McLaren Is Selling Five F1 Cars — Including the One Brad Pitt Drove at 197 MPH
GOATIFYFive Formula 1 cars, 32 years of McLaren history and one remarkable Hollywood footnote are about to change hands. McLaren is offering a group of fully functioning race cars spanning the Honda V12 era of Ayrton Senna and Gerhard Berger, the Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button years, and Lando Norris's rise through the modern grid. One of the newer machines was also driven by Brad Pitt at a private test, reportedly reaching 197 mph.
This is not a routine auction of replicas or retired display shells. The team says it will prepare the cars for their new owners, with specialist dealer Tom Hartley Jr. arranging individual sales rather than setting a single auction deadline. Estimates of roughly £5 million to £10 million per car underline the scale of the opportunity, although no official asking prices have been disclosed. The real story is what each chassis represents: a particular race, driver and turning point in McLaren's evolution.
Two 1991 Honda V12s, and the importance of the exact chassis
The oldest entries are two McLaren MP4/6A cars from 1991, each powered by Honda's naturally aspirated V12. It is tempting to describe them simply as Ayrton Senna cars because the Brazilian won that year's world championship for McLaren. Their individual histories are more specific, and more interesting: the two chassis on offer, numbered 04 and 07, were raced by Gerhard Berger and tested by Senna.
Chassis 04 finished second at the San Marino Grand Prix, a race McLaren dominated so thoroughly that its two cars lapped the entire field. Chassis 07 finished second at the British Grand Prix, the team's home event. Those are not anonymous show cars dressed in period colors; each carries a documented Grand Prix result. McLaren has retained both since their competition careers, giving a future buyer a direct chain of custody back to the team that built and operated them.
The distinction between raced by and tested by matters enormously at this end of the collector market. Senna's association makes the pair part of one of Formula 1's most celebrated seasons, but the race results belong to Berger. Anyone comparing historic chassis should ask exactly which driver used the car, at which event, in what specification and under whose ownership. The number on the tub is as important as the familiar red-and-white livery.
There is also a mechanical appeal that modern cars cannot reproduce. The MP4/6 represented an era of high-revving, naturally aspirated engines and comparatively direct driver inputs, long before today's hybrid power units and software-heavy energy management. Keeping a Honda V12-era car running requires specialized knowledge and a supply of parts, yet hearing one operate is precisely why a collector might want a functioning original instead of a static museum exhibit. For these two cars, preservation and use are not opposing goals if the maintenance is done correctly.
The 2012 MP4/27 connects Button's racing record with Hamilton's McLaren farewell
The third car jumps forward more than two decades, to the McLaren MP4/27A from 2012. The example listed is chassis 01, raced by Jenson Button and tested by Lewis Hamilton. That pairing links two world champions to a machine from the last chapter of Hamilton's original McLaren career. It also shows why the details behind a headline featuring famous drivers deserve careful reading: a test session is a genuine part of a car's history, but it is not the same thing as a Grand Prix start.
By 2012, Formula 1 had moved a long way from the V12 era. The MP4/27 belonged to the 2.4-liter V8 period, when aerodynamic sophistication and tightly managed performance were central to a leading team's race weekend. McLaren had the pace to fight at the front, but that season also demonstrated how reliability, pit stops and operational execution could shape a title challenge just as much as outright speed. The car is a tangible reminder of a fiercely competitive era rather than merely a collectible with two famous signatures attached.
Button's involvement gives the chassis a race-driver connection, while Hamilton's testing adds another layer of interest. Hamilton had won his first world title with McLaren in 2008 and would leave for Mercedes after 2012, a decision that changed the sport's balance of power for years. The car therefore sits at a meaningful crossroads: one champion established at McLaren, another preparing for the move that would define the next decade.
For a buyer, the appeal is partly technical and partly narrative. A modernized support program may make a V8-era car easier to operate than a much older machine, but it remains a complex piece of bespoke racing equipment. The exact configuration, service history and preparation promised by McLaren will matter more than the broad model name alone. Collectors paying several million pounds are buying a specific chassis and its verified life, not simply the right to say they own a 2012 McLaren.
Norris's 2021 and 2023 cars tell the story of a comeback — and a 197 mph test
The two newest cars track Lando Norris's development from an exciting McLaren prospect into a championship-winning driver. One is a 2021 MCL35M associated with his podium finishes at Imola, Monaco and Monza. That season offered proof that McLaren could again challenge established front-runners, even if it was not yet a week-to-week title contender. Norris's performances gave the team a credible centerpiece around which to build its next phase.
The other is a 2023 machine, identified in the sale reporting as chassis MCL37A-03 from the MCL60 generation. It comes from the year McLaren transformed its competitive position through the season. Norris finished second in Singapore and second again in Japan, while teammate Oscar Piastri joined him on the podium at Suzuka. Those were major steps in McLaren's resurgence, but they were not race victories: Carlos Sainz won Singapore for Ferrari and Max Verstappen won Japan for Red Bull. Accurate results are especially important when a car's race record helps establish its value.
The 2023 car also has the most unusual off-track story in the group. Brad Pitt drove it during a private test at Austin's Circuit of the Americas in June 2025, connected with his starring role in the Formula 1 movie. He reportedly reached 197 mph, or about 317 km/h. The car was also used in post-season testing by drivers including Piastri and Mick Schumacher. The celebrity drive does not replace its competitive provenance, but it connects the chassis to the moment Formula 1's appeal extended decisively into mainstream film culture.
There is a distinction between a 2023 car that helped demonstrate McLaren's recovery and the current 2026 machinery competing under a different technical rulebook. A collector is not buying the latest car or a vehicle guaranteed to match today's lap times. The attraction is the chance to own a functioning piece of the trajectory that took Norris and McLaren back toward the front. For fans, the 2021 and 2023 entries may be the easiest to recognize because their orange-and-blue era is still so recent.
Why McLaren wants these cars on track, not locked away
McLaren Racing chief executive Zak Brown has framed the sale as a way to keep the team's history alive. The argument is straightforward: cars built to race can lose some of their meaning when they spend their retirement hidden in storage. McLaren says it will prepare the five machines for their future owners, and the sale will be handled by specialist dealer Tom Hartley Jr. rather than rushed through a single public auction date.
Hartley's role matters because this is not a conventional second-hand car market. His previous work has included the collection of former Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone and road cars from the late McLaren co-owner Mansour Ojjeh. The intended buyer needs more than the money to acquire a chassis. They must be able to preserve its history, transport it safely, source specialist servicing and understand the operating restrictions that come with a genuine Grand Prix machine.
No official prices have been published. Estimates cited around the announcement suggest individual cars could command roughly £5 million to £10 million, but the final numbers will depend on which chassis is involved, its documentation, condition and the appetite of a small pool of collectors. For perspective, a Hamilton-driven 2010 McLaren sold for £4.8 million in 2021, while a race-winning Michael Schumacher Ferrari from 2001 brought $7.5 million in a 2017 New York sale. Those are useful comparisons, not direct valuations of the five cars now being offered.
The broader decision also says something about McLaren's present identity. The company is simultaneously competing with contemporary machinery and turning decades of racing history into an active heritage business. A functioning car can appear at demonstrations, private circuits and historic events; a static car can be admired but not experienced in the same way. That possibility helps explain the appeal of manufacturer preparation, even though running costs and technical support arrangements still need to be established with each purchaser.
Ultimately, a sale is not proof that McLaren values its history less. The more revealing question is whether the next owners will use these machines responsibly. If the Honda V12s, the 2012 V8 and the Norris-era cars continue to run, they can connect generations of fans to five very different chapters of the same racing team.
McLaren's decision puts five extraordinary pieces of racing history into the market without pretending that every famous name associated with them raced each exact chassis. Berger's 1991 cars, the Button-era MP4/27, and Norris's 2021 and 2023 machines carry different kinds of significance. Pitt's test adds an unusual cultural connection, but the cars' real value begins with their documented competition histories.
The challenge now is matching each machine with an owner willing to maintain and exercise it. A multimillion-pound Formula 1 car is expensive to keep running, not merely expensive to acquire. If McLaren's plan succeeds, fans may see these cars on track rather than hidden in storage—and that is a more compelling legacy than any sale estimate.
