and only a select few have ever done so.

“Bringing together such an elite group of cars, and the stories that they have to tell, in order to mark this 90^thanniversary year for the race is a real privilege. It is part of what makes the Festival of Speed such a unique celebration that we can provide the opportunity for F1 aficionados of all ages to see and hear them in action once again.”