The Goodwood Festival of Speed every year seeks to celebrate motorsport’s great and good, and this summer it will mark the ultimate figure from history—in terms of Formula 1 statistical achievements at any rate—as the 2019 Festival will pay homage to seven-time F1 world champion Michael Schumacher. His seven titles and 91 grand prix victories remain unmatched, making this year’s Festival theme of ‘Speed Kings—Motorsport’s Record Breakers’ highly apt to Schumacher. The celebration will also mark that 2019 is the 25th anniversary of Schumacher’s first F1 championship—won with Benetton in 1994—as well as is the year of his 50th birthday. Goodwood has confirmed that Schumacher’s “famous cars, family, friends, team-mates and former rivals” will be present at the July 4-7 event. As well as a selection of his F1 cars there will be cars from his sports and touring car racing as well as single-seaters from his junior racing.
And the man who is arguably Schumacher’s ultimate former sparring partner, the 1996 F1 champion Damon Hill, will join the celebrations and this will include Hill driving one of Schumacher’s F1 cars up the Goodwood hill. Hill and Schumacher battled for the ’94 F1 championship, the matter being resolved in Schumacher’s favor after a controversial collision between the pair in the season finale in Adelaide. Schumacher bagged the following year’s title ahead of Hill too, more comfortably this time, though the pair still had two more collisions that year, at Silverstone and Monza. Another of Schumacher’s rivals Mika Häkkinen, with whom Schumacher had legendary title battles with in the late 1990s and early 2000s, will also drive at this year’s Festival.
“We are delighted that the Goodwood Festival of Speed has chosen to celebrate Michael’s career, in the year of his 50th birthday, and on the 25th anniversary of his first championship,” said the Schumacher family’s spokesperson Sabine Kehm. “It is especially fitting this year, as the event’s Record Breakers theme perfectly encapsulates his incredible achievements, including records, many of which may never be broken. We hope the public enjoy the opportunity to see an assortment of his winning cars, and the many friends, rivals and team members, who are coming to Goodwood to support the occasion. We thank the Duke of Richmond and the Goodwood team for making Michael such an important feature of this year’s event.”
This year’s Festival of Speed also is to honor the life and career of Sir Jackie Stewart with various cars from his racing career present to mark Sir Jackie’s 80th birthday as well as 50 years since his own first F1 title. Schumacher’s son Mick meanwhile will make his Formula 2 race bow in Bahrain this weekend as well as will test Ferrari and Alfa Romeo F1 cars in the Bahrain test next week.
Images courtesy of Octane Photography
