Volkswagen Motorsport hopes to return to Goodwood in 2021
Volkswagen Motorsport has been forced to cancel its appearance at Goodwood SpeedWeek in the south of England (16.–18.10.2020) so as not to compromise the health of its employees. The background to this decision is the infection rate of the coronavirus, which has accelerated dramatically over the past few days – not only in England, but throughout Europe. A team of roughly 30 Volkswagen Motorsport employees was scheduled to attend the automobile festival.
“We deeply regret not being able to attend Goodwood this year, but the health of our employees is of paramount importance,” says Sven Smeets, Volkswagen Motorsport Director. “After lengthy internal discussions, we are convinced that this is the right decision in the current situation. We would obviously have loved to compete against the opposition at Goodwood Motor Circuit, but this is unfortunately not possible for us at the moment. It is not appropriate to bring such a large team from Germany to the UK at a time when measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus are being ramped up significantly in all European countries. Even though we are unable to attend, we wish the organisers and the many SpeedWeek participants a successful event and really hope that we can compete in Goodwood again in 2021 under different circumstances. This weekend we will all be watching the live broadcast at home instead!”
ID.R and ID.31 were planned for SpeedWeek
The original plan was for Volkswagen Motorsport to compete in the shootout at Goodwood SpeedWeek with the 500 kW (680 PS) ID.R. The format is similar to the Goodwood Hillclimb at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, which Romain Dumas won at the wheel of the ID.R in 2018 and 2019. Last year, the Frenchman set a new all-time record with a time of 39.90 seconds. The ID.R, the sporty flagship of Volkswagen’s electromobility offensive, would not have been the ID. family’s sole representative at Goodwood SpeedWeek. The ID.3, the first production model from Volkswagen’s range of fully-electric vehicles, was also scheduled to attend Goodwood, where it would have been presented alongside the ID.R.
1 ID.3 – power consumption (NEDC) in kWh/100 km: 15.4–14.5 (combined); CO2 emissions in g/km: 0; efficiency class: A+.
