Niki Lauda’s old Ferrari 312T F1 car is up for sale for £6.3m

This is the late, great Niki Lauda’s former Ferrari Formula 1 car. It’s called the 312T, and in 1975, it helped Lauda clinch the F1 drivers’ title; his first of three world championships.

It’s now being offered up for auction via Gooding & Company at August’s Pebble Beach sale, and the estimated sale price is a whopper: up to $8,000,000, or £6.3m.

Quite a lot, but then you get quite a lot of history (and of course that flat-12 engine). First off, it’s Lauda’s actual car, and one of only five ‘transversale’ GP cars Ferrari built for 1975. That’s the ‘T’ in the name, representing the transversely mounted gearbox, ahead of the rear axle, for betterweight balance and speedier cornering.

Lauda won the 1975 French GP in this car, and finished 2nd at Dutch GP, and third at the German GP too. And in the five races he used chassis 022, he qualified in pole position. Even teammate Clay Regazzoni had a run in 022, the following year.

It’s changed hands a few times since its halcyon days – acquired first by a French collector in the 1980s, then off to the Netherlands in the early Noughties – and is now being offered from an American collection where it’s lived since 2008.

It’s been fully restored, had all its mechanical components rebuilt, and finished third in class at the 2017 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. Now, where to find six million...