Goodwood 2026: what to expect from this year's Festival of Speed

Table of Contents

• The theme: The Rivals: Epic Racing Duels
• Hunt vs Lauda, fifty years on
• Ford vs Ferrari and the 1966 GT MkIIs
• The headliners list: Hamilton, Pastrana, Audi Tradition, Renault
• New for 2026: digital ticketing and the Fan Zone
• Which day to book
• Practical notes

There are roughly six weeks between this Chronicle and Sunday 12 July, when whatever's left of the 1976 grid will sit shoulder to shoulder on a closed-off Sussex driveway. If you haven't yet committed to going, this is the entry on the 2026 events calendar that we think is the most worth ringing the diary for. Here's what's confirmed, what's worth getting in early for, and what the Estate has changed under the bonnet of the event itself.

The basics: Festival of Speed 2026 runs Thursday 9 to Sunday 12 July 2026 at the Goodwood Estate near Chichester, West Sussex. Tickets start at £60 for the Thursday and rise through Saturday and Sunday. Thursday and Sunday were the last days still available at general release; everything in between is sold out other than hospitality.

The theme: The Rivals: Epic Racing Duels

This year's theme, announced in late 2025 and now confirmed across the official Festival site, is "The Rivals: Epic Racing Duels", presented by Mastercard. The Hill programme has been built around two anchor rivalries plus a wider sweep of motorsport's great two-horse races, drawing in cars and bikes from F1, MotoGP, World Superbikes, IndyCar, WEC, the Isle of Man TT, the WRC and touring cars.

Themes at Goodwood tend to read better on paper than they translate into the running order. This one looks like it will land. Both anchor stories are at milestone years; both have surviving cars and surviving drivers; and both have the kind of internal drama that the Festival's commentary team has the connections to do justice to.

Hunt vs Lauda, fifty years on

The first of the anchors is the 50th anniversary of the 1976 Formula 1 World Championship, the season James Hunt took the title from Niki Lauda by a single point at a wet, fog-shortened Fuji finale.

Expect a heavy Hesketh and Marlboro-McLaren presence on the Hill. The exact running order won't be confirmed until the entry list goes live in late June, but Goodwood has form for these milestone years (the 50th of the Suez crisis Mille Miglia in 2007, the 50th of Imola 1994 in 2024), and they don't usually under-spec the line-up. Surviving cars from the 1976 season are scattered between the Donington collection, private hands and the McLaren heritage fleet, and the expectation in the paddock is that all three will be represented.

For anyone who hasn't read it, this is the year to read Hunt and Lauda by Tom Rubython before going, or to rewatch Rush if reading isn't your thing. The rivalry is well-documented but never less than gripping, and watching the cars run up the Hill with that context makes the difference.

Ford vs Ferrari and the 1966 GT MkIIs

The second anchor is the 60th anniversary of Ford's 1-2-3 at Le Mans in 1966, the moment the GT MkII finally broke Ferrari's hold on the Sarthe. The Festival has been quietly reuniting the three works MkIIs over the past few years and the 60th anniversary is the obvious occasion to bring them together on the Hill alongside their period Ferrari opposition.

The 1966 result was, of course, also one of the most controversial in Le Mans history, with the photo-finish settled on distance covered after the Bruce McLaren / Chris Amon car was placed ahead of the Ken Miles / Denny Hulme car at the line. Sixty years later, the argument about whether Ford management cost Miles his win on purpose is still alive in motorsport circles. Goodwood will have the McLaren and Miles cars on the Hill if they can persuade their owners; the third car is more likely than not.

A 1966 Ferrari 330 P3 entry, alongside whichever GT MkIIs are confirmed, would be the headline pairing of the four days. Watch the entry list announcements in mid-to-late June; that's typically when those signings drop.

The headliners list: Hamilton, Pastrana, Audi Tradition, Renault

Confirmed for 2026 so far:

• Lewis Hamilton, appearing as part of his Mission 44 charity partnership with Goodwood. Hamilton at Goodwood tends to mean Sunday demonstration runs in something significant from the Mercedes back catalogue; expect a wait if you're trying to see him close up in the paddock.
• Travis Pastrana, Gymkhana. Self-explanatory. Worth seeking out if you've never seen one of those runs in person; the camera work doesn't quite capture how much the car moves around.
• Audi Tradition with the 1935 Auto Union speed-record machine, a genuine pre-war landmark and the kind of thing that doesn't usually move from the Audi museum at Ingolstadt. If you only see one car at the Festival, that paddock is the one we'd queue for.
• Renault running the production-ready Renault 5 Turbo 3E for the first time on the Hill. Not a classic, exactly, but a 540bhp tribute to the Renault 5 Maxi Turbo that won't make a quieter noise than the original.

The full hill running order won't drop until late June. As always, the third- and fourth-tier headliners (the marque debuts, the obscure restoration unveilings, the manufacturer paddock reveals) are typically where the most rewarding viewing actually lives. Walking the paddocks rather than camping on the Hill is, and has always been, the better strategy.

New for 2026: digital ticketing and the Fan Zone

Two operational changes worth knowing about before you go.

First, digital ticketing only. The 2026 Festival is the first to drop physical tickets entirely. Entry is via the Goodwood Ticket app, with passes released to wallets fourteen days before the event. If you bought tickets through a third party or are still waiting on a paper voucher, get in touch with Goodwood's ticketing team before the second week of June. There's no on-the-day fix for "I left my phone at home" beyond an Estate-managed reissue process, and it's slower than the queues you'll have just stood in to get to it.

Second, the new FOS Fan Zone, free with any admission ticket. It expands the previously paid-only manufacturer brand activations into a single free-flow area near the main entrance, with sim rigs, brand displays, autograph sessions and food. If you're going as a family group it's the most child-friendly addition to the Festival in years; if you're going to see cars, you can skip it without missing anything material.

Which day to book

For anyone weighing up which day to pick from those still available:

• Thursday is the quietest day, the cheapest, and the day the drivers and owners are most likely to talk to anyone wandering past their car. If your priority is to actually walk every paddock and look at every car closely, this is the day. The trade-off is a slightly thinner Hill running order than the weekend.
• Sunday is the busiest day, has the most polished Hill programme, the Shootout finals in the late afternoon, and the highest concentration of high-profile demonstration runs. The trade-off is paddock access becomes meaningfully harder from late morning, and parking and traffic flow into the Estate on the Sunday is genuinely poor by Festival standards.

Friday and Saturday, both sold out at general release as of writing, split the difference. The Festival's own ticket exchange occasionally puts returned tickets back on sale through to mid-June; if you missed the original release for those days it's worth checking the Ticket app weekly.

Practical notes

• Parking at the Festival is operated by Goodwood and pre-bookable. The cheapest option (general car park, walk-in) sells out, but the £15 to £30 closer-in options usually have availability up to a week out.
• The train option, Chichester station to the Estate park-and-ride, has been the most reliable way in for the last three years. Park at the South Coast or West Sussex stations and shuttle in.
• Camping at the Festival has been quietly upgraded for 2026. There's a new glamping village near the cricket pitch and a small-allocation tent option that wasn't there last year. Both sold out fast.
• The Goodwood Revival follows in September: different event, different car-set, same Estate. Worth marking on the diary as a counterpoint in case the Festival sells out before you book; we covered it briefly in the June diary preview.

If we haven't covered something specific you're trying to plan around, drop us a line through the contact page and we'll add it.

See you on the Hill.