Hamilton's first AMG F1 car fetches £15m
Iconic 2013 F1W04 marked the end of the V8 era - and the start of Lewis Hamilton's F1 dominance
The statistics of Lewis Hamilton’s long (and ongoing) F1 career really are astonishing: he’s won 103 times, claimed 104 pole positions and been on the podium 197 times. Nobody else even comes close at this moment in time; Michael Schumacher notched up 91 wins, 68 poles and 155 podiums. He’s one of the greatest sports stars of all time, to put it mildly. And although his career (and championship winning) began at McLaren, it’s Hamilton’s seasons with the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 team that really secured his legendary status. So the sale of his first GP car with the Silver Arrows, a car from the final season of V8s in the sport, was always going to garner an awful lot of interest.
As it transpired, Hamilton’s F1 W04 sold in an RM Sotheby's auction for $18,815,000 over the weekend, or just less than £15.1m. Never mind that 2013 wasn’t a championship winning year - Lewis took fourth, more than 200 points behind Sebastian Vettel - chassis 04 remains a very significant Formula 1 car. Notably, he drove this one a lot - it wasn’t merely one for testing or used on the odd weekend. In 14 of the 19 races of the 2013 season, Lewis Hamilton drove this car, including four of his five podiums that year.
Moreover, the emotional pull of this car as one of the final Mercedes V8 F1 cars (and the only one sold outside of the MB organisation) shouldn’t be underestimated. Yes, there was a KERS system, previewing the full hybrid that would follow a year later, though it was supporting a 2.4-litre, 18,000rpm, 750hp V8. And there’s really no replicating that. That this car represents Mercedes’ and Hamilton’s first step on the path to utter dominance of Formula 1 will have surely proved pretty persuasive, too. ‘Unrepeatable’ is too often used when trying to sell cars, usually when an old Golf GTI has low mileage, but there really won’t be another opportunity like this. Hence paying the £15m. RM even went as far to suggest that these modern Silver Arrows can be considered the successors to those great grand prix racers of Fangio, Moss and Caracciola; from there it’s not much of a leap to the 300 SLR Uhlenhaut, the most valuable car ever sold at auction. It’s a £15m bargain, basically.
All joking aside, RM’s Las Vegas sale was a successful one when it came to Mercedes Benzes. A CLK GTR Roadster, the third of six ever made and having been driven just 100 miles since 2002, sold for $10m, or just over £8.2m. Still less than a McLaren F1 might cost. A stunning 190E Evo II made more than half a million bucks, a CLK DTM in excess of $700,000. Just the thing for getting to the circuit and taking your F1 car for a drive…
Catalogue says it's a 2002 car.
The car was ordered new by the Sultan of Brunei, but was never delivered.
Catalogue says it's a 2002 car.
For 2014 they stipulated a lower height of the nose, and a min cross-section at various points from the nose back. A good intention to try and reduce the risk of a issues in the event of crashes that ended up with these monstrocities:
Wouldn't bet against a lot of important bits just not being there at all even if you had the funds & inclination to try to run it.
In comparison this car won the 1993 Monaco Grand Prix in the hands of Ayrton Senna. It was his 5th victory at Monaco which is still a record. It was also his final race around Monaco. The car comes complete with the engine and gearbox used in the race. It sold for €4,197,500 at auction in 2018 - less than a third of the price paid for the Mercedes. I can think of a few reasons why the McLaren may not have sold for quite as much. Teams used to make more cars back then (the McLaren is chassis number 6 of 8) and as their financial position has become less secure McLaren have been more open to selling their heritage cars so the opportunity to buy one is not unique. In comparison, the Mercedes is the only one the team has sold. On the other hand, this McLaren is quite a famous F1 car so I would have expected it to fetch much more.
Wouldn't bet against a lot of important bits just not being there at all even if you had the funds & inclination to try to run it.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/ClzODB3Ic_f/
Igntion GP have run some the old McLarens in the past
Harrison Newey in Kimis car
https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cf_PoGnKVWj/
For 2014 they stipulated a lower height of the nose, and a min cross-section at various points from the nose back. A good intention to try and reduce the risk of a issues in the event of crashes that ended up with these monstrocities:
Thanks for the info sir
Regardless, it's fabulous car and must be pushing an extra 30bhp + over standard. Still, it's far closer to an original than a DTM version that auction blurb could lead one to believe.
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