McLaren makes rare decision over F1 cars linked to Senna, Hamilton and Norris

McLaren makes rare decision over F1 cars linked to Senna, Hamilton and Norris

The two 1991 chassis Ayrton Senna tested, the 2012 McLaren Jenson Button raced and the two cars that put Lando Norris on the Formula 1 podium have been handed to…

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McLaren have decided their heritage should not sit in a storeroom. Five Formula 1 cars have left Woking for Tom Hartley Jnr’s showroom, with no deadline attached to the sale. No asking prices have been published, but Reuters reports each is expected to fetch between £5m and £10m.

Zak Brown, McLaren Racing’s chief executive, framed the move as a release rather than a cash-in.

“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,” Brown said.

“These cars were built to be driven and raced, and we want to see them being used and enjoyed.”

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The five chassis

Each car is a single-chassis story:

  • 1991 MP4/6A, chassis 04: Raced by Gerhard Berger to second place at the San Marino Grand Prix in Imola, in a McLaren one-two in which the team lapped the entire field. Tested by Senna during the 1991 title-winning campaign. Honda V12.
  • 1991 MP4/6A, chassis 07: The sister car, which Berger drove to second at the British Grand Prix. Also tested by Senna in 1991. Never crashed, according to Octane.
  • 2012 MP4/27A, chassis 01: Raced by 2009 world champion Jenson Button, with seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton among its test drivers.
  • 2021 MCL35M, chassis 01: Driven exclusively by Lando Norris, who took the car to podiums at Imola, Monaco and Monza.
  • 2023 MCL37A, chassis 03: Raced by Norris at Singapore and Japan. Among its post-season test drivers were Norris’s teammate Oscar Piastri, Mick Schumacher and Brad Pitt, who took it to a reported 317 km/h at the Circuit of the Americas while filming F1 the Movie.

Senna’s hands, Berger’s wheel

The 1991 pair are the pieces that will carry the strongest marketing weight. The MP4/6 is the model in which Senna, a three-time world champion, won the 1991 title, and Octane calls the Honda V12 at its heart the last V12-powered engine to win a Formula 1 championship. On these specific chassis, though, the race wins and race minutes belong to Berger. Senna’s involvement with #04 and #07, per Reuters, was limited to testing during the 1991 title-winning campaign.

Norris’s championship adds the modern bookend

Timing favours the auction. Norris finished the 2025 season as world champion, McLaren’s first drivers’ title since Lewis Hamilton’s 2008 crown, and the two cars that carried him through the team’s revival are now its modern pieces.

Tom Hartley Jnr, who specialises in historic high-end machinery, sees room for more.

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“Values have moved considerably in recent years, but I still believe this market has a long way to go.”

The cars will be prepared by McLaren before delivery and each is offered individually, with no time limit on the sale.

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