Retired icon puts 'extremely rare' $5m Ferrari F1 car up for auction

It's not often a Ferrari F1 car goes up for sale, but one of the mighty V12 cars from the early 90s is going up for auction early next year.

Jean Alesi drove for the Scuderia for five seasons between 1991 and 1995, taking one victory with the team (at the '95 Canadian Grand Prix, driving Gilles Villeneuve's iconic No. 27 at the legend's home circuit) in that time, and has now put the team's '92 car up for sale.

Ferrari are the most successful and iconic team on the F1 grid, having won 31 championships all-told, but they experienced a drab period between 1984-1998 where they did not win a single title, and in 1992 they only secured two podiums across the whole season.

Nevertheless, Alesi tried his best to help the team back to winning ways, and is well revered in Ferrari circles for that, and is now set to sell his 1992 Ferrari F92A.

The car is being put up for auction at the Peninsula Hotel in Paris, with Artcurial Motorcars early next year, and is expected to go for a nearly $5m.

"During the last Monza Grand Prix, I had the pleasure of getting back behind the wheel of my 1995 Ferrari Formula 1 car, also equipped with a V12 with such characteristic musicality," Alesi said in a statement via RMC Sport. "When I got home, seeing my 1992 F92A sitting in my gym convinced me that it belonged on a circuit.

"So I decided to put it up for sale so that an enthusiast could bring it back to life and make this legendary V12 roar again! It will be replaced at home by the first Tyrrell Formula 1 car of my career, which I am still lucky enough to own."

Meanwhile, Matthieu Lamoure, president of Artcurial Motorcars, said: "The car is estimated at between three and four million euros and the market will decide its price.

"What makes this car truly unique is its provenance: it comes directly from the factory driver, certainly the most popular of his generation, with a spectacular driving style, to whom the Scuderia gave it at the end of the 1992 season.

"It is extremely rare for such an iconic driver to put his own F1 car up for sale. Generally, these cars still belong to the teams or to private collectors."

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Ferrari's revival

Following that dismal 1992 season, Jean Todt was hired as Ferrari General Manager in 1993, and the Ferrari revival began.

By the time Alesi left the team in 1995, Ferrari were back winning races, and went on to recruit then two-time world champion Michael Schumacher to their ranks for the 1996 season, and the rest is history.

In 1999, they returned to championship-winning ways with constructors' success, before Schumacher claimed his first of five consecutive drivers' titles with the Scuderia in 2000.

Ferrari are in a similar position in 2025 as they were in 1992, and are looking for Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and Fred Vasseur to help guide them back to win their first championship title of any kind since 2008.

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