McLaren Racing is putting five genuine Formula 1 cars from its own heritage collection on the market. All five have competition histories, rather than being display replicas, and British specialist Tom Hartley Jnr has been appointed to handle the sales on the team's behalf. The cars span 1991 to 2023, encompassing three markedly different eras of Grand Prix engineering.
The oldest pair are MP4/6A chassis 04 and 07, powered by Honda's naturally aspirated V12. Gerhard Berger raced both cars in 1991, while Ayrton Senna drove them in testing. Chassis 04 finished second behind Senna at the San Marino Grand Prix; chassis 07 was runner-up at the British Grand Prix. They come from the season in which Senna secured his third Drivers' World Championship, giving the two surviving cars a particularly direct connection to McLaren's championship history.
A 2012 MP4/27A, chassis 01, bridges the gap to the next generation. Jenson Button raced the car and Lewis Hamilton tested it. The MP4/27 belongs to Formula 1's last naturally aspirated V8 period before the championship adopted turbo-hybrid power units in 2014.
The two newest machines were campaigned by Lando Norris. The 2021 MCL35M, chassis 01, ran in Gulf colours at Monaco, where Norris scored a podium, and was also part of McLaren's one-two result at Monza later that season. The 2023 MCL37A, chassis 03, earned second-place finishes in Singapore and Japan. It subsequently joined the team's testing programme, where its drivers included actor Brad Pitt during preparations associated with the film F1.
The cars' ownership history is as important to collectors as the names attached to them. According to Tom Hartley Jnr, each has remained in McLaren's custody since the end of its racing career. McLaren will prepare the cars for their next owners, although maintaining and operating modern hybrid Grand Prix machinery remains considerably more involved than looking after an early-1990s V12.
The five cars are available individually, and the dealer says there is no deadline forcing an immediate disposal. Asking prices have not been published. Buyers will be dealing with the original constructor rather than purchasing machines that have passed through a succession of private collections.