Nigel Mansell is selling his own F1 cars

Such as the Ferrari in which Mansell won his debut race for the Scuderia after Enzo Ferrari signed him, the last driver to be personally selected by Il Commendatore. And then there’s the Williams “Red 5” in which Mansell won five races in 1991 – but which is probably more well-known as the car in which the British driver gave a stranded Ayrton Senna a lift back to the pits.

It’s the Ferrari though that is expected to be the monetary star of the sale when RM Sotheby’s auctions the five-car collection in Monaco on 14^th May. The 1989 V12 640, first F1 car with a semi-automatic gearbox to win a grand prix, comes with a presale estimate of between €2.5-5 million.

This is the actual car in which Mansell won his first race for Ferrari, the Brazilian Grand Prix in Rio de Janeiro in 1989. Mansell had qualified sixth with the new-fangled machine but he fought through the field to win by seven seconds, forever after earning the soubriquet Il Leone from the tifosi. The British Lion took this same car to a memorable win in Hungary that year, after on that occasion starting 12^th on the grid.

Then there’s that “Senna taxi”. It is of course a 1991 Williams FW14, the Adrian Newey technological masterclass that gave Mansell five grand prix victories in ’91 and set him up for his championship title the following year. Mansell won the British Grand Prix by an astonishing 42 seconds and on his victory lap stopped to give Ayrton Senna, whose McLaren had run out of fuel, a lift back to the pits – one of the most enduring F1 images of the 1990s.

This Red 5, chassis number five, won four more grands prix in 1991 and at the end of the season Williams gave it to Mansell in recognition of his performance. RM Sotheby’s is hoping the car will make between €1.5-3m – and that’s without its Renault V10 engine. 

RM says opportunities to acquire completely original Formula 1 cars directly from their World Champion owner and driver are super-rare.

And the other cars in this Mansell sale of the century? There’s another “Red 5” but this time it’s a Reynard, the V8-powered champ car that Mansell drove in the one-make Masters series for former F1 drivers in 2005. He won with it twice. RM says it will sell for up to €150,000.

Also in the sale is Nigel’s kit car, a Birkin 7 Sprint, a South African-made tribute to the Lotus 7 that Mansell has owned from new. That should go for around €15,000.

Then there’s his three-wheeler – a 1990 iC Modulo M89. It is the first example of this Italian rarity and it was given to Mansell after he drove the BMW motorcycle-engined machine around the paddock at the 1992 Italian Grand Prix. A rather unlikely Mansell machine but definitely a talking point, it could sell for anything between €5,000 and €25,000 says RM Sotheby’s.

Images courtesy of RM Sotheby’s.