The 94-year old ex-F1 boss has announced that his collection of racing cars, ‘The Ecclestone Grand Prix Collection’ will be put up for sale via Tom Hartley Jnr. Ecclestone said: “I have been collecting these cars for more than 50 years, and I have only bought the best of any example… I love all of my cars, but the time has come for me to start thinking about what will happen to them should I no longer be here, and that is why I have decided to sell them.”

The collection, widely regarded as the best collection of Grand Prix cars in the world, contains some incredibly special cars – including Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari F2002, Sterling Moss’ Vanwall VW10 and Alberto Ascari’s Ferrari 375 F1, to name a few. Ecclestone has entrusted specialist sports and race car sellers Tom Hartley Jnr with the sale because of their specialist knowledge of the cars.

“There are many eight-figure cars within the collection, and the value of the collection combined is worth well into the hundreds of millions,” said Tom Hartley Jnr. “There has never been a collection like this one offered for sale, and no one in the world has a race car collection that comes close to Bernie’s.”

It would be impractical to list all 69 cars that are a part of the collection, but here are some of the stand-out cars and the history behind them:

The headlining car of the collection – Schumacher’s Ferrari F2002 with which he won the 2002 Driver’s Championship – his fifth of seven championships. This particular car, chassis no. 220, was driven by Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello to three Grand Prix wins – the first Ferrari chassis since 1977 to win with two factory drivers.

Schumacher dominated the 2002 season with the F2002, setting a record for taking a podium finish in every race that year. He took the championship in July at the French Grand Prix, the eleventh round of the seventeen-round season.

Ferrari’s constructors’ championship points that year were equal to all of the other teams’ points combined – a symbol of the domination of the F2002. When asked if he could improve upon his 2002 season, Schumacher responded “No.”

As team boss of the Brabham F1 team from 1972 to 1987, Ecclestone oversaw the development of the BT46B ‘Fan Car’ – a highly controversial entrant designed by Gordon Murray that used a fan to create a vacuum underneath the car to increase downforce.

The car utilised a loophole within the regulations at the time that stated any device whose primary function was to affect aerodynamics had to be completely stationary – and so Murray designed the fan to primarily cool the engine, with the huge additional downforce gains a ‘secondary’ function of the fan.

The car only raced once in Formula 1 at the 1978 Swedish Grand Prix, where it won on its debut with Niki Lauda at the wheel by more than half a minute. The B-spec BT46 was then retired for the remainder of the season after Ecclestone was persuaded not to run it at any other Grand Prix or risk losing his position and power within the organisation he led, FOCA (the Formula One Constructors’ Association).

Murray said, “We would have won the championship easily,” but after hearing the pressure that Ecclestone was under to withdraw the car, Murray agreed, albeit reluctantly.

The car, which remains as the only F1 entrant with a 100% win record, is presented for sale in full running condition and has never previously been offered for sale.

Following an eleven-year championship drought, Ferrari entered the 312T for the 1975 season – a car based on their 1974 entrant, the 312B3, but with some significant changes to the design, perhaps most importantly, the gearbox. The Ferrari 312T had a transverse gearbox which put most of its weight in front of the rear axle, resulting in a more centralised centre of mass and therefore a better handling car.

The 312T went on to win eight races in that 1975 season, six for Niki Lauda and two for his teammate Clay Regazzoni. Lauda secured the driver’s championship in Monza and Ferrari ended their championship drought by taking the constructors’ title.

The car was also entered into the beginning of the 1976 season, until the 312T2 was race-ready.

The chassis in the Ecclestone collection, 022, was the chassis that Lauda won the French GP in and it’s one of only three Niki Lauda championship winning Ferraris in existence.

Ecclestone’s collection also includes the 1971 312B2, 1973 312B3, 1976 312T2 and 1978 312T3.

When the Formula 1 World Constructors’ Championship began in 1958, Vanwall became the first constructor to win the championship with the 1957 Vanwall F1.

Sterling Moss drove the car to victory in the 1958 Dutch, Portuguese and Moroccan Grand Prix – bringing him closer than ever to becoming a Formula One champion. He narrowly missed out on the title, finishing behind Mike Hawthorn by just one point.

The chassis in the collection, VW10, was also driven by Tony Brooks at the 1958 Monaco Grand Prix where he claimed pole position but unfortunately did not finish the race.

The Ferrari F1-87/88C was an updated version of the F1-87, used in the 1988 Formula 1 season – featuring revised front and rear wings and a lower engine cover to conform with the season’s regulations.

The chassis, no. 104, was driven by Gerhard Berger to four podium finishes – including a second place finish in Monaco to the McLaren MP4/4 of Alain Prost.

Despite McLaren’s hugely dominant season in 1988, this chassis claimed the only pole position not taken by the MP4/4, at the British Grand Prix. Although not in this chassis, the F1-87/88C also secured the sole victory against McLaren that season too, when Gerhard Berger won in Italy.

Talbot-Lago were a french manufacturer who produced the T26C between 1948 and 1950. The 1949 chassis, no. 110011, was driven by Belgian racing driver Johnny Claes at the first ever Formula One Grand Prix, the 1950 R.A.C. British & European GP in Silverstone. Claes finished the race in 11th, but this chassis is a multiple Grand Prix winner, having been entered in over 45 races in its original era.

Ecclestone’s collection also contains chassis no. 110007 from 1948 – another multiple Grand Prix winning example. Chassis 110007 achieved its most notable victory at the 1949 French Grand Prix, where Louis Chiron triumphed over legendary competitors such as Juan Manuel Fangio and Luigi Villoresi. It also won the Australian Grand Prix twice in 1952 and 1953 whilst being driven by Doug Whiteford (pictured above).

This 1951 Ferrari 375 F1 is regarded as one of the most historically important Ferrari Grand Prix cars – the 375 F1 model was the first car that Ferrari won a Formula One race with by taking victory at the 1951 British GP in Silverstone.

By taking victory in Silverstone, the 375 also become the first Ferrari to beat Alfa Romeo, the win was hugely emotional for Enzo Ferrari. Having previously been a driver for Alfa Romeo and head of their racing department, Ferrari wrote in his book, Ferrari 80: “In 1951, when José Froilan Gonzalez beat the 159 and the entire Alfa Romeo team behind the wheel of a Ferrari for the first time in the history of our direct encounters, I cried with joy, but tears of excitement were also mixed with tears of pain because on that day I thought: I have killed my mother.”

This particular car, chassis no. 5, was driven to victory at the 1951 Italian Grand Prix by Alberto Ascari and is one of only two surviving examples.

This chassis recently underwent a two-year restoration by Ferrari and is ‘Red Book’ classiche certified, meaning that it still has its original chassis, engine and gearbox. A truly special piece of Ferrari history.

The particular chassis in Ecclestone’s collection, chassis no. 5, was a multiple Grand Prix winner and the chassis in which Nelson Piquet won his second world championship title. One of only two BT52Bs ever built, this was also the car in which Ayrton Senna tested for Brabham at Paul Ricard following the 1983 season on the invitation of Ecclestone himself.

There’s not a lot of information about how the test went for Senna, but it is understood that he failed to impress on the day, having only been given a handful of laps in the BT52B. According to the lap times from that day, Senna was two seconds slower than Nelson Piquet. Subsequently, none of the drivers who tested the BT52B on that day were selected for a full-time seat. Senna later said: “My worst test, of course, was with Brabham at Ricard. I had the feeling I could do a lot more, but the opportunity was not there.”

Ecclestone’s collection contains another car that was present for the first Formula One World Championship race in Silverstone, the 1949 Maserati 4CLT/48.

The chassis in Ecclestone’s collection, no. 1606, was delivered new to Louis Chiron – a Monegasque racing driver who is widely regarded as one of the greatest pre-war era racing drivers. The chassis is one of only 19 ever produced and was raced by Chiron in the 1950 British Grand Prix – the first F1 championship race.

The chassis was entered into six Formula 1 Grands Prix, achieving two top 10 finishes, one of which was a podium finish at Chiron’s home race, the 1950 Monaco Grand Prix. It was the only points scoring finish of his career in Formula 1. Of course the points system was different in F1 in 1950, only the top 5 would score points, with eight points being awarded to the winner.

The final car on this list is the 1957 Ferrari Dino 246 F1, which Mike Hawthorn took to championship victory in 1958. The Dino 246 F1 was used by Ferrari over three seasons, in which it won multiple Grand Prix.

The Dino 246 F1 was powered by a 2.6-litre V6, the first-ever V6 in Grand Prix competition. It was also the last front-engined car to win (1960 Italian Grand Prix).

The 246 F1 was driven by iconic names such as Mike Hawthorn, Phil Hill, Wolfgang von Trips, Tony Brooks and Richie Ginther and this particular chassis (no. 0003) was awarded Ferrari ‘Red Book’ Classiche Certification – confirmation that it retains its original chassis, body, engine and gearbox.

To find out more about the collection, visit: https://www.tomhartleyjnr.com/the-ecclestone-grand-prix-collection/