From Ayrton Senna’s and Gerhard Berger’s championship-winning MP4/6As to Lando Norris’s 2023 MCL37A, the most modern Formula 1 car ever offered for private ownership

Tom Hartley Jnr, one of the world’s most respected and exclusive high-end dealers in classic and historic sports cars and racing cars, is delighted to announce the offering for sale of five highly significant McLaren Formula 1 cars, each being presented directly by McLaren Racing and carrying exceptional provenance from the highest levels of Grand Prix competition.

Spanning 32 years of McLaren history in Formula 1, the collection brings together cars driven by some of the greatest names in motorsport, including Ayrton Senna, Gerhard Berger, Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton, and Lando Norris, and represents a rare opportunity to acquire genuine works McLaren Grand Prix machinery directly from the team responsible for creating and campaigning it. The five cars are:

• 1991 McLaren MP4/6A, Chassis #04
• 1991 McLaren MP4/6A, Chassis #07
• 2012 McLaren MP4/27A, Chassis #01
• 2021 McLaren MCL35M, Chassis #01
• 2023 McLaren MCL37A, Chassis #03

The five cars are offered individually, having each remained in the custody of McLaren since its final period of competition, and will all be prepared by McLaren for their next owner/s.

The cars represent a significant chapter in McLaren’s history and tell an extraordinary story of technological and sporting evolution - from the naturally aspirated Honda V12 of Senna and Berger, to the naturally aspirated V8 era of Button and Hamilton the turbo-hybrid generation and the emergence of Norris as McLaren’s latest World Champion.

Each car has remained within the McLaren organisation following its racing career, meaning that its history, identity, and provenance remain intrinsically connected to the factory team that designed, built, and raced it. For the new custodian, that also provides an exceptional and unrivalled level of authenticity.

The five McLaren Formula 1 cars are now available for acquisition through Tom Hartley Jnr.

Zak Brown (Chief Executive Officer, McLaren Racing) said:
“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. These cars were built to be driven and raced, and we want to see them being used and enjoyed. We believe that is the best way to keep our history alive and our heritage business active.

“Tom Hartley Jnr is the person we have entrusted to handle the sale. Few people understand the Formula One car market as well as Tom does, and nobody is more active within it today. We were also very impressed by the way he handled the sale of the Ecclestone Grand Prix Collection, and McLaren has worked with him successfully for many years.”

Tom Hartley Jnr said:
“I’m very excited to bring this opportunity to market. It is incredibly rare for a collector to have the opportunity to acquire race-driven Grand Prix cars directly from the manufacturer and team that built and campaigned them, and that makes this a very special offering.

“We have a great relationship with McLaren and have worked closely with Zak and his team for many years, assisting them with a number of sales. However, to now be able publicly to offer these cars directly on McLaren’s behalf is very exciting, and I’m personally looking forward to finding great homes for them.

“When we handled the sales of both the Ecclestone Grand Prix Collection and the Ojjeh Collection, there was significant interest in acquiring individual cars, but ultimately both collections were sold in their entirety to single buyers. There is of course every possibility that the same could happen here. However, these five cars will be offered individually and there is no time pressure whatsoever. Our priority, and McLaren’s, is to find the right homes for them.

“I’m very grateful to McLaren for entrusting my business with these sales. We are extremely active within the Grand Prix car market and appreciate more than most just how special it is to own a race-driven Formula One car. The personnel, technology, and innovation that go into creating a Formula One car far exceed anything found in a road car, and for me this is where the automotive world comes closest to the traditional art world. Values have moved considerably in recent years, but I still believe this market has a long way to go.”