McLaren Puts Five Ex-Race F1 Cars Up for Sale, Possibly Worth £50m

Most teams keep their historic cars in a museum or a climate-controlled workshop. McLaren is doing something different: it's selling five of its former Formula 1 cars, and the combined price could reach £50 million. The cars span 32 years of the team's history, from the Senna era to the 2023 season, and they're going to private owners rather than back into storage.

Two 1991 Senna-era chassis at the centre of the sale

The headline pair is two 1991 MP4/6As, the car that carried Ayrton Senna to his third and final world title. Two chassis are available, numbers 4 and 7. Senna tested both, and Gerhard Berger raced them. That race history is what makes these cars more than museum pieces. A chassis that has turned laps in anger, with a documented driver lineage, is a different proposition from a replica or a car that was only ever shown.

Reports put each car somewhere between £5 million and £10 million. No prices have been published by McLaren, so those figures should be read as estimates rather than asking prices. Even at the low end, two chassis from the same title-winning season would be among the most valuable examples of that car in private hands.

The V8 and hybrid-era cars

The collection moves forward from there. The 2012 MP4/27A is the V8-era car in the group, and it won seven races with Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton behind the wheel. For a certain kind of enthusiast, the V8 years are the sound and the spectacle they grew up with, and cars from that period have a loyal following that tends to hold its appeal.

Then there's the 2021 MCL35M. Daniel Ricciardo drove it to victory at Monza that year, the team's first win since Button's in Brazil in 2012. That result carries weight for McLaren fans, and it marks the car as the one that came with the team's return to Mercedes power. The fifth car is the 2023 MCL37A, which Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri drove. It's the newest car in the sale and the one most likely to appeal to buyers who want a modern F1 machine rather than a historic piece.

Why McLaren is letting them go

Zak Brown's explanation is straightforward. He argues that leaving these cars in storage does them a disservice, because they were built to be driven and raced. Putting them in the hands of enthusiastic owners, he says, is the best way to keep the team's heritage alive. That's a sensible position for a team that has now run through several engine and regulation eras and has a long archive of cars it can't all display.

There's a commercial logic too. Once a car has been kept by the team since its last race, it's effectively a fully documented, factory-sourced example. Hartley, the dealer handling the sale, points out that it's unusual for collectors to buy race-driven grand prix cars straight from the constructor that built them. That provenance is hard to replicate, and it's a big part of why he believes values still have room to rise.

What buyers should watch for

If you're thinking about a car like this, the purchase price is only the start. Historic F1 machines need specialist preparation, storage, and running costs that are very different from a road car's. Parts availability, the engine and gearbox specification, and whether a car can still be run on track, rather than simply displayed, all affect value and enjoyment. Buyers who plan to drive their car should also check what the team's preparation will include before the car changes hands, because the cars are being prepared for new owners.

The sale is being offered car by car, but Hartley hasn't ruled out a single buyer taking all five. That's not unprecedented. Bernie Ecclestone's historic grand prix collection and the cars belonging to the late McLaren shareholder Mansour Ojjeh both went to single owners through the same dealer. Hartley says there's no rush to sell, which suggests the process could take its time and that the seller is willing to wait for the right buyers.

My read is that the two 1991 chassis will set the tone for the whole sale. If they clear the top of the estimated range, the 2021 and 2023 cars could look like good value by comparison, and that's where the wider market will be watching. Either way, it's an unusual moment to see a team of McLaren's standing put its own history on the open market, and the buyers who take these cars home will have something no museum can offer.