The Most Expensive F1 Cars Ever Sold, Ranked
Tell someone you bought a car at auction, and it could mean anything: perhaps you simply picked up a cheap Volkswagen on eBay and hope it'll see you through a few months until you move on to something new. But tell someone you bought a racing car at auction, and we're talking about an entirely different ball game.
Elevate the glamor even further and raise your hand to place the winning bid on a Formula One car. You just secured a ticket to an incredibly exclusive club — not to mention the keys to a significant piece of automotive history.
By their very nature, Formula One cars command huge prices at auction. But almost as vast is the difference between a back-of-the-grid car driven once by a rookie at a test session to championship-winning slices of motorsport royalty. That's what you'll find in this list as we look at the most expensive F1 cars sold at auction.
As ever with car auction records, there are a lot of Ferraris driven by Michael Schumacher here. You'll also find cars by McLaren and Mercedes too.
7. 1993 McLaren MP4/8A – $4.6 million
This McLaren carries chassis number MP4/8-6 and is the actual car driven by Ayrton Senna to his record-breaking 6th Monaco Grand Prix win during the 1993 Formula One season. The car was described by Bonhams at the time of its sale in 2018 as "the most historically important Formula 1 McLaren ever presented at auction."
The car was also described as "startlingly well-preserved" and fully functional, with matching numbers on its chassis, engine, and gearbox — all of which were the actual items used by Senna during his final Monaco victory. This isn't always the case with F1 cars that come up for auction, as the same chassis might use several engines and gearboxes throughout each season.
Crashed by Senna during practice for the 1993 Monaco GP and repaired in time for the race, the car was bought directly from McLaren founder Ron Dennis in 2006, when no other example of any MP4 race car was privately owned outside of the British team.
6. 2010 McLaren MP4-25A – $6 million
Sold in 2021, this McLaren is the first race-winning Lewis Hamilton F1 car to be offered to the public. Hamilton drove this car to victory in the 2010 Turkish Grand Prix and battled closely against Mercedes driver Michael Schumacher at that year's Chinese Grand Prix.
The car was described by RM Sotheby's ahead of its auction as the "single greatest item of Lewis Hamilton memorabilia ever to be offered for sale." Also driven by fellow World Champion Jenson Button during the 2010 season, the car — chassis number 25A-01 — was the first MP4-25A built by the McLaren-Mercedes team and took part in nine races that year.
McLaren retained the car in as-raced condition before it was restored by McLaren Racing Heritage in 2019. This included a complete disassembly, followed by parts being X-rayed, tested, and replaced where needed. It was then tested on track before being disassembled and inspected again through 2020 and 2021, then offered for auction in fully-operational condition.
The auction took place during the weekend of the 2021 British Grand Prix, and instead of being presented as a motionless vehicle, the F1 car was demonstrated on track in front of over 100,000 race fans.
5. 1998 Ferrari F300 – $6.46 million
As with road cars and sports racers, this list of the most expensive F1 cars is dominated by Ferraris. In fifth place, we have the F300 from 1998, which was most recently sold in the summer of 2022. At the time of its sale, RM Sotheby's auction house described the car as "the most successful undefeated Ferrari Formula One chassis across all eras."
As claims to fame go, that sounds pretty special, doesn't it? Driven by Michael Schumacher, this exact car won four races back-to-back through the summer of the 1998 season, including the Grand Prix of Canada, France, Britain, and Italy.
The car was bought directly from Ferrari by its previous owner in 1999, along with a small package of spare parts. It was then kept in the same race-used condition as it remained at the time of its auction in 2022. The car was not used or even shown in public by its pre-auction owner throughout their 23 years of ownership.
4. 2002 Ferrari F2002 – $6.73 million
Another ex-Schumacher Ferrari auctioned by RM Sotheby's, this time from the 2002 season, and the winning chassis of the San Marino, Austrian, and French Grand Prix — a performance that helped the German driver secure his fifth F1 World Championship.
Unlike the previous car that went unused after entering public ownership, this Ferrari was auctioned after being certified by Ferrari Classiche and race-prepared for the company's Corse Clienti events, where owners of such vehicles can race them with full factory support. Before it was sold, the car underwent an engine and transmission rebuild, no doubt at great expense to the seller.
Although this exact chassis won three races, the model itself was even more successful. All chassis entered by Ferrari for the 2002 F1 season won 15 races, secured 11 pole positions, and clocked up 15 fastest laps across the 19-race campaign. Those stats make the Ferrari F2002 one of the most successful F1 cars ever.
The car, chassis number 219, was acquired by a Japanese collector who also bought chassis 220, says RM Sotheby's, another Ferrari F2002 which competed in the same season. It was sold at an auction held at the Yas Marina Circuit during the weekend of the 2022 Abu Dhabi GP. A portion of the proceeds were given to the Keep Fighting Foundation, launched by Schumacher's family in 2016 to support charitable projects.
3. 2001 Ferrari F2001 – $7.5 million
Surprise! It's another ex-Schumacher Ferrari. The third most expensive Formula One car of all time was an F2001 from the 2001 season, which sold in 2017 for $7.5m, smashing the RM Sotheby's auction estimate of between $4m and $5.5m.
Powered by a screaming V10 engine producing 900 horsepower and spinning to almost 19,000 rpm, the F2001 comes from a golden era of Formula One. This particular example, chassis 211, saw Michael Schumacher win the 2001 Monaco Grand Prix.
This car was also driven to victory by Schumacher at the Hungarian Grand Prix the same year — a win that secured the German his fourth Formula One World Championship, and he also brought home the Constructors' Championship for Ferrari. The car also took part in warm-up and qualifying sessions at the Spanish, Canadian, European, French, Belgian, and Italian Grand Prix races.
RM Sotheby's describes this particular Ferrari as "a car of tremendous historic importance to the driver, the enthusiast, the grand prix circuit and indeed the brand that is the black Prancing Horse of Maranello."
2. 2003 Ferrari F2003 – $14.6 million
The record price takes a huge jump forward for this entry. It's yet another ex-Schumacher Ferrari, which sold for almost $15m this time, far exceeding its upper estimate of around $11m.
An F2003-GA, this car was campaigned by Ferrari in the 2003 Formula One season and is the very car in which Schumacher secured his sixth and penultimate World Championship. This particular model, chassis 229, was the most successful of the six F2003-GAs produced for the 2003 season and, according to RM Sotheby's auction house, is one of only four Schumacher-era Ferraris to win five races or more in a season.
The car was overhauled at Ferrari headquarters in Maranello, Italy, in 2022, with only 148 miles covered between then and the auction later that year. All major components, including the gearbox, clutch, and hydraulic system, had "covered only a small percentage of their current lifecycle," the Sotheby's said ahead of the auction.
1. 1954 Mercedes W196R – $29.65 million
And finally...not a Ferrari, a McLaren, a Williams, or a Mercedes driven by Lewis Hamilton. Instead of those likely candidates, the title of the most expensive Formula One car ever sold goes to the Mercedes-Benz W196R from 1954.
Driven by Juan Manuel Fangio, Bonhams auctioned the single-seater at the 2013 Goodwood Festival of Speed, and the hammer fell at $29,650,000, just under $39m today. At the time, that price also made it the most expensive car ever sold at auction, almost doubling the previous record.
Powered by a 2.5-liter, straight-eight engine, the car took Fangio to the second of his five World Championship titles. Chassis number 00006/54, Fangio also used it to win the 1954 German and Swiss Grand Prix races.
The car was given by Mercedes to the UK's National Motor Museum in Beaulieu in 1973, writes the Bonhams auction house. With Mercedes ' permission, the museum then sold the car in 1987 to Sir Anthony Bamford, chairman of the JCB excavator company and renowned car collector. It was later passed between several European collectors before setting the F1 auction record at Goodwood in 2013.