McLaren opens its vault to sell five extraordinary Formula 1 cars

From its vast heritage collection, McLaren is selling five Formula 1 cars, including two from Ayrton Senna’s final title-winning season and the car that Brad Pitt drove during the filming of the successful F1 movie.

The cars will be sold through specialist dealer Tom Hartley Jnr – the same organisation that sold Bernie Ecclestone’s grand prix collection of cars – with them being under the ownership of McLaren up until this point.

The cars include:

• Two 1991 McLaren MP4/6As (chassis 04 and 07), from the year Senna won his third and final world title. Both were tested by Senna and raced by team-mate Gerhard Berger.
• The 2012 MP4/27A (chassis 01), from Lewis Hamilton’s final season with the team. Jenson Button won three races in 2012, while Hamilton won four.
• The 2021 MCL35M (chassis 01), which Lando Norris drove to third in Monaco in a one-off Gulf livery. The car was part of McLaren’s 1-2 at Monza later that year, when Daniel Ricciardo beat Norris to the team’s first win since 2012.
• The 2023 MCL37A (chassis 03), raced by Norris and Oscar Piastri. Pitt took it round the Circuit of the Americas while the film was being shot.

The 2023 MCL37A is the newest race-driven McLaren F1 car ever offered to a private buyer, according to Hartley.

“We have decided to part with these iconic McLaren Formula 1 cars because we feel that having them simply sitting in storage is a disservice to what they represent,” McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown said.

“These cars were built to be driven and raced, and we want to see them being used and enjoyed. We believe that is the best way to keep our history alive and our heritage business active.”

There’s no word of a price yet, but there are reports that estimate a combined value of somewhere between £25 to $50million. Unlike the Ecclestone collection, which was sold to just one buyer, these cars could be sold individually.

“There is of course every possibility that the same could happen here. However, these five cars will be offered individually and there is no time pressure whatsoever,” Hartley said in a statement. “Our priority, and McLaren’s, is to find the right homes for them.”

The cars will be prepared by McLaren before they are handed over to their new owners.

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– The Motorsport.com Team

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