Mercedes F1 car sale to SHATTER record price

Photo: © IMAGO

F1 Legends

Mercedes car sale to SHATTER record price

A legendary car is up for sale

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Thursday 16 January 2025 02:30

A Formula 1 car made famous by not one, but two legends of the sport has gone up for auction.

Mercedes have been part of the grid for as essentially as long as the sport has existed, with the likes of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg winning titles with the team in more modern times.

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Rosberg would go on to claim the 2016 title with Mercedes alongside Lewis Hamilton, who claimed six world championships and 84 grands prix victories with Mercedes in a legendary 12-season spell.

However, Hamilton and Schumacher aren't the only two multiple-time champions to have raced with Mercedes. In the early days of F1, a five-time world champion won two of his titles with Mercedes.

Mercedes have boasted a number of F1 legends in their ranks

F1 car in record-breaking auction

In both the 1954 and 1955 seasons, Fangio drove a Mercedes, before the German manufacturer withdrew from F1 following the 1955 disaster at the 24 Hours of Le Mans race, which killed more than 80 people, including Mercedes driver Pierre Levegh.

During the 1955 season, Fangio raced alongside British motorsport legend Sir Stirling Moss, who finished second in the championship that year.

Now, a car that the two F1 legends raced in, the 1954 Mercedes-Benz W196R Stromlinienwagen, has been put up for auction on the RM Sotheby's website, with bids in excess of £41 million being invited.

The car was driven by Fangio on his way to a home win at the 1955 Buenos Aires Grand Prix, and translated from German, means 'streamlined'.

If it's sold, that asking price would smash the current record for the sale of an F1 car, which is currently held by the same car, when it was sold for £19.6 million back in 2013.

Lewis Hamilton Mercedes Formula 1 Nico Rosberg 24 Hours of Le Mans Juan Manuel Fangio