Former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has completed the sale of his impressive collection of 69 Formula 1 cars.

That is according to the Daily Mail, and the buyer is Red Bull GmbH co-owner Mark Mateschitz, the multi-billionaire Austrian now in charge of the collection which he has a “public” plan for.

Red Bull co-owner teases ‘public’ future for Bernie Ecclestone car collection

Ecclestone put his group of iconic F1 cars up for sale in late 2024, deemed by auctioneers Tom Hartley Jnr Ltd as “quite simply the most important race car collection in the world.”

And it is reported that Mateschitz – son of the late Red Bull GmbH co-founder and Red Bull Racing founder Dietrich Mateschitz – purchased all 69 cars from Ecclestone for an undisclosed fee after a private negotiation.

Mark Mateschitz – who inherited his father’s 49 per cent stake in Red Bull after his sad passing in 2022 – is described as ‘a family friend of the Ecclestones’.

The range of cars includes a collection of Ferrari and Brabham models, plus multiple other racing machines from throughout the history of Formula 1.

Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari F2002 serves as a jewel in the crown, that the Ferrari challenger with which the F1 icon won 11 of the 17 grands prix in 2002 on his way to a fifth World Championship, while that year he also set a new F1 record by making the podium at every race.

Niki Lauda’s race-winning Brabham BT46 ‘fan car’, a radical machine that went down in F1 folklore, designed by Gordon Murray, serves as another highlight in the collection.

Speaking about the successful sale, Ecclestone said: “These are unique vehicles. They have written sport history and marked technical milestones. They embody 70 years of F1 history.

“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.”

Mateschitz said he even plans to “expand” the collection over the years, and intriguingly, teased “in the near future it will be made accessible to the public at an appropriate location.”

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Speaking recently with the Telegraph, Ecclestone, 94, had explained that his wish to sell his F1 car collection came from a desire not to leave it as a burden to his wife Fabiana Ecclestone, the FIA’s vice president for sport in South America, when he is no longer here.

“It’s very easy,” Ecclestone began when asked for his reason.

“With a bit of luck I might get two or three more years, and I don’t want to leave all this for Fabiana to sort.

“All these car dealers would be driving her mad, so the best thing to do is to get all the cars together and try to make sure they go to proper homes.

“Ace [his youngest son, ed.] might not be interested in handling all this either. He might be more into football.

“Sooner or later, this had to happen. I’m still more or less in control, so I can do what I like. Maybe in another year I won’t be able to.”

Ecclestone had firmly denied the theory that this willingness to sell his collection was connected to his 2023 guilty plea to fraud, resulting in a suspended prison sentence and a record £652million fine to HM Revenue & Customs.

Respected business magazine Forbes places Ecclestone’s net worth at $2.4billion (£1.9billion) as of March 2025.

Meanwhile, Ecclestone, alongside FIA and Formula One Management representitives, will be required to appear at the London High Court on October 28 for the first hearings in Felipe Massa’s case against Formula 1 bosses, relating to the outcome of the 2008 World Championship.

After Ecclestone revealed to F1 Insider in March 2023 that he and then FIA president Max Mosley knew of the deliberate intentions of the ‘Crashgate’ scandal at that year’s Singapore GP – Nelson Piquet Jr having put his Renault in the wall to help team-mate Fernando Alonso win – Massa began legal action, after losing out to Lewis Hamilton by a point in the title fight.

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