You have to take your hat off to Stirling: less than four months ago he was lying in a hospital bed seriously ill, having suffered a list of injuries that would have written-off many a lesser mortal. It is a testament to his still amazing powers of recovery, much in evidence during his professional racing career, that he arrived at the Goodwood Festival of Speed and was able to move about under his own steam, despite not being fully healed from the injuries sustained in his latest “shunt”.

As you will see from the images, his footwear choice betrays the fact that his right foot is still recovering from four broken bones, the swelling, which has gone down considerably, still prevented him from driving up the hill at Goodwood in the Lotus 18, limiting him to the one run in the Mercedes-Benz AMG SLS. Apologies if you were awaiting his runs in the Lotus, we hope given the circumstances, that you will forgive his absence.

Not surprisingly given that this was only Stirling’s second public outing since his accident, the crowds milling around the Supercar paddock were very large, awaiting his late but perfectly timed entrance to be last out of the paddock to go to the start line. Bear in mind that his first sighting of the SLS was at his charity polo match the week before for Hope for Tomorrow, he received a quick briefing on driving it from AMG’s Roland Geistlinger taking in his instructions and noting that this car was fitted with bucket seats, and not standard ones, before introducing himself to a slightly apprehensive looking Mark Tisshaw of Autocar. He even noticed that the Goodwood SLS was sans the carbon fibre wing mirrors present on the SLS he had sat in the week prior, proving that Stirling is still very sharp with his observations.

As they went to the start line Mark witnessed first hand the effect Stirling has on fans, as he continuously raised the gullwing doors to sign autographs, and telling Derek Bell in his convertible Bentley to “stop posing”. Having checked with Derek I am afraid his response back, said in good nature, cannot be written!

Stirling’s impressions of the SLS car gained on the short run up the hill were very positive. “An easier car to drive than the SLR with copious amounts of power which remain usable without being daunting”, which “Will reward the good drivers and forgive the average ones”. For Stirling the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing, for which the SLS is the spiritual successor, had “great sex appeal” and in his eyes that appeal “carries over into the new SLS without the vices of the original”. His reply to further questions asked of his impressions of the SLS - “let me drive one for longer and I will tell you!”

And with that he was off to Mercedes-Benz hospitality to meet Nico Rosberg for an interview with French newspaper L’Equipe, whose theme centred on Stirling’s experiences of racing for the Silver Arrow’s back in 1955 and Nico racing for the modern team in 2010. This article will be published across the weekend of the British Grand Prix.

The rest of the weekend was taken up with two enjoyable and very entertaining appearances at a packed Lotus Cars stand with Lotus Racing Formula 1 drivers Heikki Kovalainen and Jarno Trulli, alongside Clive Chapman and compered by BBC F1’s David Croft. A visit to the Dunlop Live stage for an interview with Simon Taylor, and a further interview with Sky Sports, showed that he is still very much in demand, with fans having plenty of opportunities to get Stirling’s autograph as he moved around Goodwood.  

He would like to thank all those who have taken time to send letters, cards, tweets and emails, directly and via his website, enquiring after his well being. Hopefully his presence at Goodwood will have reassured you all that he is very much on the way to making a full a recovery as he can. His first race in his OSCA will be the Silverstone Classic at the end of July, followed by a first outing in his newly purchased Porsche RS 61 at the Monterey Historic Automobile Races in August in the United States and then in September back at Goodwood for the Revival, which is set to be a belter!