Inside the world of used F1 car auctions after £15.4m Lewis Hamilton sale
Used F1 cars have been sold for eight-figure sums at auction in the past.
Few can dream of ever stepping foot behind the wheel of an F1 car, and even fewer can dream of owning one. However, if you have a spare £10million or so lying around in a savings account, find your nearest auction and prepare to part with a healthy sum of cash.
In May, a version of the legendary Mercedes W196 car will go under the hammer and is expected to become the most expensive F1 car in history at £42m (€50m). The car was driven by five-time world champion Juan Manuel Fangio and British racing royalty Sir Stirling Moss during the 1954 and 1955 seasons, winning nine of the 12 Grands Prix it entered.
When sold, the chassis will become the most costly of all time, dislodging another Mercedes W196 driven by Fangio. That machine fetched a price of £24.2m during a Goodwood Festival of Speed auction in 2013.
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"I have handled some of the world's most desirable and important motor cars during a motoring auction career spanning five decades, but I have reached a peak today with this legendary Grand Prix car,” explained Bonhams chairman Robert Brooks.
“It was a personal privilege to preside over the sale of this vehicle, which is not only one of the most significant motor cars of the 20th century but also the most important historic Grand Prix racing car ever offered for sale."
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More modern cars have been auctioned off. In 2013, Lewis Hamilton claimed his first-ever win for his new Mercedes team at the Hungarian Grand Prix, seeing off the threat of Lotus’ Kimi Raikkonen to kickstart one of the sport’s most iconic partnerships.
The chassis from that race was put up for auction ahead of the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix in 2023 and fetched a price of £15.4m. The W04 machine was part of an auction organised by RM Sotheby’s, with celebrity host James Corden leading the meet.
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That sale made Hamilton’s W04 the second most expensive F1 car auction sale in history, pipping a Ferrari F2002-GA, driven by Michael Schumacher en route to his sixth Drivers’ Championship title. The iconic red machine sold for £12.2m and is one of only three F1 machines to auction for an eight-figure sum.
For drivers looking to get their hands on race-used machinery, there is another route, as teams sometimes gift or sell cars in exceptional circumstances. Esteban Ocon now owns his race-winning Alpine from 2021, while F1 legend Sebastian Vettel owns several vehicles from his title-winning Red Bull years.
