Revealed: Top 10 most expensive F1 cars ever to be sold at auction
F1 car auctions are growing popularity, with some having been sold for eye-watering sums.
Got a few spare million in the bank? Then you might consider adding a very special F1 item to your garage, but it’s going to cost you.
For 99.99% of the occupants of the planet, driving an F1 car is a distant reality but an even lower number could ever consider owning them. But, as more and more go to auction, more collectors are being given the chance to own some of finest cars ever made.
Ranked: The top 10 most expensive F1 cars sold at auction
This article was originally published in 2022. It has been regularly updated to include new entries
Many of the cars have been sold by Sotheby’s and a spokesperson for the auctioneers told PlanetF1.com there had been a huge rise in interest in recent years.
“The market for modern era Formula 1 cars has seen a huge rise in interest from collectors in recent years, and that has translated into a significant increase in the prices the cars now command,” marketing and communications director Peter Haynes said.
“There is more money in the market now, so these cars which are incredibly sophisticated and expensive to maintain – are being bought by collectors who have the resources to look after and maintain them.
“Manufacturers like Ferrari, McLaren and Williams, have all created dedicated divisions of their businesses that offer clients the facilities and technical support necessary to look after the cars.
“There’s no question that Ferrari and McLaren F1 cars lead the way in desirability and those driven by Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna are the most desired.
“The value is also dependent on how many races the car has won and whether that was in a year in which the team or driver won the Championship.
“It’s a heavily nuanced market so values vary widely, but there is no doubt that the car of the 80s, 90s and post-2000 are all in the ascendency.”
With that in mind, here are the 10 most expensive F1 cars ever to go under the hammer:
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10.) 2010 McLaren MP4-25A – sold for £4.8m in 2021
The most modern of all the cars on this list, this version of the MP4-25A did not join its predecessors on the boulevard of the McLaren Technology Centre and was sold at auction in 2021.
It was the car built for the 2010 season and this particular chassis (25A-01) was the first off the production line. It would be driven by both Hamilton and Jenson Button meaning that it shared the unique accolade of having been driven by two World Champions.
Hamilton also drove it wheel-to-wheel with Schumacher in the Chinese Grand Prix as the two most successful drivers in F1 history went to battle.
Before its sale, McLaren Racing Heritage and Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains presented it in ready-to-drive condition and it was sold by Sotheby’s for F4.8 million in 2021.
9.) 2002 Ferrari F2002 – sold for £5m in 2019
Just like other dominant machines in years gone by, the F2002 was a phenomenal car when it came to the most important metric: wins.
It took 15 wins, 11 pole positions and 15 fastest laps from 19 races and this particular chassis was driven to victory at the San Marino, Austrian and French GPs by Schumacher.
The German would end the 2002 campaign as World Champion, drawing him level with Juan Michael Fangio as the driver with the most title wins in history. It sold for $6,643,750 at a Sotheby’s auction in Abu Dhabi.
8.) 1998 Ferrari F300 – sold for £5.3m in 2022
Unlike many other cars on this list, the F300 was not a Championship-winning machine but did guide Michael Schumacher to a second place finish behind Mika Hakkinen in what was his second season with Ferrari.
The 1998 campaign was another one in which Ferrari spent lagging behind Hakkinen and McLaren but the F300 was to serve as a base for the years of success that Ferrari was soon to enjoy.
What made this particular chassis special was that it never lost a race with Schumacher having been victorious in all four grands prix that he took part in with this particular model. Those four races were the Canadian, British, French and Italian GPs.
It remains the only Ferrari Formula 1 chassis to run at least three races and achieve victory in every single race entered. It earned $6,220,000 at a Sotheby’s auction in Monterey, California.
7.) 2001 Ferrari F2001 – sold for £5.5m in 2017
With a team of Rory Byrne, Ignazio Lunetta, Aldo Costa, Marco Fainello, Nikolas Tombazis, James Allison and Ross Brawn behind it, the F2001 became one of the most successful cars in Ferrari’s illustrious history.
Michael Schumacher guided it to nine race victories in the 2001 season as he successfully defended his Drivers’ Championship. It was a year that saw him draw level with Alain Prost on four World titles, behind only Juan Manuel Fangio.
This particular chassis was used during Schumacher’s victories at the Hungarian and Monaco GPs.
Sold by Sotheby’s in New York in 2017, it fetched $7,504,000.
6.) 2026 McLaren MCL40A – sold for £8.5m in 2025
McLaren unveiled something of a world first when it announced that one of its 2026 cars would go under the hammer before the season even started. Even more than that, before the car had even been seen by the rest of the world.
Auctioned in Abu Dhabi in December 2025, the sale price of $11.48m [£8.5m] gives the buyer the chassis run by either Lando Norris or Oscar Piastri from the 2026 season, with delivery expected in the first quarter of 2028.
There were other perks included as part of this sale, too, with McLaren inviting the winning bidder for a tour of its factory, hospitality experiences at two Grand Prix weekends, alongside two of the three Triple Crown races in the Indianapolis 500 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
5.) 2003 Ferrari F2003 – sold for £10.7m in 2022
The second most recent addition to this list came in November 2022 when Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari F2003 fetched £10.7 million at an auction in Switzerland.
The chassis 229 was driven to seven race victories during Schumacher’s title winning 2003 season and was one of just four Schumacher-era Ferrari Formula 1 chassis with five wins or more in a World Championship winning season.
It was put on auction in Geneva by Sotheby’s and fetched 13 million Swiss francs ($13.2 million) from a telephone bidder. It also beat the previous best for a Schumacher car which was the F2001 and for a year was the most expensive modern F1 car ever to be sold.
4.) 2001 Ferrari F2001 – sold for £13.43m in 2025
Smashing the previous record for a Schumacher car, the chassis 211 Ferrari F2001 he drove to glory at the 2001 Monaco Grand Prix fetched £13.43m at an auction in Monte Carlo in 2025.
The German also used the car to win the Hungarian Grand Prix but it was the Monaco triumph that made it the desire of car collectors.
Auctioned by Sotheby’s, the Ferrari was sold for almost 16 million euros, making it the most expensive Schumacher car to ever go under the hammer.
3.) 2013 Mercedes W04 – sold for £15.1m in 2023
There have been plenty of lists that have seen Lewis Hamilton overtake Schumacher and this is no different with Hamilton’s W04 fetching an astonishing £15.1m.
The chassis number 4, which was what Hamilton drove for his first Mercedes win in Budapest, was auctioned off during the Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend by Sotheby’s and beat initial predictions of a $15 million price tag.
It became the second most expensive F1 car ever sold and was beaten only by a another Mercedes.
2.) 1954 Mercedes W196R – sold for £19.6m in 2013
The W196R was driven by the legendary Juan Manuel Fangio and was the car he drove when he took the second of his five F1 titles in 1954.
The #6 chassis won in Germany and Switzerland before being driven by Hans Hermann to P4 in Italy.
Not only was it an astounding piece of machinery but it was also the start of a new age with Mercedes making their first entry into Formula 1. 60 years after Fangio’s ’54 win, Mercedes won their third Drivers’ World Championship, this time piloted by Hamilton.
It became the most expensive F1 car ever sold when it was auctioned by Bonhams in July 2013 at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, fetching £19,601,500. Not only that, it was also the fifth most expensive car ever sold at the time.
1.) 1954 Mercedes W196R Streamliner – sold for £42.7m in 2025
Only the second time a Mercedes W196R chassis went on sale saw the record for an F1 auction price more than double.
This Mercedes W196R was unique, however, as it was the first in the Stromlinienwagen, or ‘Streamliner’ specification ever to be made available for sale, after almost 60 years on display at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum.
There were not one but two star drivers to have used it too, with Juan Manuel Fangio having driven it to home victory in Buenos Aires in 1955, before Stirling Moss made use of the 00009/54 chassis at Monza later that season.
An auction was held by RM Sotheby’s at Mercedes-Benz headquarters in Stuttgart in February 2025, and once buyer’s premium was accounted for, a world record price of €51,155,000 was confirmed by the auctioneers.
Not only was it the most expensive Formula 1 car ever sold at auction, it became the second-most expensive car ever – with only a 1955 Mercedes 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe [$142m] eclipsing it.
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