Red Bull Racing dominated the final day of the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Celebrating its 20th anniversary, the Milton Keynes based racing outfit brought together an incredible lineup of drivers from across the team’s history to take on the famous Goodwood hill climb before posing on the famous Goodwood House balcony in front of a capacity crowd.
Max Verstappen had been previously quoted as telling Dutch TV, that although he will try to make the most of his first ever Goodwood Festival of Speed appearance, he would rather have the weekend off. Hardly a surprise seeing how packed the F1 calendar in 2024 is with 24 Grand Prix race weekends and Goodwood follows an intense triple-header for Verstappen. But many thousands of fans this past Sunday in Chichester made sure to show their thanks by cheering the name of the current F1 Drivers’ Champion when he took to the famous balcony of Goodwood House.
The Festival of Speed is well known as being the place to see some of the most legendary drivers and riders in motorsport. Alongside the celebrations for Oracle Red Bull Racing, F1 was also showcased through the presence of five additional current Formula 1 teams: Mercedes, Ferrari, Alpine, McLaren and Williams. Thousands of petrol-heads made sure to snap up the opportunity to see a range of drivers such as Alex Albon, Fernando Alonso, Logan Sargeant, Yuki Tsunoda and Oliver Bearman up close.
Red Bull Racing though planned a celebration unlike any other, with the highlight for many being the sight of Verstappen taking on the famous Goodwood hill climb.
Verstappen was not the only Red Bull driver to take to attempt the feat as he was joined by teammate Sergio Pérez and Team Principal and CEO Christian Horner, legendary designer Adrian Newey as well as former Red Bull drivers David Coulthard, Christian Klien, Daniel Ricciardo and Mark Webber. Not only this, but Red Bull Racing also highlighted their F1 Academy driver Hamda Al Qubaisi as she joined the group on the balcony as well as on the famous Goodwood hill climb.
As for what was being displayed: Klein drove the very first Red Bull Racing car, his 2005 RB1; Webber drove an RB6 (the car which claimed the team’s first world titles in 2010) and Ricciardo was in the cockpit of the 2011 RB7. Meanwhile, Horner had dusted his racing gloves off to control the RB8 while Coulthard was behind the wheel of the RB9. Thousands of camera lenses were fixated on Verstappen in his 2021 title winning RB16B while teammate Pérez drove the RB18 from 2022.
Fans had been waiting for two to three hours in the vicinity of a view of the Goodwood House balcony to enjoy witnessing this historic moment. Once the cars had descended the hill and parked up on the courtyard, those in attendance this past Sunday were then released as the ropes dropped so that they could calmly walk (well, that was the guidance) towards the foot of Goodwood House to stand on the lawn and have cameras poised to enjoy the presentation.
In a matter of minutes, ex-F1 driver Karun Chandhok started a variety of interviews as Newey and Horner praised the other, and all chose their favourite Red Bull car from the era. However, one segment which has since gone viral involved an exchange after Chandhok innocently got excited by the prospect of Verstappen and Ricciardo being teammates at Goodwood Revival one day.
The popular Aussie had told Chandhok that he loves the Festival of Speed and the opportunity to drive machines from the past. As much as Ricciardo would love to try a motorbike up the Goodwood hill climb, he quipped “I know, it’s probably for the best that I’m sticking with four wheels.”
“But yeah, the older stuff’s always fun, it’s an experience when you get a clutch on your foot again and not on your hand and you have a stick and a h-pattern and these things that we kind of forgot what to do or how to do it.”
Following this, Chandhok said Ricciardo should come to the prestigious Goodwood Revival event. To this, the 35-year-old Aussie delighted the crowd with his trademark humour saying : “I mean, I feel like the moustache, I’m already halfway there, so all I need is the, what do you call those English hats?” Having had a jubilant crowd shout back “Flat cap” Ricciardo continued his pleasing crowd work with a fake English accent saying “I’ll get me one of those. Jolly good.”
Attention then turned to Verstappen as the Sky F1 pundit asked whether he had seen the Revival and if he would ‘fancy coming to have a play?’
In this relaxed setting, with an extremely appreciative crowd, Verstappen did his own crowd work as he replied.
“Yeah, I mean I’ve seen Adrian [Newey] do it, but most of the time I think he is driving the cars a little bit illegal. He’s tuning them himself; I think they have a bit more grip than other cars around. But yeah, we’ll give it a go, maybe together with Danny it’ll be a bit of fun in one car.”
It was at this stage – and with Goodwood Revival in mind – that a delighted Chandhok said: “Oh, you two could be teammates! Imagine that, that’s the whole point. Where’s the dukes? We need to get this sorted out here, this is going to be, this is going to be amazing.” This conversation, all being said in the presence of Sergio Pérez delighted those on social media for obvious reasons as they chose to interpret remarks with an F1 seat of 2025 in mind.
Anyone walking through the main paddock at Goodwood may have been wondering where the Red Bull Racing cars were. This is due to the fact that the team had solely occupied the Cathedral Paddock for the duration of the 4-day-event as a way to ensure they paid tribute to their 20-year history in style.
The Friday of the sold-out Goodwood Festival of Speed weekend had already seen Red Bull unveil their newly launched RB17 hypercar to the public. The display stand was consistently busy throughout the rest of the weekend as many patrons embraced the opportunity to see the F1-inspired masterpiece by Adrian Newey. With a top speed of 350 km/h, a roaring V10 engine that can reach up to 15,000 rpm and only 50 units available for purchase – many attendees wondered if they would ever see one up close again. As for the price of this creation – “It’s just under £6m!” said Horner to an amazed audience.
What Red Bull Racing has achieved in just 20 years is astounding and while some of the sports giants have fallen away, it seems like Red Bull Racing could easily be at the front for the next 20 years. That thought is a discussion for the future. Goodwood was a celebration and like them or loathe them Red Bull Racing should be celebrated. This so-called ‘energy drink team’ has been the benchmark in recent years which has made their rivals up their own performance levels. As the saying goes, competition in anything is good, because it makes everybody better. F1 is certainly better for having Red Bull Racing in it.
