Formulation 1 automobiles are a number of the biggest marvels of automotive engineering ever made, they usually go for a reasonably penny at public sale, too.
Solely a tiny fraction of individuals on the earth are capable of say that they’ve pushed a Formulation 1 automotive. The overwhelming majority of these individuals are the athletes who, at one level or one other, risked their lives week in and week out for our leisure.
Should you’re a part of the overwhelming group of people that merely aren’t ok to drive an F1 automotive to absolutely the restrict of its potential, the one different approach you might achieve this is thru buying a race-ready automotive at public sale.
Here’s a record of the highest 5 most costly Formulation 1 automobiles which have gone to public sale up to now. After seeing the costs of a few of them, you received’t know what’s simpler: changing into an F1 driver or having the ability to fork out the amount of money that’s wanted to personal one.
5. Ferrari F2003-GA
Photograph by Clive Mason/Getty Photos
Michael Schumacher’s world championship-winning Ferrari Formulation 1 automotive from the 2003 season is the primary automotive on this record, which offered for near £13m in 2022.
The automotive was in use from the fifth spherical of the season that 12 months, with the Scuderia opting to proceed with their 2002 chassis for the opening 4 race weekends.
Schumacher received 5 Grands Prix within the 2003-spec machine, and likewise secured three pole positions and a complete of seven podiums on his method to his sixth world title within the sport.
The long-lasting automotive was overhauled in the identical 12 months by Ferrari technicians who restored the machine to a drivable state.
Mick Schumacher, the son of the F1 legend, acquired behind the wheel of the automotive in a personal shakedown for followers forward of the eye-watering sale.
4. Ferrari F2001
Photograph by Clive Mason/Getty Photos
Michael Schumacher’s second title-winning Ferrari F1 automotive takes the subsequent spot.
Over the 2025 Monaco Grand Prix race weekend, the Prancing Horse’s 2001-spec F1 challenger offered for simply over £14m.
A proportion of the proceeds went in the direction of the Preserve Combating Basis, a charitable organisation that continues with Schumacher’s philanthropy following his devastating 2013 snowboarding accident.
This explicit chassis was a particular one within the eyes of these concerned, because it was the identical no. 211 mannequin that the German legend secured his victory on the 2001 Monaco Grand Prix and clinched the title afterward within the 12 months.
Schumacher was totally dominant on the wheel of it. Over the length of the 17-round season, he received 9 Grands Prix, took 11 pole positions and a complete of 14 podiums on his method to a fourth world title for himself.
3. Mercedes-AMG Petronas W04
Photograph by Paul Gilham/Getty Photos
Whereas the Mercedes W04 wasn’t probably the most aggressive piece of equipment throughout Lewis Hamilton’s tenure as a Silver Arrow, it was arguably crucial.
The seven-time world champion’s very first Mercedes F1 automotive from the 2013 season offered for £15.1m in a 2023 public sale, which put it because the second most costly F1 automotive ever on the time.
In a season dominated by Sebastian Vettel and Pink Bull, Hamilton claimed his first and solely win of the 12 months for the German constructor within the W04 on the 2013 Hungarian Grand Prix.
The automotive additionally served because the precursor to Hamilton’s sheer dominance that swept the Formulation 1 grid within the coming years.
It’s understood to be the one Mercedes Grand Prix automotive from the fashionable period not owned by the German producer, group principal and CEO Toto Wolff or Lewis Hamilton himself.
2. Mercedes-Benz W196R Open-Wheel
Photograph by Bernard Cahier/Getty Photos
Historical past was made when Juan Manuel Fangio’s world title-clinching Mercedes-Benz W196R was offered in 2013 for £19.6m.
The Mercedes F1 automotive carried Fangio to his second of 5 eventual championships, and was an integral a part of him changing into the very first legend of the game throughout its early years.
The W196R initially featured a closed-wheel configuration, and determined to construct an open-wheel model on the request of the Argentine forward of the 1954 German Grand Prix after he discovered it tough to exactly manoeuvre his automotive across the Silverstone circuit on the time.
Fangio would go on to assert six wins throughout the nine-race calendar in 1954, and was in a league of his personal on the very high of the F1 standings because of this.
1. Mercedes-Benz W196R Streamliner
Photograph by Bernard Cahier/Getty Photos
The closed-wheel model of Fangio’s 1954 challenger occupies the highest spot on this record, having been offered for a mind-blowing £42.8m in 2025.
The Streamliner was used at sure tracks that begged for much less drag, such because the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, which was, after all, received by Fangio.
This explicit chassis, no. 00009/54, is one in all solely 4 ever made, and it was the primary of the 4 to enter personal possession following its sale final February.
In addition to being probably the most invaluable F1 automotive ever, it additionally turned the second-most invaluable automotive ever purchased at public sale following the sale of a 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe that went for £113m in Might 2022.
