Organisers of the 2025 Silverstone Festival (August 22-24) have confirmed exciting new developments for the unprecedented line-up of cars in the World Champion Collection – a key part of the event’s celebrations marking the 75th anniversary of Formula 1.
The World Champion Collection is a once-in-a-lifetime showcase of Grand Prix cars campaigned by all 34 of the sport’s World Champions. It’s fitting that the display will be showcased at the very circuit that hosted the inaugural World Championship race on May 30, 1950.
This week, Silverstone Festival organisers have revealed that the Williams, McLaren, Red Bull Racing and Mercedes-AMG Formula 1 teams will all be providing machinery from their respective collections for the 34-car display.
Founded by the late Frank Williams in 1977, Williams is one of the most successful teams in F1 history. It has built seven Championship-winning cars over the course of its storied past. Five of the seven will be showcased by the Williams team at the Silverstone Festival, including the iconic FW14B that Nigel Mansell used to secure his 1992 World Championship title.
Also included are the 1980 FW07B, 1987 FW11B, 1996 FW18 and 1997 FW19. These machines carried Alan Jones, Nelson Piquet, Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve to their respective titles.
McLaren, meanwhile, will bring the ‘Famous Five’ Championship-winners piloted by James Hunt, Ayrton Senna, Mika Häkkinen and Sir Lewis Hamilton. These cars are the 1976 M23 driven by Hunt, Senna’s dominant 1988 MP4/4, the West-liveried 1999 MP4/14 of Häkkinen and the aggressive MP4-23 that carried Hamilton to the first of his seven titles in 2008.
Challengers driven by McLaren’s remaining World Champions – Alain Prost, Emerson Fittipaldi and Niki Lauda – will be supplied from outside the team’s collection.
Red Bull Racing will showcase a car driven by the reigning Drivers’ Champion, Max Verstappen, in the form of the mighty RB18. This was the car that Verstappen used to take the second of his four back-to-back Championships in 2022. Today, Red Bull Racing boasts a combined total of seven drivers’ titles and six constructors’ crowns thanks to the combined efforts of Verstappen and Sebastian Vettel.
Red Bull Racing’s arch-rival in recent years, Mercedes-AMG, has no shortage of Championship-winning machinery, with its drivers securing every drivers’ title from 2014 to 2020. Sir Lewis Hamilton claimed six of those seven World Championships, while his team-mate Nico Rosberg took the title in 2016 before unexpectedly retiring from the sport ahead of the 2017 season. Hamilton and Rosberg will be represented by the 2020 Mercedes-AMG F1 W11 and 2016 Mercedes-AMG F1 W07 respectively.
Mercedes-AMG has also confirmed it will showcase a wider selection of cars outside the World Champion Collection in the Fan Zone. The display spans the entirety of the Silver Arrows’ modern presence in the sport, beginning with Michael Schumacher’s 2010 Mercedes MGP W01 and ending with the Mercedes W16 E Performance campaigned by George Russell in the current season.
Other highlights of the World Champion Collection include the sport’s first-ever Drivers’ Championship winner, Nino Farina’s 1950 Alfa Romeo 158, as well as Juan Manuel Fangio’s 1957 Maserati 250F, Jim Clark’s 1963/65 Lotus 25 and the 2009 Brawn BGP001 that carried Jenson Button to one of the most unlikely titles in F1 history.
For tickets and more information on the 2025 Silverstone Festival, click here.
