A 2001-specification McLaren MP4/16 Formula 1 car is up for grabs and expected to attract plenty of competition at auction next month.
From the Ron Dennis-era of the famous Grand Prix team – one where the team’s cars were very, very rarely sold – the car coming up for sale won the 2001 Austrian Grand Prix in the hands of David Coulthard.
The MP4/16 – chassis 05 – is being auctioned at RM Sotheby’s ‘Motorworld Munchen’ auction in Munich in Germany on November 26.
Powered by a three-litre Mercedes-Benz V10 in period though now fitted with a display engine, the car was also raced by two-time World Champion Mika Hakkinen in 2001, his final season in Formula 1. He finished third in it in the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal.
Coulthard drove it to a podium finish in the San Marino Grand Prix at Imola after qualifying on pole position. He also put this particular chassis on pole for the Monaco Grand Prix.
McLaren used this car as the dedicated spare chassis at a range of Grands Prix in 2001 and it made its last race start in Coulthard’s hands at Hockenheim.
The spare for the rest of the 2001 season, chassis 05 was tested for three days at Paul Ricard by Jean Alesi in 2002.
The former Ferrari ace, who had finished racing Formula 1 at the of the ’01, had signed to drive for Mercedes-Benz in DTM and tested the McLaren in March 2002 in ‘B’ specification given regular drivers Coulthard, Kimi Raikkonen and tester Alex Wurz were taking some time off.
The car being placed up for auction was acquired by the current vendor in June 2020 and is currently configured in non-running display specification.
It’s one of seven MP4/16 chassis that McLaren took to the track during the 2001 Formula 1 World Championship.
View more of the details of this car here.
A McLaren MP4/17D driven by Kimi Raikkonen in 2002 and taken to victory in the 2003 Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park sold at an RM Sotheby’s auction last November for just over AUD $3 million.
