McLaren sells five historic F1 cars, each expected to fetch $5m to $10m

McLaren Racing is selling five Formula One cars from its archives, each kept by the team since it last raced and each now expected to change hands for between $5 million and $10 million. The reigning Formula 1 World Constructors' Champions are working with dealer Tom Hartley Jnr on the sale.

There is no auction. The five cars are being offered privately, and no price has been announced for any of them. Reuters reports the $5 million to $10 million range, and anyone interested is directed to reach out to Tom Hartley Jnr sooner rather than later.

The quintet spans races held between 1991 and 2023, a run that covers three decades of the team's history. McLaren entered Formula 1 in 1966 and has since claimed 10 titles, more than any constructor except Ferrari, with drivers that include Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost and Lewis Hamilton.

The oldest pair are the 1991 MP4/6A, chassis numbers 4 and 7, driven by Senna and teammate Gerhard Berger during Senna's third and final championship-winning campaign. That title was the second of Senna's three world championships in Formula 1.

Then there is the MP4/27A, number 1, from 2012, which helped push McLaren to third place in the standings that season. The team went more than a quarter century between its eighth and ninth titles, and this car sits in the middle of that leaner stretch.

The more recent cars may intrigue collectors even more. The 2021 MCL35, number 1, was raced exclusively by Lando Norris, the current World Drivers' Champion. That season saw McLaren claim its first Grand Prix victory since 2012, a turning point in the team's climb back to the top.

The newest lot is the MCL37A, number 3, from 2023, which earned two podium finishes, coming second at both the Singapore and Japanese Grand Prix. The season also put McLaren back among the front-runners after years of rebuilding.

That same 2023 car carries an unusual second life. Brad Pitt drove it at the Circuit of the Americas during filming of F1, the Hollywood feature, and is said to have reached a top speed of 197 mph in it. The movie star's turn in the chassis adds cinema to its racing record.

Chief executive Zak Brown put the decision plainly. "We have decided to part with these iconic McLaren Formula One cars because we feel that having them simply sitting in storage is a disservice to what they represent," he said in a statement to Reuters.

"These cars were built to be driven and raced, and we want to see them being used and enjoyed," Brown added. That logic runs through the whole offering: every car has been retained by the team since finishing its last race, and each is meant to be driven, not displayed.

Brown's leadership, with Norris and teammate Oscar Piastri, has carried McLaren back to the summit of the sport after that long gap between titles. The team's return to the top makes this an unusual moment to thin the archive rather than add to it.

McLaren sits among the marques we map in our guide to the best British car brands, and its history is central to why these cars carry such weight. Abu Dhabi's CYVN Holdings bought McLaren Automotive in December 2024, though the racing operation behind this sale remains its own concern.

What the prices say

At $5 million to $10 million apiece, these cars sit well above the McLaren Speedtail's $2.25 million in our ranking of the most expensive cars in the world, and there is no ceiling in that list quite like the $142 million paid for a 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe.

The private-sale record stands at the $70 million paid for a 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO, and among cars built this century the Rolls-Royce Amethyst Droptail leads at a reported $40 million. McLaren's quintet sits far below those peaks but still firmly in seven- to eight-figure territory.

McLaren also entered our ranking of the most searched luxury car brands online, alongside Aston Martin and Bugatti, as Cadillac fell out of the top ten. The interest flowing around the name can only help a sale built on provenance from Senna to Norris to Brad Pitt.

The two 1991 Senna cars are the likely stars of the set, given the demand that surrounds the Brazilian's machinery. The team has not disclosed where the cars have been kept, only that storage, in Brown's words, does no service to what they represent.

No timeline for the sale has been announced and no buyer named, but a private deal of this kind rarely lingers. Collectors who want a McLaren with championship history, or a sliver of a Pitt film, now have a narrow window through Tom Hartley Jnr.