What do you get the man who already has four F1 World Championships? How about one of the most iconic Formula 1 racing cars of all time? That is exactly what Sebastien Vettel has gone out and bought himself.
We presume it was one of the same kind of lockdown impulse purchases we’ve all made, except where we bought a new TV or just some donuts, Vettel has spent a few million on the Williams FW14B…
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We’ve met an FW14B for sale before, one of the championship-winning cars was sold at Bonhams’ Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard sale a few years ago. Although we don’t know if this is the same one, that car fetched somewhere in the region of £5 million, so you imagine the German Ferrari ace has paid a similar amount for his car.
According to formula1.com Vettel has added to this collection of cars, which includes at least one of his four title winning Red Bull F1 machines and a Ferrari F40 previously owned by opera singer Luciano Pavaroti.
The number five is familiar to Vettel as it’s the one has carried on the nose of his car ever since drivers were able to choose their own number back in 2014 (although he was the champion, so wore #1 for that single season). It’s believed that the iconic Red Five machine – which was designed by the same man who penned the Red Bull machines that powered him to victory – was a big influence on Vettel when choosing his racing number. It would seem to make sense that Vettel would have grown up watching ‘Nige’ in the car, given he was five when Mansell won his only F1 title in 1992.
The FW14B was one of the most advanced F1 cars of all time, featuring active suspension and an incredible Renault V10 engine that began a line of almost unbroken Renault-powered F1 title for most of the 1990s. When it was brought to the Festival of Speed a few years ago to be driven by Karun Chandhok, the Williams Heritage team had to dig out an old MS-DOS PC in order to run the car, given that the at-the-time state-of-the-art electronic systems were now completely eclipsed by even the standard smartphone. But in 1992 the FW14B was pretty space-age.
Maybe Seb will fancy running his new toy at the Festival of Speed next year? We’d be pretty open to welcoming him along. What a way to make your Goodwood return…
Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.
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