Bernie Ecclestone’s mammoth 69-strong car collection has a new owner in 32-year-old Mark Mateschitz, the heir to 49 percent of the Red Bull drinks empire co-founded by his father Dieter.
Magneto featured the collection in 2019 – one of the few publications to be granted access to a selection of F1 cars that includes the famous Thin Wall Special (the first Ferrari to ever beat Alfa Romeo), the Alberto Ascari Italian Grand Prix-winning 375 F1, the Mike Hawthorn World Championship-winning Dino, which Ferrari campaigned over three seasons before it was donated to the Henry Ford Museum, plus historically significant World Championship-winning Niki Lauda and Michael Schumacher cars. There’s also the extensive collection of Brabham F1 cars from Ecclestone’s tenure at the team, and his personal favourite – an ex-Stirling Moss Vanwall VW10 – plus more besides.
More details can be found here and Magneto‘s view on some of the highlights can be found here.
News of the sale broke on Thursday evening, with Tom Hartley Jnr, who brokered the sale, telling Telegraph Sport that it was “by several multiples the biggest sale price ever achieved for a classic car collection”. The actual fee wasn’t revealed, but the collection was estimated to be valued in the region of £300m-£500m. Not that it put off several bidders – there had been bids from around the world, including two sovereign wealth funds; Ecclestone revealed that one of these was Saudi Arabia.
“When we put the cars up for sale before Christmas I don’t think we could have anticipated how much interest there would be,” Hartley Jnr told The Telegraph. “It’s been utterly incredible. We received offers from all over the world, including from two separate sovereign wealth funds. But I do feel the collection has gone to the best home, and to the buyer which Bernie most favoured.”
That buyer is Austrian Mark Mateschitz, the son of Red Bull co-founder Dieter, who passed away in October 2022. “The buyer moved extremely quickly. We spoke with him before Christmas, he flew over, we showed him the cars and he was very, very excited. He was definitely a favoured buyer of Bernie’s,” Hartley Jnr explained to The Telegraph.
““There has never been a transaction in the collectors’ car world that even comes close to this. By several multiples it is the biggest sale price ever achieved. Being involved in the sale was a real privilege. Although it came together quickly in the end, the process took years – researching every chassis, the race history of each car, going over to Ferrari and digging into their archives and so on.
“Bernie deserves great credit and gratitude, for not going down the traditional auction route. When you put a car up for auction it is open to so many elements. The stock market could crash the day before, the market could be volatile. Bernie gave us a mandate to sell, but did not impose a time limit. I think we achieved the best result we could.”
For Mateschitz, there hasn’t been a long statement about his long-term plans for the collection, other than a commitment to put the cars on display to the public in the near future (most likely in Austria, according to Hartley Jnr). “I am very pleased that Bernie has placed his trust in me to take care of this historically significant collection,” Mateschitz said. “It will be carefully preserved, expanded over the years, and in the near future it will be made accessible to the public at an appropriate location.”
Ecclestone also had praise for the collection’s new steward, telling The Daily Mail: “These are unique vehicles. They have written sport history and marked technical milestones. They embody 70 years of F1 history,” he said. “It means a great deal to me to know that this collection is now in the very best of hands. Mark is the best and most worthy owner we could ever imagine.”
