At the latest edition of the Goodwood Festival of Speed, held between 11 and 14 July, the Ferrari 296 Challenge took centre stage in the historic ‘climbing’ event up the famous hill in the grounds of the Duke of Richmond’s country house in Chichester. The task of driving the car – which will be used from next year in the Ferrari Challenge Trofeo Pirelli UK – was entrusted to Andrew Morrow (Charles Hurst), reigning champion of the series and contending again this year in defence of the Trofeo Pirelli class title. Also accompanying him in the Goodwood Festival was Robert Rees (Dick Lovett Swindon), the Coppa Shell leader in the British series, who drove a Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo. Morrow, who had already taken part in the 2023 edition in a 488 Challenge Evo, completed the timed run in a time of 50.02, placing seventh overall.
Andrew, congratulations on your success in the time drawn at Goodwood this year in the new 296challenge. Tell us about your experience this weekend driving up the hill.
“It's been an amazing weekend. There's some incredible cars around the paddock that you don't get a chance to see very often. There are some amazing people as well throughout the weekend. The hill climb itself has been quite challenging. Weather conditions have been very mixed so every time we've gone out it's been slightly different both with the mixture of the runs in the morning and in the afternoon. The first part of the hill tends to be quite dry and quite good but once you go up by the front wall and then below the trees it's always very green and damp. All in all, it's been quite a challenging weekend but yeah we've done well. I finished P7 overall - slightly slower than yesterday in the practice which is disappointing but track conditions today didn't allow it, so it's been a good weekend and I'm glad to have come along and enjoyed it”.
You mentioned about the weather conditions. Obviously there have been varying weather conditions over the weekend. How has that affected your preparation, the car set up and ultimately your performance over the weekend?
“The weather has been challenging. It's very hard to try and get your eye in at Goodwood even when the weather is all the same throughout the weekend. Realistically you only get to do seven runs up the hill throughout the four days and that equates to seven laps on track which isn't an awful lot of track times - but you can do eight to ten minutes. So try and learn your apex turning points, braking points, acceleration points. It's quite challenging for someone who's been here twice but all in all I'm happy. I finished quite well in my batch and it's been a good weekend”.
So you drove the 488 Challenge Evo up the hill last year. This year you did it in the new 296 Challenge. How did it compare?
“I enjoyed last year as well. The 488 Challenge Evo was fantastic up the hill but of course the 296 Challenge this year is a much better car. In every aspect I suppose as it's the new model. The V6 is very impressive. It picks up the power lovely and the front end has a lot more aero. Typically on track that'll make a huge difference but here at Goodwood not so much because the corners aren't huge speeds so you don't really feel the full potential of the front-end grip compared to what I've experienced throughout the European series this year at some of the tracks but all in all it's been a good car and I've enjoyed it”.
How have your experiences in the European challenge and UK challenge helped to prepare you for this one lap time run which is not so common in the racing world?
“I suppose the best thing to try and compare it to is qualifying. Over the last three years in Challenge - both in the UK for the first two in the UK and then in the European this year is just trying to simulate that qualifying session. That's very hard because you only are able to a little temperature into the brakes and tyres but then when you go down and queue up on the start line you tend to lose a lot of that so you don't have an awful lot of time or opportunity when you leave the line because the tyres are still cold and of course we're running used wets. I's not the perfect setup but it was still good, and we achieved a reasonable time considering”.
What advice would you give to a fellow challenge driver going up the hill?
“I suppose the best thing is just build it up step by step. It's a very unforgiving place if anything goes wrong it's going to be a big one. There's not an awful lot of room so for those first couple of runs up the hill take your time and get your eye in and then throughout the weekend just keep chipping away and push. There's such a mixed variety of cars every year so as far as the opposition goes you never know who's going to turn up. There's everything from old F1 cars, future electric cars, Challenge cars and all sorts of different GT brands throughout the different manufacturers so it's a very competitive grid of cars. Just take your time and just keep chipping away.