Yes, you can now buy an F1 car for £200k

We’ve seen F1 cars for sale on the open market before, but usually, the ex-racers available to the highest bidder are long out of commission veterans, safely obsolete in their technology.

Which makes this Marussia yard sale that bit more interesting. Because although the now-renamed backmarkers didn't score so much as a championship point during their first four years of eating Vettel and co’s dust, they are actually quite modern cars. The most recent car raced in 2013, and features the electro-boost KERS system and DRS wing-flap. All the mod cons.

The 2013 Marussia MR02 is one of four old F1 cars – two Marussias, and two Virgin Racing examples – going under the hammer as part of an assets sell-off, hosted by John Pye Auctions. The 2013 car carries an estimate of £200,000, with its older and equally uncompetitive predecessors expected to fetch £150,000. You can’t even get a Porsche 911 Turbo S for that these days.

And let’s face it, a slick-shod, circa-700bhp V8 carbon missile with enough downforce to stick it to the proverbial tunnel roof is going to make you much, much more competitive at this year’s track day season than the Audi R8 V10 Plus or Ferrari 488 you could spend the same windfall on. Feeling talented?