In Las Vegaswas The 2013 Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 W04 single-seater is up for auction driven by Lewis Hamilton. After 7 years with McLaren, the English driver moved to Mercedes in 2013, a team with which he achieved, as we well know, many successes.
Although the Silver Arrows have excelled with the arrival of the V6 turbo hybrid era starting in 2014, the year before, Hamilton took a victory in Hungary aboard a Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 W04 equipped with a V8 engine of 2.4 liters of displacement.
This single-seater, with chassis number 4, is the one that was auctioned in Las Vegas by RM Sotheby’s. Auction which closed with a record sale. In fact, the single-seater was awarded for overalls 18.815 million dollars (commissions included). Previously, the record for the most expensive modern-era single-seater was held by the Ferrari F2003-GA with which Michael Schumacher secured his sixth F1 world championship.
Car sold for $14.9 million at an auction in Switzerland last year. The all-time record for an F1 single-seater still belongs to the 1954 Mercedes W196R driven by Juan Manuel Fangio, sold at auction for $29.6 million 10 years ago. RM Sotheby’s expected Hamilton’s car to sell for between $10 million and $15 million.
One of the reasons the car sold for such a high price is that it is the only Mercedes F1 car of the modern era not to be owned by Mercedes, Toto Wolff or Lewis Hamilton himself. Therefore, there is little chance that a Mercedes car driven by Hamilton during his winning period will be auctioned off in the future. Making this W04 even more desirable is the fact that it retains the original 2.4-liter naturally aspirated V8 and is fully functional.
However, if in the future one of the single-seaters with which Hamiton won the F1 World Championship with Mercedes were to be sold at auction, it is easy to think that the sale value could be significantly higher.
