Red Bull Motorsports
F1
Past/Present: Juan Manuel Fangio’s Mercedes W196
Last weekend, a lucky buyer snapped up one of the Argentinian driver’s greatest racecars.
Past
Juan Manuel Fangio at the 1954 German Grand Prix
© Daimler AG
The late, great Juan Manuel Fangio negotiates one of the 160 corners of the 14.2-mile Nordschleife track at the Nurburgring during the 1954 German Grand Prix, behind the wheel of his re-designed Mercedes-Benz W196. At the grand prix before at Silverstone, Fangio had complained of not being able to see where he was placing his front wheels due to the aerodynamic body of the previous incarnation of the W196. So Mercedes quickly fashioned a more standard grand prix car shape for the Argentinian, with Fangio taking the first of these new versions, chassis 00006/54, to victory in Germany, before repeating the effort at the Swiss Grand Prix in Bern en route to becoming the 1954 world champion.
Present
Fangio's W196 broke records at auction
© Bonhams/James Mann
£19,601,500 – that’s how much Fangio’s 00006/54 car is worth to the modern buyer. How do we know that? Because at last weekend’s Bonhams auction at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, that’s exactly how much an unidentified buyer shelled out for this iconic machine. That figure – enough to buy you 54 top of the range Rolls Royce Phantoms with a bit of change left over – makes Fangio’s W196 the most expensive car AND the most expensive Formula One car ever sold at auction.
