Goodwood Festival of Speed 2026
“Beauty cannot be a byproduct; it has to be intentional” – Hennessey head designer on the Venom F5-M
Car Design News caught up with Hennessey head designer Nathan Malinick in the Supercar Paddock at Goodwood Festival of Speed 2026 to learn more about the design process behind the new Venom F5-M
The Hennessey Venom F5-M roadster is an open-top manual hypercar with eye-watering performance figures – 2,000PS to be exact – making its debut at Goodwood FOS an exciting one.
Away from the roar of the track, this American hypercar stands out for its design alone. And seeing as this month’s focus is on surfacing and aerodynamics – something that this car prioritises – it’s only right to dive deeper into the Venom F5-M’s design.
On the stand to do exactly that was design director Nathan Malinick, wearing a particularly impressive cowboy hat, who talked us through his career so far, building Hennessey’s design language, hiring his design team and surfacing.
Car Design News: Before we speak about the design of the Venom F5-M, I’d love to know how you got to this point in your career?
Nathan Malinick: I’ve wanted to do this since I was 12 years old, I was obsessed with cars – I would just draw them all day. I was set on going to the Art Centre, as one of my dad’s friends went there. I sent in my portfolio to the Art Centre, which was just loads of sketches, not realising that that’s not actually a portfolio and got denied. Instead, I went to a more traditional university called Auburn University where I studied industrial design and I attended the night programme for transportation design at Art Centre during the summer. From that, I got my portfolio and I applied to Art Centre in my senior year and ended up getting accepted.
At the time of my graduation from Art Centre, John Hennessey (owner of Hennessey Performance and Hennessey Special Vehicles) needed design consultancy work, so he called my university transportation chair and asked for any graduates that he’d recommend. They ended up recommending me. When the company was ready for a full-time designer, I jumped at the opportunity – now it’s been just over seven years and I love it.
Design is one of those fields where trust is so important, because you have to be able to be creative with your team. It’s not like finance, where you can either do numbers or not do them – it’s binary. This is such a subjective field.
CDN: So, you’re the first full-time in-house designer at Hennessey – what’s that like?
NM: It’s my passion to be able to work on cars like this. The rate that we move is so fast and seeing things come to reality is really satisfying. We also have a car and truck modification business, so we build about 2,000 cars a year – there’s always something new. My hands are in so many different things like graphic design etc.
I don’t even have a typical day – which I’m so thankful for. Right now, we are working on the successor to the Venom F5-M which is taking up 100% of my time.
CDN: Have you been able to hire a team of in-house designers to work with?
NM: Yes. You’re not supposed to hire your friends, but I’ve basically done that [laughs]. Design is one of those fields where trust is so important, because you have to be able to be creative with your team. It’s not like finance, where you can either do numbers or not do them – it’s binary. This is such a subjective field. The senior designer is one my good friends from the Art Centre, as is another friend who has just joined as lead creative and digital. We have a fourth person joining the team in September.
We’ve really developed in terms of a design process, I think it’s now very innovative and efficient. What our small team is able to create and do within the resources we have is really special.
CDN: How do you even begin to create a design process and best practices? What does this look like at Hennessey?
NM: A large part of the process is born out of necessity. We’re not the Volkswagen Group and we can’t build 10 full-size clay models – it’s never going to happen. As a result, we had to get creative and that’s where we utilise digital tools like Blender. We own the model from 2D sketch to 3D Blender. Sometimes we’ll do a really hot sketch on the wall, or for me it’s pen and paper. Then we freeze a theme and then it’s straight to 3D. Then it goes over to our design engineer who overlays the A-class surfaces.
The mirror stalks are one of my favourite elements of the car – it’s kind of unusual but very functional. It was also a back-and-forth collaboration with engineering to get them right.
CDN: So no clay?
NM: We don’t do clay. The Venom F5-M was never a clay car. Instead, we do full foam mock-ups.
I do think there’s still value in clay – if we could do it, I would. But because of limited resources and finances, it’s not something we are doing right now.
CDN: You mentioned that your design process moves quite quickly, how have you achieved this speed?
NM: When it comes to decision making, my boss and I sit in a room, and he gives me the nod of approval. There’s no board, you don’t have to present anything. It’s a family business, so if he’s happy then the families happy.
CDN: Now onto the Venom F5-M, aerodynamics obviously plays a massive part in this vehicle’s design. Can you talk me through some of the most important aerodynamic features?
NM: One of the most important aerodynamic features are the cut lines – there are only two in total. Then on the back, there’s a single-piece bumper. The lack of cut lines is huge for keeping the air laminated to the body and channelling it where we need it to go. It also happens to be nice from a design standpoint – it’s a win-win.
The vents on the front release the build-up of that high-pressure air and also the mirror stalks are designed in an airfoil shape that helps channel the air down into the lower air intakes. This works by creating a vortex of air, which then acts as a magnet to be sucked back onto the bodyside. The mirror stalks are one of my favourite elements of the car – it’s kind of unusual but very functional. It was also a back-and-forth collaboration with engineering to get them right.
CDN: I’m presuming this means you have a very close working relationship with engineering?
NM: From a design integrity standpoint, I wouldn’t want to do something that was antithetical to good engineering. It makes their life harder; it’s not really good design. At the same time, we understand that you fall in love with a car with your eyes first, so it has to be beautiful. Beauty cannot be a byproduct; it has to be intentional. So yes, we do work very closely together. As designers, we know general aerodynamic principles and engineering requirements, so we are always thinking about if it’s really going to work.
CDN: As for the interior, something you were also responsible for, what was your approach while trying to keep the vehicle as light as possible?
NM: The philosophy on the interior was materials where you need it, and not where you don’t. This is because weight was a huge concern for the car. So, we stripped away texture from wherever we could. Where we didn’t need to have textiles, we removed them. In terms of materials, we have a mix of leather, solid aluminium and carbon. Also, as you move from exterior to interior, you’ll notice the materials transition from gloss to satin, which helps to dull some of the reflection.
My favourite part of the interior is the centre stripe that continues down the rear waterfall, which brings the outside of the vehicle into the inside.
CDN: That’s a lovely detail, are there anymore hidden details like that?
NM: If you peek inside the door panel, there’s a hand-painted enamel Union Jack flag on the driver’s side, and then an American flag on the passenger side.
Read more interviews from Goodwood Festival of Speed 2026 below...
