When watching any form of car racing, it can be easy to slip into a dream of one day being there on the track or, simply just owning one of the cars instead. You may sit and watch an F1 race and think about having one of the cars parked in your garage. But, can you buy an F1 car?
You can buy an F1 car from various different places, usually auction houses or online auctions. Some private dealers may sell Formula 1 cars too. Prices vary drastically, ranging from tens of thousands for show cars to millions of dollars for working cars driven by famous drivers.
Okay, so now you know that you can buy one, but how do you actually go about finding one for sale? It is quite a complex process, and it is also a very expensive one. So, let’s take a look at this idea in more detail, and go through some examples of F1 car purchases too.
How Much Do F1 Cars Cost To Build?
F1 cars cost about $10-$20 million to build, but the overall cost depends on the specific parts used. Hundreds of millions of dollars of investment may go into the research and development behind an F1 car, but the $140 million cost cap limits teams in terms of how much they can spend.
Advanced & Entertaining
Formula 1 is one of the most exciting sports to watch, and it attracts millions of fans every year. One of the reasons it is so exciting and entertaining is because the cars are driving so fast, at speeds of more than 200mph, and the fans are watching some absolutely cutting-edge technology and some of the most skilled driving on the planet.
All of this technology comes with a cost. This cost can be astronomical, as it can be noted that in 2018, Mercedes and Ferrari both spent around $400 million on their cars for that season. Plus, this doesn’t even factor in the running costs throughout the year. These were the two top teams that year, with Mercedes coming out on top and Ferrari settling for second place.
Still A Lot Of Money
However, Haas and Williams, who placed 5th and 10th respectively, both spent closer to $150 million. This is still huge money, and the money is needed if the teams want to perform well throughout the season. Even though there is now a budget cap of $140 million, teams may still spend over and above that on things that are not included in the budget cap.
So, now that you know how much the teams spend to build the cars, it is obvious that it won’t be cheap to buy one second hand. But before we talk about the prices, we should first consider whether you can buy one and how you actually go about finding an F1 car to buy.
Are F1 Cars For Sale?
Some F1 cars are for sale, and you often see cases where they are sold at auctions for high prices ($29.6 million in the most expensive case). The F1 cars you see for sale are often show cars, although many you’ll find in private auctions are cars that have run races, often owned by collectors.
The F1 cars you can buy depends on the state of the market at that time, and who is selling. Some show cars – and indeed race driven ones – are released to auctions a few years after they have been taken out of service, so as time goes on, more modern F1 cars will go on sale.
How Much Money Do You Need To Buy An F1 Car?
To buy an F1 car, you may need anywhere from a few thousand dollars to $5 million or more. How much an F1 car costs to buy depends largely on whether or not it was used in a race, and who drove it. The age of the car and the historical significance will also affect the price.
How Do You Buy An F1 Car?
You can buy an F1 car through public and private auctions in most cases, although you may also find some private sellers too. In these cases, the cars on offer are usually older models, and they’re usually not championship or even race winning cars, but they still go for $100,000+.
As with any luxury good, it is quite difficult to find what you need unless you know where to look. Auctions are your best bet when it comes to old racing cars, as they tend to end up in the hands of groups rather than people. By this we mean that companies or auction agencies buy the luxury goods, in this case an F1 car, and then sell it at an event to the highest bidder.
Online Auctions
These auctions don’t just take place at real events however, as they can often take place online instead. In the modern era, this is the most common way to get your hands on an F1 car. There are usually specific websites you can visit to find these kinds of auction, and if there is a specific car that you want to buy, a quick Google search will usually give you some results.
Websites like Racecars Direct, Retro Racecars and F1 Authentics all have vast selections of F1 cars for sale from various eras. We will talk more about these eras and what they mean for the price of the car in the next section. You will also sometimes come across private sellers, but they often take the auction approach as well, using websites like eBay to sell the car.
Finding Them Locally
Obviously, you can ask around your local garages and auction houses if you think they may be aware of some sellers in your area, but looking online is definitely the best way to find F1 cars for sale. So, how much do they cost? And what sort of things should you look out for when buying one?
What Will Affect The Price Of An F1 Car?
Does It Drive?
Before we go into some figures, let’s think about what might affect the price of the car. The thing that will have the biggest effect on the price is whether or not the car contains a working engine. This is one of, if not the most expensive part of the car, so it will have the biggest impact on the price when it is then resold.
This is not just because it is an expensive component however, as it will also dictate whether or not the car can be driven. Many people buy an F1 car to use it at track days, as of course it cannot be driven on the road for obvious safety reasons. So, if your F1 car of choice doesn’t have an engine, you won’t be able to use it and it will need to function as a show car.
Show Cars
Show cars are some of the cheapest options on the F1 car market. These are cars that were purpose built by the teams to be used for exactly what the name suggests. These cars had no engines or working components, but instead functioned as replicas of the real cars used on track. They were usually built using the same molds as the real cars too.
These were used at events and at race days for promotional purposes, and they can be picked up for much less than you might imagine. These kinds of cars might be found for anywhere between $30,000 up to several hundred thousand dollars. You can also find real cars branded as rolling chassis cars, which means they have had their engines removed.
The Condition Of The Car
These will go for similar prices, but this will greatly depend on the condition in which the car is. Show cars tend to be in good if not perfect condition, simply because they have never seen any racing and are usually kept in an enclosed environment or casing. But F1 cars that have seen action on the track, regardless of whether or not they have an engine, will have signs of use.
This could come in the form of major damage from crashes, or it could be minor scrapes or issues with the paintwork. The extent of the damage will have a big effect on the total price of the car. But perhaps more important than this is the type of car and who it belonged to. This will sometimes have a bigger effect on the price than whether it has an engine or not.
Who Drove It?
If the car was driven by a championship winner, it is obviously going to be more expensive than one driven by someone who never got on the podium with it. The team it belonged to will also matter, as a Ferrari will usually always go for more than a Haas car for example. So just how much can these cars fetch?
How Much Does It Cost To Buy An F1 Car?
It can cost anywhere from a few tens of thousands of dollars to several million dollars to buy an F1 car. How much it costs depends on the car’s usage, condition, and whether it can still run. F1 show cars generally sell for close to $100,000, but race-used F1 cars can sell for $5 million or more.
The Most Expensive F1 Car Ever Sold
Schumacher’s F2001 Ferrari F1 car, which he drove to victory at the Monaco Grand Prix of 2001, sold at a Sotheby’s auction in New York in 2017 for $7.5 million, and his championship-winning F2002 sold for just over $6.5 million in 2019.
This is perhaps what you might expect a car that cost millions to build to fetch, even from the early 2000s. But still, there have been many sold well below this range, with cars regularly going for a few hundred thousand dollars. The 1998 car used by Benetton could be bought with its engine for just over $300,000, while a 2002 Jordan F1 car would cost you around $250,000.
Cheaper Options
Then there are the show cars, which come in much cheaper than those above. Cars such as the 2006 McLaren MP4-21 can be found on sale at F1 Authentics for prices less than $100,000.
What Other Race Cars Can You Buy?
NASCAR & IndyCar
F1 cars are not the only racecars that private buyers might want to get their hands on, and they are definitely not the only ones on the market. In fact, they are not even the easiest ones to find. NASCAR and IndyCar vehicles are also available for private purchase, and they are found and bought in much the same way as F1 cars, usually through auctions or auction websites.
At Racecars Direct, there are NASCAR cars on sale for less than $50,000. Granted these cars cost less to build than F1 cars, but this is still a huge bargain for a big fan of the sport. There are also IndyCar vehicles on sale too, which can be bought for similar prices. However, older and more lucrative models tend to go for more than $100,000.
Final Thoughts
You may have never thought about buying an F1 car as you might have thought that it wouldn’t be possible. Although it definitely is, it will require a big budget in most cases. The most expensive sales have been in the millions of dollars, but you can get your hands on real F1, NASCAR and IndyCar cars for less than some road cars through online auctions.