This car, Lot 432, sold for $25,317,500, including buyer’s premium, at RM Sotheby’s Abu Dhabi, UAE, sale, on December 5, 2026.
The McLaren F1 could rightly be considered something of an enigma. Conceived and led in development by legendary Formula 1 race-car designer (and one-time racer himself) Gordon Murray, the F1 was designed to be a road car. But it did end up racing, and with considerable success. It won its maiden outing at the 1995 24 Hours of Le Mans outright in GTR specification, also sweeping 3rd through 5th overall and beating purebred race cars in the process. This, along with three consecutive BPR championships from 1995 to ’97, cemented the F1 as Gen X’s Ferrari 250 GTO.
Yet when anyone with about $800,000 could buy one brand-new in the mid-1990s, few people did. Though values skyrocketed after production ended, the F1 was a failure in the marketplace. Just 64 road cars sold against a projected production run of 300. Clearly, the years have been kind to the F1.
Born different
Gordon Murray arrived at McLaren’s Formula 1 team in 1987, having spent the previous 18 years at Brabham, where he designed several F1 championship-winning cars. As McLaren’s Technical Director, his time there coincided with all three of Ayrton Senna’s championship seasons. Murray was at the top of his game when he was chosen to helm the new McLaren Cars division in 1991. Leading a team of engineers and designers on a new supercar project, his goal was simple: provide the closest experience to an F1 race car as you could achieve for the road. From this came the unique Peter Stevens-sketched cab-forward design, with the driver centrally positioned in a narrow, race-style bucket between and ahead of two more-comfortable passenger’s seats.
Power came from a bespoke BMW 6.1-liter V12 producing 618 horsepower and 479 lb-ft of torque, mid-mounted just behind the F1’s cabin. A 6-speed manual transmission predated paddle-shift gearboxes, and there was no anti-lock or power-assistance for the brakes, no power steering and no electronic aids. Curb weight was under 2,600 pounds, which is a couple hundred pounds lighter than the 1997 Porsche Boxster, or just 500 pounds more than a first-gen Mazda Miata.
The result, of course, was sensational. A 3.2-second 0–60-mph run astounded automotive journalists who were still catching their breath from recent tests of Bugatti EB110s and Jaguar XJ220s. A few years later in 1998, during the F1’s final year of production, the McLaren would set a new production-car top-speed record of over 240 mph. That wasn’t eclipsed until 2013 by the 1,001-hp W16-powered Bugatti Veyron.
High maintenance
While it’s obvious a McLaren F1 has always been expensive to acquire, it has also always been expensive to keep. When new, a special modem was plugged into the car to transfer service data to headquarters in Woking, U.K. A pair of service technicians would fly to the car’s location to fix smaller issues, utilizing the gold-plated tools delivered with the car in their own rolling cabinet. Major services required cars to be shipped “home” to England.
Today, there is one F1-certified repair center in the U.S. (in Philadelphia, PA) and the work is still complex. Race-style flexible fuel cells need replacing every five years, and fitting new tires requires subsequent track testing by McLaren staff. By factory recommendation, major-service intervals are every year and a half, and necessitate removal of the F1’s rear half. It’s been reported that even the replacement of a water-temperature sensor is an engine-out job, and every time the engine goes back in, the F1’s suspension needs to be finely adjusted and corner balanced.
Clutches, wheel bearings and hubs are said to wear fast enough to make Ferrari and Lamborghini owners blush. Given the F1’s low production, parts supply is similarly constrained. New manufacturing of out-of-production components resembles restoring a 1930s-era Pebble Beach Concours contender. Needless to say, you won’t be doing your own brake jobs or oil changes at home. Reports peg regular fluid changes at around $8,000 through McLaren, part of a minor service asked for every nine months.
Ex-royalty
Our subject car was originally ordered by Prince Jefri of Brunei’s royal family. It was the last of five F1s designated for his famously excessive collection, said to consist of several thousand high-end vehicles. An internet search will turn up photos of the car in its original Titanium Yellow with seven-time F1 world champion Michael Schumacher’s signature in the left-side door jamb. While the prince’s collection had been shrouded in secrecy for decades, later financial troubles and charges of misappropriation, combined with leaked collection photos, caused a partial sell-off around 2002. This F1 was one of the cars liberated from the collection’s poor storage conditions.
Chassis 014 first returned to England under the ownership of David Clark, a former director of McLaren Cars, and was later exported to a new owner in the U.S. In 2006, the car was sold again with just over 3,000 miles, returning to McLaren’s Woking HQ for renovation over the next year. This resulted in a color change to Ibis White, upgraded exhaust, headlights and GTR-style wheels, and the installation of McLaren’s High Downforce Kit, making it one of eight F1s with this modification. Invoices for this work alone total over $500k.
The car was used as intended over the next decade, with then-future seven-time F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton’s John Hancock replacing Schumacher’s following the respray. In 2018 with 12,000 miles, the car had a major engine-out service at McLaren Philadelphia. This included replacing the fuel cell, and the bill exceeded $50k. The car was then sold to Denmark, following its August 2018 offering by RM Sotheby’s Private Sales division alongside its Monterey auction. The F1 retains its coveted Facom tool set and diagnostic equipment, plus the elegant owner’s manual with hand-drawn illustrations. No mention is made of the Tag Heuer watch and fitted luggage included from new with all roadgoing F1s.
A record result
In the public-auction space, each F1 sale over the past decade has exceeded the last one in value, with cars generally trickling to market every several years. That trend continues here — a new auction record.
While our subject car’s Brunei royal family ownership history is fascinating to a generation that grew up seeking out photos of the collection on a nascent internet, chassis 014 is no longer in its original color or specification and has higher miles — over 13,000 — than many F1s. While its modifications were completed by the factory, inevitably some potential buyers will only be interested in lower-miles cars in original specification.
Strong demand means the most-coveted F1s often sell privately, and rumors of sales at as much as double our subject car’s $25.3m price have circulated for years. Especially as market demographics continue to shift towards Next Gen cars, the F1 has plenty of runway ahead of it as the pinnacle car of the end of the analog era. While chassis 014 may not rank as one of the most desirable examples, it’s certain to remain in the realm of blue-chip collector cars for decades to come. Should it come to auction again, the price may well represent yet another new record.
