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Motoring
What happened at the 2025 Goodwood Festival of Speed?
Iconic machines, legendary drivers, burning rubber, Sam Sunderland announcing his world tour, a feast of donuts and Dua Lipa. It can only be the 2025 Goodwood Festival of Speed.
The 2025 Goodwood Festival of Speed, the biggest celebration of motorsport and automotive culture on the planet, brought together some of the biggest names in Red Bull motorsport with stars from all over the world in front of 200,000 fans.
01
'Mad' Mike Whiddett’s fiery display
'Mad' Mike Whiddett lit up the 2025 Goodwood Festival of Speed with a fiery display of precision drifting in his HUMBUL: Mazda RX-7. The Kiwi, who first brought the smell of burning rubber to the Duke of Richmond’s estate 11 years ago, is one of the Goodwood Festival of Speed’s biggest stars, returning each year with an astonishing array of drifting machines. The HUMBUL is the car he took to the Formula Drift Japan championship in 2018.
As he laid down the rubber along the 1.8km Goodwood Hill Climb track, HUMBUL made short work of its tyres, with flames bursting out of the car and extinguishing as Mike feathered the throttle in a jaw-dropping display that energised the crowd. Also catching the eye in the drift category were James Deane and Steve 'Baggsy' Biagioni from the Drift Masters championship, an all-electric Hyundai Ioniq 6 N Drift, Ryan Tuerck's Toyota Stout and the crowd-pleasing Volvo 740 estate built by Axel Hildebrand.
02
Sam Sunderland vs the World
Race against the world: Sam Sunderland will try to ride around the world
© Rutger Pauw/Red Bull Content Pool
While Mad Mike captured the crowd’s attention, Sam Sunderland inspired their sense of adventure. The two-time Dakar Rally winner announced his new project: Around the World in 19 Days. The British rider will ride around the world on a brand-new Triumph Tiger 1200 Rally Explorer. Sunderland has to ride across 15 countries on five continents and 13 time zones to break a time of 19 days, eight hours, and 25 minutes set by Kevin and Julia Sanders more than 20 years ago.
In order to become the fastest rider to bike around the world, the 36-year-old must cover a minimum of 29,000km, ride nearly 1,600km or 1,000 miles every day for 19 days, averaging the equivalent of the length of the UK every single day.
He said: “I know this challenge will test me to the core – physically and mentally. There will be days when I'm out there for 15 or 16 hours in the cold and rain, heat and humidity, fighting the wind, battling exhaustion and mental fatigue. This, plus jetlag and crazy time zones – it's going to be brutal." The first leg of a six-stage global adventure will start in London this September.
03
The new generation of Dakar champions
The Festival of Speed also saw displays from the new stars of Rally Raid as two graduates of the Red Bull Off-Road Junior Team put their racing machinery through its paces. Seth Quintero, winner of the most stages in a single Dakar Rally, showed off his formidable new Toyota GR DKR Hilux EVO and Dakar winner Cristina Gutíerrez demonstrated the exciting Pioneer 25, which she will race in the new Extreme H series with Sébastien Loeb. In the paddock, M. Dakar himself, 14-time winner Stéphane Peterhansel was on hand to reveal his Defender Dakar D7X-R Prototype.
04
75 Years of Formula One
The centre piece of the 2025 Festival of Speed was a celebration of 75 years of F1 that brought seven world champions together on the balcony of Goodwood House. Collectively Jackie Stewart, Emerson Fittipaldi, Mario Andretti, Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell, Jacques Villeneuve and Mika Hakkinen share 14 world titles between them and each was reunited with their championship-winning machinery on track. All, that is, apart from Sir Jackie who at 86 is the oldest F1 world champion. The celebration closed with a special tribute to Alain Prost as the Red Arrows flew by streaming blue, white and red smoke in honour of the French four-time champion.
05
Red Bull Racing’s greatest machines
Red Bull Racing joined in the action bringing all eight of their cars to have won the F1 World Championship, the RB6, RB7, RB8, RB9 of Sebastian Vettel and the RB16B, RB18, RB19 and RB20 raced by Max Verstappen. The RB17 hypercar designed by Red Bull Technologies was also on show as part of the Red Bull Racing display, along with two rigs from the sim-racing team. David Coulthard, Liam Lawson, show car expert Patrick Friesacher and sim-racing world champion Seb Job, star of docuseries Game to Glory: Level Up put the show run cars through their paces for the crowd, Lawson wowing the crowds in an RB7 decked out in Racing Bulls livery.
06
Dua Lipa and a galaxy of stars
Stars were also out in force at the FOS with actor Patrick Dempsey on track, jungle pioneer and street artist Goldie on the decks and pop star Dua Lipa in the paddock. The singer/actress brought her own set of wheels, the Dua Lipa Rennstall GT3 RS, a special edition Porsche styled by the singer that she unveiled at the Monaco Grand Prix and will now be auctioned to raise money for charity.
07
Liam Lawson shows off his rallying skills
As one of the most versatile racers in F1, Liam Lawson was also in action at the wheel of a Ford Puma Rally 1 on the Forest Rally Stage where the legends of WRC take iconic cars out on track. The Kiwi later made way for stars of WRC, including World Champion Thierry Neuville, current championship leader Elfyn Evans, youngest-ever world champion Kalle Rovanperä. Among the past greats of the sport were Toyota Gazoo Racing team boss Jari-Matti Latvala, rally legend and deputy team principal Juha Kankkunen and Rally USA star Travis Pastrana.
Dumas out in front in the Ford Supertruck
The RAF Red Arrows put on a show at the 2025 Goodwood Festival of Speed
© Getty Images/Red Bull Content Poo
The Timed Shoot-Out, a high-speed charge up the Goodwood Hillclimb track is the competitive element of the Festival of Speed and a highlight of the four-day event. Romain Dumas defended his win from last year this time in the spectacular all-electric Ford Supertruck with a final time of 43.22s, clear of Scott Speed in the jet black Subaru Project Midnight. Markus Lundh set a new record for Production Road Cars in the Koenigsegg Sadair’s Spear, which made its public debut at the FOS. Dani Sordo took top honours for WRC in his Hyundai i20.
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