The Silverstone Festival 2024 (formerly the Silverstone Classic) was held between the 23-25 August at the iconic Silverstone motor racing circuit. This year‘s event was a special year as they paid tribute to the legendary Aryton Senna who left an indelible mark on Formula One and the world of motorsport. Senna happens to be my favourite Formula One driver of all time, so I was very eager to see the tribute that Silverstone Festival were putting on. Across 10 years in the sport, Senna claimed 65 pole positions, made 161 starts, scored more than 600 points, collected 80 podiums and 41 wins, and wound up with those three world titles from 1988, 1990 and 1991 respectively.
Senna’s ability in the rain was the stuff of legend, gaining the reputation of ‘king of the wet’. The Silverstone Festival team pulled together the biggest and best collection of cars raced by the triple world champion, in a special display area in the international paddock, and the exclusive collection of memorabilia, which could be seen in the Silverstone Museum.
Watch the Races Online
Due to our commitments, we could only attend the Silverstone Festival event on Friday, 23 August, which unfortunately was qualifying day for all of the races over the weekend, so we couldn’t actually see the races, but there’s always next year and the races can be watched here online.
The highlights of the Silverstone Festival each year are the ability to get close to the racing cars in the garages. Here are some of my favourite photsos from the day.
Browsing all of the cars for sale at the Iconic’s Silverstone Festival auction is always a pleasure. A few stand out cars for me (below) and do check out our top 10 desired auction cars here and the auction results.
Car Clubs on Display
Checking out all of the cars featured by the various car clubs is always good. However, I felt many of the car clubs this year were smaller than in previous years. Here are some of my favourite cars that were on display by the various car clubs.
Furthermore, speaking to one of the Ferrari owner club organisers we debated for a while the change in the Festival over the years. This well informed gent stated that he was speaking to one of the leaders of the Porsche owners club who said they had 350 cars scheduled for this year show and had 600 cars last year. Definitely seemed to be less cars in the car clubs. This may be because this event used to be called Silverstone Classic and it changed its name to the Silverstone Festival. Maybe it’s trying to be more like Goodwood Festival of Speed and getting more kids and families to come. There is certainly a lot for kids to do, but speaking for myself, my girls and “wife”, they would have no interest whatsoever. It’s an event to attend if you like cars or motor racing first and foremost.
Anyway, there’s always loads to do at the Silverstone Festival if it’s just browsing cars, browsing, or purchasing (like me) in the shopping village or watching the various car races on through the day. It’s just a great day out for anyone who’s into classic motorsport or classic cars.
Room for Improvement
A small gripe…
This year, disappointingly there were very few buses to ferry paying public from one location to another as there always has been. Maybe it’s because I attended on the Friday and not the weekend, which I assume is busier or that Silverstone Festival are trying to make more profit. Who knows? But that was the only slight disappointment on what was a great day out.
In summation, what a great day out. Onwards now to Salon Privé and Concours of Elegance, which are my two favourite car shows of the year.
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Did you go to the Silverstone festival this year? If so, what was your highlight? What did you love? What did you think they could do better?
