The five most expensive F1 cars ever sold at auction including Lewis Hamilton’s first Mercedes

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Formula 1 cars from yesteryear regularly come up for auction, and some have fetched record fees. McLaren also sold their 2026 F1 car at auction before it had even raced.

McLaren held an unusual auction at the end of 2025, in which the Woking outfit sold one of their 2026 F1 car chassis, one of their 2026 IndyCar chassis and one of their 2027 WEC Hypercar chassis.

The sale of McLaren’s 2026 MCL40A fetched £8.5m, which immediately made it one of the most expensive F1 cars ever sold at auction. The team also earned £5.5m through their yet-to-be-raced Hypercar and £630,000 for the IndyCar chassis.

The lucky winner of the 2026 McLaren F1 car sold at auction in 2025 has to wait until 2028 to receive the car due to Formula 1’s testing of previous cars (TPC) rules. In the meantime, McLaren gave the buyer a 2025 showcar and a variety of hospitality packages across their racing operations.

Were it not for the sale of an all-time classic F1 car during 2025, the sale of McLaren’s unraced 2026 chassis would have also broken into the top-five all-time record auction deals involving Formula 1 machines. Instead, the unseen MCL40A slotted in at number six.

With that in mind, F1 Oversteer takes a look at the five most expensive Formula 1 cars ever to be sold at auction…

5 – Michael Schumacher’s 2003 Ferrari F2003-GA (£10.7m)

Seven-time F1 champion Michael Schumacher made history with Ferrari, so it is no surprise that millions upon millions of pounds have been spent buying some of his legendary cars at auctions over the years.

In 2022, one bidder even paid £10.7m to buy the F2003-GA chassis 229 that Schumacher drove to win that year’s F1 drivers’ championship during Sotheby’s auction in Geneva.

Schumacher scored five Grand Prix wins in chassis 229 after Ferrari eventually replaced the F2002, which they initially carried over from the previous year, with the F2003-GA.

From the F2003-GA’s debut at the 2003 Spanish Grand Prix, which Schumacher won, the German finished each of the remaining 12 races and scored points every time. He also won in Austria, Canada, Italy and the United States, along with coming P3 in Monaco and France.

The success of the F2003-GA saw Schumacher overhaul Kimi Raikkonen to win the 2003 drivers’ title by just two points, on 93 and 91, having trailed the Finn in his McLaren by 14 points before Ferrari introduced their new car.

4 – Michael Schumacher’s 2001 Ferrari F2001 (£13.4m)

Sotheby’s sold the most expensive Ferrari driven by Schumacher to date in 2025, when his 2001 title-winning F2001 sold at auction for £13.4m.

Schumacher’s chassis 211 F2001 was highly sought-after as he scored victory in the 2001 Monaco Grand Prix with it, more so than his victory in that year’s Hungarian Grand Prix.

In total, Schumacher scored nine Grand Prix wins and 11 pole positions through the 17 rounds in 2001 as he walked to his second of five consecutive titles with Ferrari.

McLaren’s David Coulthard finished second behind Schumacher in the 2001 F1 drivers’ standings. But the Scot only scored 65 points that year compared to the German’s 123, when the scoring system paid out 10-6-4-3-2-1 among the top six finishers.

3 – Lewis Hamilton’s 2013 Mercedes W04 (£15.1m)

Despite Lewis Hamilton matching Schumacher as a seven-time F1 champion, the most expensive car ever driven by the Briton to be sold at auction was not one of his title-winning machines.

Instead, the most expensive F1 car sold at an auction that Hamilton piloted to date is the Mercedes W04 he drove after joining the Silver Arrows from McLaren in 2013.

Hamilton’s Mercedes W04 chassis four fetched £15.1m at Sotheby’s auction held at the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix, as bidders got their cheque books out to win the final V8-engined F1 car of the Stevenage-born star’s career.

At the time of its sale, Hamilton’s Mercedes W04 was also the second-most expensive F1 car ever sold at an auction. The Briton used chassis four to score his maiden Grand Prix win for Mercedes, and his only win during 2013, at that year’s Hungarian GP.

2 – Juan Manuel Fangio’s 1954 Mercedes W196R (£19.6m)

Juan Manuel Fangio held the record for the most F1 drivers’ titles for 45 years with his five, until Schumacher drew level with the Argentine in 2002 en route to his eventual seven.

Fangio’s 1954 drivers’ title-winning Mercedes W196R also set the at-the-time record for being the most expensive F1 car sold at an auction in 2013, when it fetched £19.6m at Bonhams’ event at Goodwood’s Festival of Speed.

The Mercedes W196R took Fangio to the second of his five F1 titles after he joined the Silver Arrows from Maserati mid-season, having already started the year with victories in his two entries in Argentina and Belgium.

Fangio won on debut for Mercedes in France after the German brand entered F1, and he scored further wins in Germany, Switzerland and Italy to take the title. He scored his wins in Germany and Switzerland in chassis number six, which was the one that sold for £19.6m.

1 – Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss’ 1954 Mercedes W196R Stromlinienwagen (£42.7m)

The record sale for an F1 car at auction was obliterated in 2025, when one bidder paid £42.7m to buy the 1954 Mercedes W196R Stromlinienwagen that Fangio and Stirling Moss both raced in.

Mercedes entered the W196R Stromlinienwagen across the 1954 and 1955 seasons, with Fangio piloting it to victory in the 1955 Buenos Aires Grand Prix. Moss later set the fastest lap of the 1955 Italian Grand Prix in the same car in its final outing.

Mercedes retired the W196R Stromlinienwagen from competition at the end of 1955 and kept it in their in-house collection, before donating it to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum in 1965.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum never presented chassis number 00009/54 for judging or used it in any vintage events before it went under the hammer at Sotheby’s in 2025.

The model sold was one of just four to feature the Streamliner coachwork, and the first to ever be made available for private ownership.

Also, the Mercedes W196R Stromlinienwagen selling for £42.7m made it the second-most expensive car of any kind to sell at an auction, behind only a 1955 Mercedes 300SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe sportscar that sold for £113 million in 2022.