We select the five most extraordinary cars from Bernie Ecclestone’s £300 million collection for sale

The godfather of Formula 1 Bernie Ecclestone is selling his extraordinary collection of historic Grand Prix and Formula 1 cars estimated to be worth £300 million.

Ecclestone said he is saying goodbye to his collection because, at the age of 94, “the time has come” to “start thinking about what will happen to them if I know I am here any longer.”

He said, ‘I don’t want to leave them to my wife when I’m not there.’

One car collector’s morbidity is another car collector’s hallelujah, and if Ecclestone gets his very shiny, very rare and very expensive ducks in order, the racing world will finally have access to what has been described as ‘the most important racing car collection in the world’. .

The sale – which comes a year after the ‘F1 Supremo’ was ordered to pay a record £652 million tax bill over 18 years – represents ’70 years of Grand Prix and Formula 1 racing’.

But from the unique and legendary vehicles driven by Mike Hawthorn to Niki Lauda and Michael Schumacher, which World Cup-winning cars are the most coveted? Here are our choices:

1. Ferrari Dino 246 F1 from 1957

Not only is this car a multiple Grand Prix winner who also secured seven pole positions, but it most famously won the 1958 F1 World Championship in the hands of Mike Hawthorn.

The British driver won the ’58 championship – despite winning just one race – before tragically dying in January 1959, just three months after announcing his retirement when his Jaguar lost control on the A3 Guildford bypass.

The first F1 car to use a V6 engine was also the last front-engined car to win an F1 Grand Prix.

Also driven by Phil Hill, Wolfgang Von Trips, Tony Brooks and Richie Ginther, the car is in incredible original condition with Ferrari ‘Red Book’ classiche certification confirming that it retains the original chassis, bodywork, engine and gearbox.

It has been in the Ecclestone Grand Prix collection for almost three decades.

2. Ferrari thin-walled special from 1949

The first Ferrari to beat Alfa Romeo, the ‘Thin Wall Special’ is a historically important car that played an integral role in the development and creation of racing enthusiast Tony Vandervell’s own F1 team, Vanwall.

Vandervell – of the Vandervell Thin Wall bearing company that created three Thinwall Specials (as the Ferraris were called) – purchased Alberto Ascari and Luigi Villoresi’s Ferrari ‘works car’ from the factory in 1950.

It was subsequently campaigned in 1951 and 1952 in the Vandervell ‘Thin Wall Special’ specification, piloted by Reg Parnell, Peter Whitehead and José Froilán González, among others.

In addition to Alfa’s defeat at Silverstone, driven by Reg Parnell, it achieved numerous other victories and podium finishes.

It was retained after racing by Tony Vandervell and has since been owned by Tom Wheatcroft’s Donington Collection before joining Ecclestone’s collection in 1996.

3. Ferrari 312 T from 1975

Niki Lauda’s winning 1975 World Cup car also won him the 1975 French Grand Prix.

It was also the first Ferrari to win the world championship since 1964 and it is one of only three Niki Lauda championship-winning Ferraris in existence – a golden egg for race car collectors.

An iconic piece of racing history, immaculately and meticulously restored by marque specialists. After the restoration competition, he won his class at the 2017 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.

Ecclestone recently bought the car – in 2019 – after many years of searching for the right Grand Prix-winning Lauda-Ferrari.

4. Brabham BT46B ‘Fan car’ from 1978

Away from Ferraris and towards Brabhams.

Ecclestone bought Brabham in 1972 and was at the helm for 15 years.

Tom Hartley jnr – whose top dealer is handling Ecclestone’s sale – said: ‘Because Bernie has retained ownership of the Brabhams since they were new, and many of those cars haven’t been seen for decades, people can forget how special a car is. team Brabham was.

‘Brabham scored 22 Formula 1 Grand Prix wins, 24 Formula 1 Grand Prix pole positions, 25 Formula 1 Grand Prix fastest laps and two Formula 1 World Championships under Bernie’s tenure.’

The most notable Brabham, however, is the BT46B ‘Fan Car’ from 1978.

Driven by Niki Lauda to victory in the 1978 Swedish Grand Prix, where he won the race by more than half a minute.

Brabham’s most iconic and famous car, the BT46B, was a revolutionary design by Gordon Murray – who got his first job from Ecclestone – and would have changed the direction of F1 had it not been withdrawn from racing if F1 policy had not been changed. the road had stood.

He retired with a record of 100 percent wins, the only car to achieve this in F1 history.

Never before offered for sale, the complete car has since been preserved in running condition and is something of a unicorn.

5. Maserati 4CLT/48 from 1949

One of only 19 examples ever produced, this Maserati was delivered new to Louis Chiron, the man considered one of the greatest drivers of the pre-war era and Monaco’s first F1 driver.

Chiron won 21 Grand Prix before winning the World Championship in 1950, drove the 4CLT/48 in the first ever F1 World Championship race – the 1950 British Grand Prix – and achieved a podium at the Monaco Grand Prix the same year. This was the only points-scoring finish of Chiron’s F1 career.

He competed in six F1 World Championship Grand Prix, with two top 10 finishes, and has been in the Ecclestone Grand Prix collection for almost 30 years.