Find here all the pictures from Goodwood Festival of Speed 

Part of the FIA’s involvement in the 2017 Goodwood Festival of Speed saw some of the top drivers from the FIA World Endurance Championship make a popular visit the stand on Saturday morning, including Ford LMGTE drivers Andy Priaulx, Harry Tinknell and Billy Johnson, who are battling for the new-for-2017 FIA World Endurance Championship for GTE Drivers.

Joining them on the stand and fresh off the back of a thrilling victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans two weeks ago were Porsche LMP1 drivers Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley along with fellow Porsche pilot Nick Tandy, the 2015 winner of the iconic race. All of the drivers present on the stand then met with FIA President Jean Todt, who discussed with them their experiences of the recent Le Mans race, as well as the FIA’s #3500LIVES campaign.

With one of the key messages on this year’s FIA stand being ‘From Track to Road’, FIA.com then spoke to the Bernhard and Hartley about their triumph in the enthralling 85th running of the event, as well as the importance of showcasing the latest technologies of the FIA WEC to the public at events like Goodwood.

“I don’t think we’ve had enough time to really realise the victory yet, I think it could take a few more months,” said two-time Le Mans winner Bernhard.

Hartley, who took his first victory at the ultimate endurance test this year, added, “The way the race unfolded for us made it even more special. We had an issue early on and thought we were going to just be fighting for the points for the world championship. Then, hour by hour, we started to believe it was possible to go for the win. It was amazing to be a part of such a fight-back and to be a part of such an amazing achievement with the Porsche family.”

The Goodwood Festival of Speed draws drivers and fans of all the different motor sport disciplines, and both endurance racers were unsurprisingly pleased to be able to visit the event between rounds of the fiercely-contested FIA WEC.

Hartley continued, “It’s great to be in the UK at Goodwood – being here you realise how many people followed the race, it always amazes me how many there are watching on TV, online or at the race, the feedback has been amazing. It takes a little bit of time to sink in, especially straight after the race. For one week of the year we are superstars and to have so much support here is fantastic.”

Bernhard added, “Of course we are still in the middle of the world championship fight, but Goodwood thankfully comes in between rounds and it’s a great event for us. It’s also been a massive effort from Porsche to bring the Le Mans winning car which crossed the line just two weeks ago to win the biggest race of the year. That effort also really shows how much of a highlight this event is and the status it has on the world stage.”

Speaking finally about the importance of motor sport as a powerhouse of technological development, Kiwi driver Hartley said, “I think it’s important for us to keep leading the development of technologies. Especially with Porsche, what we’re doing is developing the future sports car, so the technology we develop here will be seen for the consumer in only a few years.”

The Porsche driver also recognised the difficulty of conveying the technological message to spectators, saying, “I think it’s important to do this in a competitive environment. It’s sometimes hard to get across this message of technology to the fans, for instance when you look at how close LMP2 cars seem to be to us. But what people don’t realise is that they use twice as much fuel as us per lap which is an absolutely huge difference – it’s amazing what we are doing with these cars, and it’s important to put the message across and show how we are pushing technology to its absolute limits.”