GOODWOOD, U.K. (April 30, 2025) – Goodwood is thrilled to announce that 1978 Formula 1 World Champion Mario Andretti will return to this year’s Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard.
In attendance across all four days of the event, Mario will take to the Goodwood Hill in his 1978 championship-winning Lotus 79 as the Festival of Speed joins forces with Formula 1 to celebrate 75 years of the F1 World Championship.
An Italian native, who became enthralled by motor racing when he was taken to watch the Mille Miglia and Italian Grand Prix in 1954, before his family emigrated to Nazareth, Pennsylvania when he was 15, Mario Andretti is widely regarded as one of the most versatile racing drivers of all time. During a competitive career that began dirt track racing with his twin brother Aldo in 1959 (without their parents’ knowledge!) and concluded with a 15th place finish at the Le Mans 24 Hours in 2000, Mario amassed more than 100 careers wins across an extraordinary range of disciplines.
Along with fellow American racing legend Dan Gurney, Mario is one of only two drivers to win in Formula 1, IndyCar, NASCAR and World Championship Sports Car racing, and he remains the only driver to have won the Daytona 500 (1967), Indy 500 (1969) and the Formula 1 World Championship (1978). Even during his World Championship year in 1978, he found time to compete in eight IndyCar races, crossing the Atlantic (on Concorde, to save time!) at every opportunity.
He is also part of one of the greatest racing dynasties of all time. As well as his twin brother Aldo, his sons Michael and Jeff, nephew John, and grandson Mario have all competed at the top level. Indeed, at the 1991 and 1992 Indy 500, there were four Andrettis on the grid (Mario, Michael, Jeff and John), and Mario twice competed in 24-hour races as part of an all-Andretti line-up (with Michael and John at Le Mans in 1988, and at Daytona with Michael and Jeff in 1991).
Even now, Mario remains actively involved in motorsport, driving the two-seater IndyCar at races, and is on the board of the Cadillac Formula 1 Team, which will make its F1 debut in 2026.
In July, Andretti will join the Festival of Speed’s biggest single celebration for the 75th anniversary of the Formula 1 World Championship as part of the Champions class, reuniting with his Championship-winning Lotus 79, which he last drove at the Festival of Speed in 2021. He’ll be joined by four-time Formula 1 World Champion Alain Prost and other legendary F1 names, to be announced in the coming weeks.
“I have been to the Goodwood Festival of Speed many times, driving various iconic cars. And I’m ready for another run up the hill in my Lotus 79. Why do I keep coming back? It’s a memorable experience with a wonderful community of car enthusiasts who bring the heart and the noise. There are so many greats in the paddock at Goodwood – the cars, their mechanics and of course the drivers. It will be fun to see how this year’s celebration of 75 years of Formula 1 comes together.”
– Mario Andretti, Formula 1 World Champion
“I am thrilled that Mario will be joining us at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this year. He is, in many ways, the ultimate motorsport hero – a truly global superstar, who mastered every racing discipline in which he competed, from dirt tracks to the Indy 500, Formula 1 to Pikes Peak, and world sports cars to the Daytona 500. He is also one of the most eloquent and charismatic men ever to sit in a racing car, whose incredible 40-year career spanned motorsport’s most glamorous and dangerous era. It is always a pleasure to welcome him to Goodwood, especially this year, as we host the biggest celebration to mark 75 years of the F1 World Championship. I can’t wait to see him back aboard the stunning Lotus 79 – one of the greatest partnerships in Formula 1 history.”
– The Duke of Richmond CBE DL
Mario Andretti joins the previously-announced celebration for four-time WorldSBK Champion Carl Fogarty, the biggest celebration of Formula 1, and Gordon Murray Automotive’s impressive Central Feature sculpture.
Friday, Saturday and Sunday tickets are now sold out, with limited Thursday tickets remaining at goodwood.com.
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