Seven awesome single-seater racers you have to see at 79MM | GRR
It could be argued that single-seaters will be the stars of the show at this year’s Members’ Meeting presented by Audrain Motorsport. For a start, we have a truly incredible assembly of V10-era Formula 1 cars celebrating what was one of the most distinctive-sounding periods of Grand Prix racing, at a time when some of the sport’s all-time greats were forging their legacies. Joining them will be the Meeting’s usual line-up of incredible single-seater racing machinery, from ‘50s and ‘60s F1 cars, to the more formative and grassroots disciplines of years gone by. Let’s count down a selection of cars you simply mustn’t miss at 79MM.
Williams FW18
We open with what is for now, the last Williams car to win a Formula 1 World Championship. It is of course the FW18, the car that Damon Hill drove to his 1996 title to become the first son of a champion to win a championship. He would only be joined a full 20 years later by Nico Rosberg. You’ll be able to see this magnificent machine in the paddocks at 79MM.
McLaren MP4/15
Also on the list is this 2000 McLaren MP4/15, adorned with the fantastic West livery typical of the late ‘90s championship-winning McLaren-Mercedes cars. Of course, the MP4/15 was beaten narrowly to the title in 2000 by the Ferrari F1 2000, marking the beginning of Ferrari and Michael Schumacher’s era of dominance of the sport. Hear it screaming on track and see it in the paddocks at 79MM.
Benetton B193
Speaking of Schumacher, in this demo we have a Benetton B193 in the fabulous yellow and green colours. This was the last car from Michael’s underdog years. Because a year later, the B194, a development of the B193, would be driven to his first world driver’s title. The B193 gave a taste of that championship-winning form, as Schumacher regularly battled with Ayrton Senna for poles and podium finishes. This fabulous machine will be joining a monster line-up of screaming F1 machinery at 79MM.
Brabham BT18
Onto some of our more regularly Members’ Meeting programming, the Brabham BT18. A dominant car in the 1966 Formula 2 Championship, which Jack Brabham claimed with teammate Denny Hulme runner-up. It has shown commensurate pace at our latter-day historic race meetings and its chances of claiming victory in the Derek Bell Cup are vastly improved by the man due to be at the wheel. Andrew Hibberd is regularly seen dicing up front in historic single-seaters at Goodwood. One to watch for the win quite possibly.
Maserati Tipo 26M
The Members’ Meeting wouldn’t be the Members’ Meeting without some scintillating pre-war action and few drivers do it better than Julian Mazjub. He’ll be driving his Maserati Tipo 26M in guaranteed sensational style in the Varzi Trophy this weekend. No one puts a historic racer on its sidewalls quite like Julian, so expect some spectacular battles and sideways action.
Minardi-Ford M189
Members’ Meeting house captain Emanuele Pirro has a number of top-quality drives booked for the weekend, from a Chevrolet Camaro in the Gerry Marshall Trophy, to a Porsche 904 in the Graham Hill Trophy. A stand-out for him however could well be in the F1 demo, where he’ll be piloting a Minardi-Ford M189. This is a car with which he will have diced during the 1989 season when he was driving for Benetton. Emanuele loves to put on a show, so this Minardi could end up being one of the stars of the demo.
Arrows-Ford A11
We couldn’t not, could we? Nick Padmore, Arrows A11, a duo that cemented in history just how incredible the one-off Goodwood SpeedWeek Presented by Mastercard was. It was then that they cemented themselves in Goodwood’s history, not only as stars of the show but as outright lap record-holders, possibly never to be beaten. Memories of those incredible runs will be coming back as we see Nick reunited with the Arrows once more for the F1 demo at 79MM.
Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.