Adrian Newey, Gordon Murray & Ross Brawn to appear at Festival of Speed

The three designers will join Goodwood’s F1 75 celebrations

More names from the world of F1 are set to join the party at the 2025 Goodwood Festival of Speed, as the event celebrates 75 years of the Formula One World Championship.

While the first Formula One race was held in 1946, it was not until 1950 that the World Championship for Drivers (as it was known then) was established. Before its creation, each race was a standalone affair and carried huge distinctions individually. It was then decided to combine a driver’s performance across a whole season to establish who was the best of the best.

Joining the likes of Alain Prost, Mario Andretti and Nigel Mansell at the flagship motoring event of the year will be three of the most well known and successful F1 car designers. Adrian Newey, Gordon Murray and Ross Brawn have been influential in numerous F1 World Championship successes spanning multiple decades of the sport. They are widely respected across the wider motoring world, from their work in F1 to the creation of some of the world’s most famous production cars.

Adrian Newey

Adrian Newey recently began his new role at Aston Martin following a successful 18 year period at Red Bull, which yielded six Constructors’ Championships and four Drivers’ Championships apiece for Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen.

Aston Martin boss Lawrence Stroll has bet the house on Newey’s ability to design a championship-winning car, with the Brit reportedly set to earn around £30m a year in his new role.

Newey has a wealth of experience in Formula 1, having begun his first role in the sport at Fittipaldi Automotive in 1980, the first of eight teams the Brit would count as his employers. He would have to wait until 1988 to be able to design his first Formula 1 car, which was the March 881, driven by Ivan Capelli and Mauricio Gugelmin. The 881’s best achievement was a second place finish under Capelli at the 1988 Portuguese Grand Prix in Estoril, and Newey remained with the team until an approach by Williams in 1990.

It was at Williams that Newey began to taste proper success. After a close battle with McLaren in the 1991 season, Williams took it up a notch in 1992 with Nigel Mansell winning the drivers’ championship and Newey securing his first constructors’ title. The team repeated its success in the constructors’ championship the following year, although this time it was Alain Prost who secured the drivers’ title behind the wheel of the Newey-designed FW15C.

The 1994 season was marred for Williams by the death of Ayrton Senna at the San Marino Grand Prix, and the team was unable to continue its success by winning a third consecutive title. In 1995, with Benetton finishing ahead of Williams in both the drivers' and constructors’ championships, Newey was ready to step up to become technical director of a team. He was placed on gardening leave in 1996 ahead of a move to McLaren the following year. Newey’s seven seasons at Williams from 1991 to 1997 yielded 59 race victories, 78 pole positions and 60 fastest laps from 114 races, resulting in four drivers’ world championship titles.

*Newey at Red Bull in 2014. Photo Credit - Red Bull*

By the time he began his role at McLaren in 1997, Newey was unable to fully design the British team’s car, instead working to improve the Neil Oatley-designed MP4/12. A victory at the 1997 European Grand Prix was followed by a strong finish to that season for McLaren. Newey’s designs were then able to be implemented, and the 1998 and 1999 seasons resulted in championship wins for Mika Häkkinen, although the Finnish driver narrowly missed out on a third consecutive title in 2000.

A brief flirtation with Jaguar in 2001 and plenty of F1 politics nearly saw Newey leave, however, he eventually ended up staying until 2005, where it was rumoured that he would return to Williams or even leave the sport altogether. What came next was the most successful period of his career, with a move to Red Bull in 2006.

Away from Formula One, Newey has been instrumental in the design and development of the Aston Martin Valkyrie and the RB17 hypercar, revealed at last year’s Festival of Speed.

Ahead of the 2025 Festival of Speed, Adrian Newey said: “It’s been a real pleasure to work with Goodwood on assembling such a remarkable collection of Formula 1 cars for the Innovators class. It’s a celebration not just of the machines, but of the creativity, craftsmanship, and engineering excellence that have defined the sport over the past 75 years.”

Gordon Murray

Born in South Africa in 1946 and raised in Durban, Gordon Murray’s interest in car design would lead to a degree in mechanical engineering and the building and racing of his own IGM Ford in the South African National Class during 1967 and 1968. The following year, Murray moved to the UK to begin a long and illustrious career in Formula One.

Despite hoping to secure a role at Lotus, Murray was offered a job by Brabham after a chance meeting with the team’s designer, Ron Tauranac. Under the leadership of Bernie Ecclestone, Murray was appointed as Chief Designer and went on to create cars like the BT46B and World Championship-winning BT49 and BT52 cars with Nelson Piquet behind the wheel.

Murray’s time at Brabham lasted until 1986, by which time he’d designed 20 cars and secured 22 Grand Prix wins. An offer from McLaren followed, and Murray replaced John Barnard as the team’s new Technical Director.

Bringing his experience from Brabham to assist Chief Designer Steve Nichols, McLaren’s MP4/4 car won 15 out of 16 races in the 1988 season to give Ayrton Senna his first Drivers’ Championship, as well as a record points score of 199 in the Constructors’ Championship. Along with lead designer Neil Oatley, Murray oversaw the creation of the MP4/5 in 1989 and MP4/5B in 1990. It was an extremely successful period for McLaren, with the team winning four consecutive drivers’ and constructors’ championships between 1988 and 1991.

*Gordon Murray Automotive T.50s at the 81st Members' Meeting*

From 1991 to 2004, Murray moved to the production car side of McLaren, which led to the design of the McLaren F1 in 1992. The modified ‘LM’ spec F1 became the last road legal sportscar to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans outright across all classes in 1995.

After leaving McLaren, Murray founded the Gordon Murray Design consultancy, leading to the creation of Gordon Murray Automotive in 2017. The low-volume specialist company has produced the T.50 - Murray’s improvement on the McLaren F1 and T.33 from its headquarters in Surrey.

Gordon Murray Automotive is the featured marque at this year’s Festival of Speed, with a Central Feature in front of Goodwood House, and an array of significant cars designed by Murray across the site.

Ross Brawn

Before entering the world of Formula One, Brawn worked his way up the ranks of March Engineering and the newly formed Williams team, going from a machinist to working on the team’s aerodynamics in the wind tunnel.

His early roles in F1 saw him become part of Neil Oatley’s design team at Haas Lola in 1985, before a spell at Arrows between 1986 and 1989, where he designed the A10, A10B and A11 cars. Then, a foray into the Jaguar Sportscar racing division led to a World Sportscar Championship in 1991, with Brawn leading the design of the XJR-14.

Brawn returned to Formula One in 1991, becoming technical director of Benetton. He oversaw Michael Schumacher’s consecutive World Championships in 1994 and 1995, as well as a World Constructors’ Championship for the team in 1995. While Brawn wasn’t involved in the design of Rory Byrne’s championship winning car, he was praised for his work surrounding race strategy.

Schumacher eventually made the move to Ferrari in 1996, with Brawn following him at the end of the German driver’s first year with the Prancing Horse. As technical director, Brawn’s famous strategies would be instrumental in Ferrari winning six consecutive Constructors’ Championships from 1999 to 2004, as well as five consecutive drivers' titles for Schumacher. Brawn, Schumacher, team principal Jean Todt and chief designer Rory Byrne were referred to as the “dream team” during that period of the sport.

Ferrari’s period of dominance was eventually curtailed in 2005 and 2006, with Fernando Alonso taking home two world championship titles for Renault. This led to Brawn leaving Ferrari at the end of 2006 and taking a sabbatical from F1.

After a brief period as team principal of Honda, a takeover of the team was completed, leading to the formation of Brawn GP. Brawn himself took a 54% controlling stake, and took the car from Honda that he believed would become the quickest car on the grid into the 2009 season. The experienced driver lineup of Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button was retained from Honda, and engines were sourced from Mercedes. Sponsorship from Richard Branson’s Virgin also provided a financial boost ahead of the first race of the season.

*Ross Brawn with the Brawn GP car. Photo Credit - © Michael Bailie*

A hugely successful year for Brawn GP followed, seeing Button win six and Barrichello win two of the 17 Grand Prix races of the 2009 season, meaning a first world title for Button and a Constructors’ title for Brawn. An OBE for Brawn followed in the 2010 New Year Honours for services to motorsport.

Brawn GP’s success in 2009 led to a takeover from Mercedes, with Brawn benefiting financially and being allowed to stay on as team principal. He also managed to convince Michael Schumacher to come out of retirement, having previously worked together at Benetton and Ferrari.

Alongside Nico Rosberg, the team weren’t able to continue the success that Brawn GP had enjoyed and had to wait until the 2012 Chinese Grand Prix for its first victory. Schumacher retired at the end of that season and 2008 World Champion Lewis Hamilton was signed as his replacement.

The 2013 season began in a similarly underwhelming fashion to the previous few years for the team, however, the car steadily improved during the season and laid the foundations for a long spell of Mercedes dominance in Formula One. Brawn left Mercedes at the end of the season following a disagreement about his role in the team.

In more recent times, Brawn has acted as a technical director for the Formula One Group. Although rumours have persisted of a move back to Ferrari, Brawn confirmed his retirement from F1 in 2022.

When is the 2025 Goodwood Festival of Speed?

The Goodwood Festival of Speed will take place Thursday 10 - Sunday 13 July 2025. Limited tickets for Thursday are available to purchase here.

words: Mike Booth