Brawn GP F1 car heading to auction for the first time

The first Brawn GP Formula 1 car is being made available to the public for the very first time as part of Bonham’s auction at the Miami Grand Prix this May.

BGP 001/01 is one of just three Brawn GP chassis ever produced, and is finished in the livery sported by Jenson Button’s car at the 2009 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, although it was Button’s teammate Rubens Barrichello who raced this particular chassis at the time,

Barrichello drove the car from the Australian Grand Prix until the Singapore Grand Prix in 2009 before switching to chassis 001/03 for the final three races of the season. It scored two victories in Barrichello’s hands – at the European Grand Prix in Valencia and the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, the car’s penultimate outing – and a further four podiums, including second in a Mercedes one-two on the team’s debut in Australia.

“This car represents the ultimate Formula 1 fairy tale – a revolutionary design that redefined what was possible,” said Louis Frankel, Miami head of sale at Bonhams. “Chassis 001/01 is a piece of motorsport history, and its offering at auction is sure to captivate collectors worldwide.

“We are honored to present this unrepeatable opportunity over the Miami Grand Prix, a stage befitting its legendary status.”

Brawn GP’s sole Formula 1 season is the stuff of legend. Rising from the ashes of the departed Honda team and running on a relatively modest budget following an 11th hour management buyout, the team shoehorned customer Mercedes engines into its car that had been developed by the team when it was still under the Japanese brand’s ownership, then went on to win both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ championships.

In total, the team took eight wins from 17 races in 2009, including six of the first seven as it capitalized on the ‘blown diffuser’ loophole to get a competitive advantage in what was the first year of new aerodynamic regulations. At the end of the season Mercedes purchased the team, with it going on to add seven more Drivers’ and Constructors’ title doubles between 2014-2020, and another Constructors’ title in 2021.

Following the 2009 season BGP 001/01 fell under Mercedes ownership as part of its acquisition of the team and went on to serve as a showcar, complete with silver livery. It was later passed on to Button as part of a contractual clause that stipulated he was to receive a car in the event of him winning the championship. Mercedes initially refused to hand over a car, and the case eventually went to London’s High Court in June 2010. Bonhams states the car remained in Button’s possession until 2024. It is unknown whether he is the seller.

The other two Brawn cars also survive, but have never been sold on the open market.

Chassis 001/02 – the car Button drove in every race in 2009 en route to his title win – is owned by Brawn GP team principal and namesake Ross Brawn, and is the only one of the three in running order. It ran at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2016 (after being restored) in the hands of Martin Brundle, and 2019 when it was driven by former-Brawn GP test driver Anthony Davidson and Barrichello, and again at Silverstone ahead of the British Grand Prix that year when Button drove it for the first time in a decade.

The third chassis is still owned by Mercedes, but is on loan to the Silverstone Museum. It too saw life as a Mercedes showcar, but has since been returned to its period livery. Nevertheless, it still sports plaid trimming in the cockpit (akin to Mercedes grand prix cars of the 1950s), a hangover from its early post-race life.

Coincidentally, news of the upcoming Brawn GP car sale comes after a Mercedes became the most expensive grand prix car sold at auction last week.

A 1954-55 W196R Stromlinienwagen (Streamliner), driven to victory in the 1955 Argentine Grand Prix by Juan Manuel Fangio and to the fastest lap of the Italian Grand Prix of the same year by Stirling Moss, sold for $53.9 million at RM Sotheby’s Paris sale. It was sold from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum collection, which received the car in 1965 as a donation from Mercedes parent Daimler-Benz.

That smashed the previous record for the highest price of a grand prix car sold at auction. That was another W196R, albeit in its standard guise, which was sold by Bonhams for $29.6 million at the 2013 Goodwood Festival of Speed.

The third-highest selling grand prix car at auction also happens to be a Mercedes – a 2013 F1 W04 that was driven by Lewis Hamilton to his first race win for the factory Mercedes team, and later owned by McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown. The only modern Mercedes F1 car in private hands, it was sold to an unknown buyer for $18.8 million at RM Sotheby’s auction at the Las Vegas Grand Prix in 2023.

All three fall way short of the overall auction record for a car though. That, again, is a Mercedes – one of two 1955 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupes – which sold for $142 million in 2022.