Goodwood Festival of Speed 2026: Best F1 Photos

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123Helmets Editorial Team

Goodwood Festival of Speed 2026

A week after the British Grand Prix, F1 rolled straight into the 2026 Goodwood Festival of Speed, where eight teams and a string of current drivers turned the Goodwood House hillclimb into a rolling museum of helmets, liveries and machinery old and new.

Key Takeaways

Eight F1 outfits attended the 2026 Goodwood Festival of Speed: Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull, Alpine, Racing Bulls, Williams and Aston Martin

Drivers on track included Kimi Antonelli, Lando Norris, Isack Hadjar, Pierre Gasly, Franco Colapinto, Arvid Lindblad and Liam Lawson

Williams boss James Vowles drove the restored FW18, the chassis Damon Hill used to win the 1996 F1 world title

The event followed directly on from the British Grand Prix, giving fans two major F1 spectacles inside a single week

Goodwood 2026: A Second Spectacle Inside One Week

The 2026 Goodwood Festival of Speed arrived just seven days after the British Grand Prix, giving F1 fans back-to-back events on home soil. Held on the grounds of the Goodwood House estate, the Festival brings F1 teams away from the paddock and onto a hillclimb course lined with fans rather than grandstands, and 2026’s edition drew a genuinely full grid.

No fewer than eight F1 outfits made the trip this year: Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull, Alpine, Racing Bulls, Williams and Aston Martin. That is a wider team turnout than many recent editions, and it meant photographers at the top of the hill and along the flint-walled sections of the course had a genuine cross-section of the 2026 grid’s liveries to shoot in daylight, at close range, without the barriers and long lenses that define a normal race weekend.

For collectors, this kind of access matters. Festival of Speed photography tends to produce some of the clearest close-up shots of current-season helmet designs anywhere in the calendar, because drivers are moving slowly up a hillclimb rather than braking at 300 km/h into a grand prix corner.

Eight Teams, One Hillclimb: The Livery Line-Up

Eight current F1 constructors ran cars up the Goodwood hill in 2026, giving fans a rare side-by-side look at the season’s full paint-scheme range away from a normal circuit. Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull, Alpine, Racing Bulls, Williams and Aston Martin all sent machinery, spanning current challengers and heritage chassis from across F1 history.

The mixed field is part of what makes Goodwood photography distinct from a standard race gallery. A current McLaren livery might be parked paddock-side next to a decades-old Ferrari, and a modern Racing Bulls car can be photographed in the same frame as an Alpine from a previous era. For anyone building a collection around a specific team’s McLaren or Ferrari identity, these shots offer reference angles that simply do not exist in broadcast footage.

Red Bull, Williams and Aston Martin rounded out the current-team presence, each running cars that let fans get close to liveries usually seen only at speed. The variety across eight teams is also why this year’s photo galleries have proven especially useful for anyone comparing helmet and livery colorways side by side before choosing a display piece.

Driver Helmets Stealing the Show

Several 2026 F1 racers were behind the wheel at Goodwood, putting their current-season helmet designs on close display for photographers lining the hill. Kimi Antonelli, Lando Norris, Isack Hadjar, Pierre Gasly, Franco Colapinto, Arvid Lindblad and Liam Lawson all took runs during the weekend, each piloting cars old and new.

Antonelli’s run gave fans another look at his design carried over from the Mercedes garage this season, while Lando Norris added to the growing catalogue of 2026 imagery for collectors following the McLaren driver’s title campaign. Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson represented Racing Bulls on the hill, with junior driver Arvid Lindblad also getting seat time and adding his own helmet graphics to the weekend’s photo haul.

Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto flew the flag for Alpine, both drivers photographed at slow speed on the climb in a way that let fans pick out fine helmet detailing rarely visible during a 300 km/h grand prix lap. For anyone tracking helmet evolution across the 2026 season, these Goodwood shots sit alongside British Grand Prix imagery from the previous weekend as two of the year’s richest photo sets.

James Vowles and the FW18: A Nostalgic Highlight

Williams team boss James Vowles took to the Goodwood hill himself, driving the recently restored FW18 chassis that Damon Hill used to win the F1 world title in 1996. It is a rare sight of a current team principal behind the wheel of a title-winning car from three decades earlier, and it became one of the most talked-about moments of the entire 2026 Festival.

The FW18 run gave photographers a genuine piece of F1 history in motion rather than in a museum static display, and it tied neatly into the wider Goodwood theme of pairing current-day teams with their own back catalogue. For Williams fans in particular, seeing a 1996 title-winning chassis running again in 2026, with the team’s current boss at the controls, is the kind of crossover moment that rarely happens outside a heritage event like this one.

It also underlines why Goodwood photography carries weight for collectors: a shot of Vowles in the FW18 is not just a nice picture, it is a documented link between a specific championship-winning car and the present-day team, decades apart.

Why These Photos Matter for Display Collectors

Festival of Speed photography gives collectors close, well-lit reference material for current-season helmet and livery designs that is harder to source from race weekends alone. With eight teams and seven named current drivers on track in 2026, plus a heritage car run by Williams boss James Vowles, this year’s gallery spans both the present grid and F1’s history in a single event.

For anyone assembling a display collection built around a specific driver or team era, images like these are useful both as visual reference and as a record of a specific moment, a specific car, and a specific helmet design worn on a specific weekend. The one-week gap between the British Grand Prix and the 2026 Goodwood Festival of Speed meant fans effectively got two major photo opportunities from the same set of drivers in quick succession.

That density of imagery, current liveries next to heritage chassis, current helmets next to a 1996 title-winning car, is part of what makes the Goodwood weekend stand apart from a normal race recap.

FAQ

Q: Which F1 teams attended the 2026 Goodwood Festival of Speed?
Eight teams attended: Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull, Alpine, Racing Bulls, Williams and Aston Martin, all running cars on the Goodwood House hillclimb during the 2026 event.

Q: Which drivers took part in the 2026 Goodwood Festival of Speed?
Current 2026 F1 drivers on track included Kimi Antonelli, Lando Norris, Isack Hadjar, Pierre Gasly, Franco Colapinto, Arvid Lindblad and Liam Lawson, driving a mix of current and heritage cars.

Q: What car did Williams boss James Vowles drive at Goodwood?
James Vowles drove the recently restored Williams FW18, the same chassis Damon Hill used to win the F1 world title in 1996.

Q: How does Goodwood relate to the British Grand Prix on the calendar?
The 2026 Goodwood Festival of Speed took place just one week after the British Grand Prix, giving F1 fans two major UK events back to back.

Q: Why is Goodwood photography valuable for helmet and livery reference?
Goodwood’s hillclimb format lets photographers capture cars and helmets at low speed and close range, producing clearer detail shots of current-season designs than typical race-weekend footage.