HONDA The Power of Dreams

The Goodwood Festival of Speed, which started on Thursday, has reached its final day.

While these reports have mainly introduced Honda’s booth and it activities, this report focuses on the race cars, as Sunday is the most productive day of the four-day Goodwood Festival, with the hill climb and other programs. Unfortunately, this year it rained on Sunday and several cars had to cancel their runs.

All of the bikes and cars at Goodwood are legendary, but the McLaren Honda MP4/4, which was brought in from Japan for the event, is particularly valuable. This F1 car was driven by Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna back in 1998.

This year, Honda is celebrating its 60th anniversary of participating in World Grand Prix racing, at Goodwood as well as other venues. The Goodwood entries feature a variety of racing machines that tell the story of Honda’s history, from its first entry in the Isle of Man TT races in 1959, to the RC213V that Marc Marquez won the MotoGP title on last year.

Legendary riders old and new, including 1999 500cc world champion Mick Doohan and 2011 champion Casey Stoner, took to the hill climb. Also in attendance were riders from the Isle of Man TT races, including John McGuinness, Ian Hutchinson, and Conor Cummins.

Ian Hutchinson rode his 2010 CBR1000RR and Conor Cummins rode his latest CBR1000RR. The Birchall brothers, winners of the Sidecar TT, also made an appearance.

The appearance of F1 drivers is one of the highlights of Goodwood. This year, Alexander Albon (Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda) visited and did the hill climb run in a Honda e Prototype instead of his usual F1 car.

A Thai national and London native, 23-year-old Albon started his racing career in karts and became European champion in the KF3 class in 2010.

In 2017 he moved to the FIA-F2 Championship, in 2018 to Formula E, and this year he made his F1 debut. He then scored his first points in F1 with a ninth-place finish in Round 2, the Bahrain Grand Prix.