If the measure of a Method 1 driver’s price is mirrored by the worth of one in every of his used race vehicles, then Lewis Hamilton slots in entrance of Michael Schumacher, however stays a world away from Juan Manuel Fangio.
At an RM Sotheby’s public sale throughout the Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend, the British driver’s 2013 Mercedes No. 4 — the primary Mercedes wherein Hamilton received a grand prix — bought for $18.8 million, greater than Schumacher’s 2003-season Ferrari did final 12 months.
The ultimate bid, positioned by an unidentified purchaser, effectively exceeded the public sale home’s estimated worth for the automotive, which was between $10 million and $15 million. The automotive, chassis W04, nonetheless wears the livery it did that season, a silver and inexperienced quantity adorned with sponsor graphics. Its beating coronary heart is a 2.4-liter V-8 motor; the next 12 months, rules mandated that each one groups change over to a hybrid-assisted 1.6-liter V-6, which powers F1 vehicles to today.
Hamilton’s win, which got here on the Hungarian Grand Prix, the tenth race of the 2013 season, occurred throughout his inaugural 12 months for the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 crew. Following the Hungarian GP, Hamilton used that very same automotive to seize 4 extra podium finishes that very same season.
Whereas Hamilton solely positioned fourth within the drivers’ championship in 2013, he finally went on to win six drivers’ championship titles with Mercedes, giving him seven in complete (one with McLaren), tying Schumacher.
Schumacher’s 2003-season Ferrari F2003 bought final 12 months for $14.9 million. However one must pony up one other boatload of money to eclipse the bid on Fangio’s silver Mercedes-Benz W196. Within the mid-Nineteen Fifties it received 9 of the 12 races wherein it was entered, and two world championships. It bought in 2013 for an indelible $29.6 million.