Max Verstappen

You should know ! You made the quote.

There are not many cars sold for over $50 mil ...

 

Yep, a Ferrari 250 GTO comes to mind and is very close IF NOT over that amount.

 

That E-Type was the first right-hand drive roadster and belonged to Frank England, so I guess that's why it brought the big bucks. You can buy five concourse level Series I roadsters for that price. I'd personally be happy with a coupe for business and a roadster for pleasure.

 

On 5 May 2022, in Stuttgart, Germany, the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupe was sold for $142,769,250 (£115.1 million; €135.1 million), becoming the most expensive car ever sold.
During that record-breaking auction, an anonymous collector won a majestic Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR "Uhlenhaut Coupe" with a bid of €135 m ($142.3 m; £113.6 m), making it the most expensive car ever sold at auction, as well as the most expensive car ever sold overall.

On 5 May 2022, the hammer came down at a private auction organized by Sotheby's at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, Germany. During that record-breaking auction, an anonymous collector won a majestic Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR "Uhlenhaut Coupe" with a bid of €135 m ($142.3 m; £113.6 m), making it the most expensive car ever sold at auction, as well as the most expensive car ever sold overall.
In general, the vehicles that command the highest prices are road-legal racers from the 1950s and 1960s, due to their rarity: these whoppingly expensive cars were built in very small numbers and achieved worldwide fame.

The previous title holder of this record was a 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO, which sold for $70 m (£52.7 m) in 2018.

Before that, another Ferrari broke the same record in 2013: in October 2013, a 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO racer became the world’s most expensive car. The car was sold to a private buyer for $52 million (£32 million).
According to Bloomberg news agency, the red competition car (formerly owned by the Connecticut-based collector Paul Pappalardo) was acquired by an unidentified buyer through a private transaction.
Other cars that fetch prices in the tens of millions include the Jaguar D-Type, Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale and Ford GT40, although the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR bolted past the competition.
When it rolled out of the factory in 1955, the model 300 Sport-Leicht Rennsport (also known as "sport light racing") was considered the fastest racing car in the world.
Designed by engineer Rudolf Uhlenhaut for the Mercedes-Benz Silver Arrows racing team, it combined a lightweight body with the engine from the company's championship-winning W196 Formula One car.
The new racing car made an immediate impression, securing 1-2 finishes at prestigious races, and outpacing rivals from Ferrari and Jaguar.
On 11 June 1955, however, the 300 SLR's run of success came to a tragic end during the deadly accident at the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans.
During the French endurance race, one of the Mercedes entrants crashed into another car and went flying into a grandstand, killing several spectators together with the car's driver, the 49-year-old Pierre Levegh.
Following the tragedy and shocked by these events, which resulted in 83 deaths and over a hundred injured members of the crowd, Mercedes withdrew from motor racing.
The surviving open-canopy 300 SLRs were placed into storage, and development work on future racing cars was halted. This included a pair of 300 SLRs which had been recently been converted to a road-legal coupé configuration for the upcoming "Carrera Panamericana" – a long-distance race through Mexico.
One of these beautiful machines (with a blue-leather interior) went into the Mercedes museum, while Rudolf Uhlenhaut kept the other (with a red-leather interior) as a company car.
As a personal vehicle, the 300 SLR was not the most practical choice. Its interior was cramped, the doors were tiny and the race-tuned engine was deafeningly loud. (Mercedes-Benz staff could hear Uhlenhaut on his way to work when he was still several minutes away).
It was, however, capable of hitting 290 km/h (180 mph) on the autobahn, and Uhlenhaut was willing to put up with some discomfort in order to be able to drive from Munich to Stuttgart in under an hour. It was his daily driver until his retirement in 1972.
Many years later, in 2022, Uhlenhaut's old company car was put up for sale by Mercedes. With its elegant lines and legendary pedigree, this unique model raced on to snatch a world record.
The money raised at the auction was ploughed into an initiative called beVisioneers: a global Fellowship that empowers young innovators from 16 to 28. Focused on planet-positive projects, it provides the engineers of tomorrow with the training, expert support and resources to turn their dreams and ambitions into life-changing realities.

 

Spot-on. Many of the most valuable cars in the world are in the Mercedes-Benz museum and will never be sold.
The most valuable Jaguar is probably a D type le Mans winner.
There are dozens of Ferrari worth over $50mm.
Barrett Jackson is for d-bags.

 

No its not

 

COTA 2023


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It's crazy Max may equal or surpass Vettel by the end of this season.

 

Which is crazy too is the reliability of this Formula One car generation..

 

^^^
I think this applies to ALL race cars in major series now...it is remarkable how reliable cars are, DNF's occur more from crashes than mechanical failure, it seems.

 

Several reasons for this:

- Race cars are monitored from the pits, and carry plenty of sensors warning of technical issues.

- in most series, engines are restricted (or BOPed) to run far from their limits.
In GT series, races car are LESS POWERFUL that street cars !! In WEC, there is a maximum power limit for Hypercars !!

- Gearchanges are robotised with paddleshift and electronics doing the work, avoiding false moves.

Those were the main sources of failures in the past.

 

The reason why current F1 cars are so reliable is quite simple: Low RPM. Less wear, less heat, less vibration.

 

Well, they are designed for multi-races, aren't they?

 

Fuel limited (flow rate now:: calorie rate in 2026) means they don't spin "that much" faster than a <well> Ferrari 458 9,000 RPM that has to last 120,000 miles versus 11,500 for F1 that only has to last 1,500 miles.

On the other hand, 70 PSI of boost creates a lot more heat per unit weight than 14 PSI of atmospheric air.

 

Number 51, equals prost

Beats his own record of 15 wins by 1, with more races left.

Needs one more win to beat Schumachers' 72.22% season record. Ascari had 75% but I think that includes non championship rounds? Not quite sure. To beat Ascari he needs 2 more wins.

 

As much as I'd love for Schumacher to hang onto the record, I think Max has earned the right to the single greatest season for a driver in F1 history. Let him get 18.

 

Agree
A 1,6 liters V6T producing more than 1000hps and lasting 6000-7000kms without failure is just a technical tour de force I guess.
Remarkable achievement I would say nevertheless something essential is greatly missing:
Emotion ( noise)

 

Well deserved to my modest opinion.
A great driver driving a great machine.
To put this into perspective just imagine Prost or Senna driving the mp4/4 in 1988 with Johansson as a teammate..

 

Better qualtiy of lubricants, more knowledge and monitoring of engine tolerances, usage of in-cylinder coatings.

 

Also 12,000 is nothing compared to 19,000. The high revving V10s and V8s, they say by dropping 1000-1500 rpm can extend the life of the engine significantly. Upwards of double.

 

Yep. That's what they do for the V10 units in BossGP and F1 Clienti...instead of an engine that lasts 5-600km at ''race revs'', limiting RPM can get them around 3000km, if memory serves.

 

Calls to mind the BMW CSLs of the 1970s. In the day they had an incredible shriek, now nowhere near that when competing in vintage events. Of course I was just a toddler in the 1970s.

 

A couple of years ago I saw the CSLs and M1 both at full pace...the sound was amazing! They where run by bmw heritage though I believe.

 

New/Beaten/Matched records:

- most consecutive wins: 10 (former record: 9, Vettel)
- most wins in a season: 17 (former record: 15, Verstappen)
- highest win percentage in a season: at least 77,27% (former record: 75%, Ascari)
- most wins from pole in a season: 11 (former record: 9, Mansell/Vettel)
- first driver to ever win a GP grand slam/all four classics in a single season (Monza, Monaco, Spa, Silverstone)
- most consecutive top 2 finishes: 15 (matched record: Schumacher)
- WDC with most GPs to go: 6 GPs and 2 sprints (formed record: 6 GPs, Schumacher)
- most hat-tricks in a season: 5 (matched record: Ascari)
- most consecutive races as a WDC leader: 39 (former record: 37, Schumacher)
- most points in a season: 524 (former record: 454, Verstappen)
- most points available: at least 524/620=84,51% (former record: 82,22% Schumacher)*
- most points between first and second: 266/at least 214 (former record: Vettel, 155)
- most laps led in a season: 922 (former record: 739, Vettel)
- most km lead in a season: 4459 (former record: 3796, Vettel)
- most podiums in a season: 19 (former record: 18, Verstappen)



Possible records:

- highest percentage points difference between first and second in the WDC (56/108-1=48,15%, Mansell; Verstappen is at 258/524-1=50,76%)
- most consecutive points (998, Hamilton; Verstappen needs to score 45 more points)
- highest percentage of laps led in a season (506/708=71,47%, Clark; Verstappen is at 922/1217=75,76% now)
- highest percentage of km led in a season (2759/3829=72,06%, Clark; Verstappen is at 4459/6084=73,29% now)
- most fastest laps in a season (10, Schumacher & Kimi, Verstappen needs 2 more fastest laps)
- most grand chelems in a season (3, Mansell, Clark, Hamilton, Ascari; Verstappen needs 1 more grand chelem)

 

Who says stats have no value ?

Well done Max !!!