The race-winning 2013 Mercedes-AMG Petronas W04 F1 car driven by Lewis Hamilton smashed auction records over the weekend, selling for a staggering $18.815 million at an auction in Las Vegas.
Prior to this weekend, the most expensive Formula 1 car of the modern era ever sold at auction was the F2003-GA in which Michael Schumacher secured his sixth F1 world championship in. That car sold for $14.9 million at an auction in Switzerland last year. Hamilton’s 2013 W04 easily surpassed that figure and is now the second most valuable F1 car ever sold at auction, trailing only the 1954 Mercedes-Benz W196R driven by Juan Manuel Fangio that fetched $29.6 million at auction 10 years ago.
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Hamilton drove this very W04 at 14 of the 19 races of the 2013 Formula 1 season. He claimed victory with it at the Hungarian Grand Prix that year and RM Sotheby’s had expected it to sell for between $10 million and $15 million.
A key reason why the car sold for so much is that it is the only Mercedes F1 car from the modern era that is not owned by Mercedes, Toto Wolff, or Lewis Hamilton himself. That means there’s very little chance that any of the cars driven by Hamilton during his period of hybrid-era dominance from 2014-2020 will cross the auction block in the future. The W04 is the next best thing.
The British driver and seven-time Formula 1 champion finished fourth in the championship in 2013 and alongside his win in Hungary, secured four other podium positions during the season. Making this W04 all the more desirable is that it retains the original 2.4-liter naturally-aspirated V8 and is completely functional.
The value of this car does make us wonder just how much any of Hamilton’s championship-winning Mercedes’ are worth. Hamilton’s most prolific seasons came in 2014, 2018, 2019, and 2020, with him claiming 11 race victories in each of those years. If any of those cars are ever sold, expect them to break records.
