Sold! First-ever Max Verstappen F1 car gets new owner after seven-figure sale

A 2015-spec Toro Rosso F1 car, driven by four-time world champion Max Verstappen in his debut season, has a new owner after recently being sold.

Verstappen stands as one of the greatest drivers in F1 history having won four consecutive world championships between 2021 and 2024.

Sold: 2015-spec Max Verstappen Toro Rosso F1 car

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The Dutchman’s 71 race victories puts him third on the all-time list, 20 adrift of Michael Schumacher (91) and 34 behind Lewis Hamilton (105).

Verstappen memorably won on his debut for Red Bull Racing at the 2016 Spanish Grand Prix after 23 appearances for junior team Toro Rosso – now competing as Racing Bulls – having made his Formula 1 debut at the start of the previous season.

Verstappen became the youngest driver in F1 history when he made his first appearance at the 2015 Australian Grand Prix at the age of 17 years, five months and 13 days.

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It has emerged that the STR10-02 model driven by Verstappen for most of his first season has recently been sold. PlanetF1.com understands that the value of the sale reached seven figures.

The car was bought by its previous owner directly from the Toro Rosso team in 2019 before recently being made available for sale via the F1 Authentics website.

The STR10-02 comes with full documentation, a purchase document from Red Bull Toro Rosso as well as a 60-page reference book produced by the team detailing every race with comments by Verstappen included.

The car also arrives complete with a 2015-spec Renault engine, albeit with internal components removed, as well as Verstappen’s original race seat and steering wheel.

An unworn 2015-spec Verstappen crash helmet was also included in the sale.

Toro Rosso produced four chassis for the 2015 campaign for Verstappen and teammate Carlos Sainz, now of Williams, with Verstappen spending the majority of the season behind the wheel of the STR10-02 model.

Verstappen competed in 13 of the 19 races of 2015 in the STR10-02, recording his best results of the season – fourth-place finishes in Hungary and the United States – with the car. He also drove the STR10-02 in pre-season testing.

Verstappen switched to the STR10-02 chassis for the rest of the season following an accident with Romain Grosjean, then of Lotus, at the Monaco Grand Prix.

It is believed that another version of the STR10 – chassis number 03, which was raced by Verstappen between the Australian and Monaco grands prix at the start of the season – is owned by the Red Bull driver himself and is occasionally put on display in his fan shop in the Netherlands.

A 1954-spec Mercedes W196R Streamliner remains the most expensive F1 car ever to be sold at auction.

The car, driven by five-time world champion Juan Manuel Fangio, was sold for $51.1million (£37.3m/€42.9m at current exchange rates) in 2025.

The most recent F1 car on the list, a 2013-spec Mercedes W04 driven by Lewis Hamilton in his first season with the team, was sold for $18.8m (£13.7m/€15.8m) in 2023.

As reported by PlanetF1.com at the end of last year, McLaren took the unusual step of auctioning its 2026 F1 car, the MCL40, several months before its race debut.

The MCL40 raised $11.4m (£8.3m/€9.6m), making it the sixth-most expensive F1 car to be sold at auction.

The car will be delivered to the winning bidder in the first quarter of 2028 with McLaren providing a showcar of its title-winning 2025 machine in the meantime.

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