Lewis Hamilton's first Mercedes sold for $17,000,000, making it the most expensive modern F1 car

Lewis Hamilton's first ever-driven Mercedes F1 car was recently sold for a whopping $17,000,000. This was a massive bid that recently took place at an RM Sotheby's auction held in Las Vegas during the 2023 F1 Las Vegas GP.

Back in 2013, Hamilton joined Mercedes for the very first time after ending his six-year stint at McLaren. The Brit raced alongside Nico Rosberg and drove a Mercedes W04 with chassis #4. This particular Silver Arrows F1 car was the first that was graced by the seven-time world champion.

Hence, when this was offered for public sale through RM Sotheby's, its pre-sale estimate was around $10,000,000 to $15,000,000. The auction was held at the Wynn's Awakening Theatre and was hosted by renowned TV presenter James Corden.

The Mercedes W04 started a long and strong bond between the driver and the team. After joining the German-British team, Lewis Hamilton won six more world titles and dominated the sport from 2014 to 2020. To this day, he is committed to the team and has even signed a two-year contract until 2025 with Mercedes.

Apart from the prestigious and historic F1 car, the auction had other souvenirs like Michael Schumacher's Ferrari suit from the 2003 Italian GP, a 1990 Ferrari F40 GT originally owned by Mugello circuit designer, and even a replica of Lando Norris.

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Lewis Hamilton impressed by the 2023 F1 Las Vegas GP circuit

Even though Lewis Hamilton did not have the best race at the 2023 F1 Las Vegas GP, he was happy with how good the track was during the main race. He claimed that there were a lot of overtaking opportunities and that he was not expecting the track to be so good.

"I'm really grateful that the race was so good. I don't know how it was for the specatators, but there was so much overtaking, it was like...Baku but better. I really was not expecting the track to be so great. More and more laps I did, I just really loved racing. Lots of great overtaking opportunities," Hamilton told Sky Sports after the race.

He further stated that Vegas proved people, who were criticizing the event, wrong by delivering a great race at the end.

"And to all those who were so negative about the weekend, saying its all about show blah, blah, blah, I think Vegas proved them wrong," Hamilton added.

The Mercedes driver started the race from P10 and was only able to finish in P7.