The chassis of the 1991 Tyrrell 020 sold at auction
The chassis of the Tyrrell 020, the descendant of the revolutionary 019, the first Formula 1 car with a raised nose, was sold at auction this Saturday in Belgium. The amount spent reached 63,000 euros. The chassis will be used for exhibition purposes.
The Tyrrell 020 from the 1991 season has been auctioned off. The chassis 020-6 from the British team was available in a collector car auction organized by Bonhams, a specialist in the field. The unique feature of this Formula 1 car is that it was the second model to have a raised nose front wing. This revolutionary design at the time provided a significantly greater downforce.
The car driven by Satoru Nakajima and Stefano Modena was sold for a price of 63,250 euros. The chassis, which housed the Honda engine for the first time for the Tyrrell team, was auctioned in Belgium this Saturday, May 13, alone. The engine and electronics are therefore not present.
This one was mounted on a podium only once during the 1991 season thanks to Stefano Modena in Canada. However, the team had 16 retirements in 16 Grand Prix. The British were able to score 12 points in the championship and therefore finish in sixth place in the constructors’ standings.
It is the Bonhams company, specializing in auctions, that took care of the sale of this mythical F1 chassis. The single-seater was sold without an engine as it is intended to be an exhibition car. Therefore, the Honda engine is not sold with the chassis.
So it is a piece of history that was put up for auction. The 020 represented the continuity and success of the new front wing, which was then copied by all the other teams. Harvey Postlethwaite and Jean-Claude Migeot were the two creators of this innovation.
The 020-6 had to be slightly modified compared to its predecessor. Tyrrell signed a partnership with Honda after the arrival of their driver Satoru Nakajima. Therefore, the chassis had to be modified to accommodate this new engine from the Japanese brand. However, the concept of the raised nose was preserved, keeping this car unique in its kind.
This auction was therefore an opportunity to acquire the single seater of the ancestor of the Brawn GP or Mercedes team.
The amount of the sale, however, remains far from the price of Jean Alesi’s Ferrari 643, auctioned off last February, which was acquired for a sum of 3.6 million euros. These figures are still lower than those of the sale of Fangio’s Mercedes race car. The car used in 1954 was sold for no less than 22 million euros.
The last auction for a Formula 1 car took place in April. It was Michael Schumacher’s F2003 that bidders were fighting over. The amount quickly reached new heights as the 2003 Ferrari was sold for 13 million euros, making it the second most expensive F1 car sold at auction.
