Ex-F1 head honcho Bernie Ecclestone announced he was parting ways with his invaluable collection of Formula 1 race cars, a move that sent ripples through the car collector world. Said to be worth well over $500 million, the thought on everyone’s minds was: Which lucky collector can afford to snap up the entire lot? Unsurprisingly, that lucky collector is Mark Mateschitz, heir to the Red Bull empire and recently minted the world’s richest young billionaire with an estimated net worth of $39.4 billion.
Even for someone whose pockets run as deep, the Ecclestone collection must have required a second thought. While initial estimates valued the entire collection of F1 cars at just over $500 million, recent trade estimates have it closer to $650 million. The collection of 69 Formula 1 race cars includes Michael Schumacher’s championship-winning Ferrari F2002, Niki Lauda’s BT46B ‘fan car’, and other historically significant machines. Ecclestone is said to have started collecting F1 cars in the 1970s, making this a collection that’s over five decades in the making.
As for the reason behind the sale, Ecclestone, aged 94, said that he’d like his wife to be taken care of in the eventual event of his passing and not burdened with the task of upkeep and maintenance on these high-strung race cars. Ecclestone was also hit with an $830 tax evasion bill, which would have had some bearing on the decision to sell.
Mark Mateschitz plans to preserve and expand the Ecclestone collection over the coming years, with plans afoot to display the lot to the public at a location in Salzburg.
Considering the collection was barely seen before, only breaking into the public eye at the point of sale, this is great news for motorsport aficionados worldwide.
