Ferrari F40 first owned by Formula One champion Alain Prost to be auctioned

Not all company cars are created equal.

When French Formula One driver Alain Prost joined the Scuderia Ferrari team in 1990 as reigning F1 World Champion, he needed a set of wheels to drive when he wasn’t racing.

Ferrari handed Prost the keys to a Ferrari F40 – the first production car to offer a top speed in excess of 200mph (324km/h), and said to be the last car signed off by company founder Enzo Ferrari before his death in 1988 – which is now up for auction this week.

Built in 1989, Prost’s F40 has no adjustable suspension or catalytic converters, which, along with the celebrity ownership, makes it one of the more desirable specifications of the 1311 F40s built.

Making this car even more valuable is the incredibly low mileage. Prost took delivery of the car but never actually used it, and is reported to have sold it almost immediately.

Over the past 33 years, the car – F40 chassis 83249 – has travelled just 2843 miles (4575km), which according to the auction means it is considered by some countries to be still a new car (less than 6000km), thus attracting VAT or GST sales tax on top of the auction price!

Before parting with the car, Prost autographed the roof, with the signature still faintly visible today.

While the F40 is offered with no reserve, it is expected to fetch between €2,500,000 and €3,000,000 ($AU4 million to $AU4.9 million), which would be the highest price ever paid for a road-going version of the Ferrari supercar.

A rarer F40 LM race car – one of only 19 made – was sold in 2019 for €4.84m ($AU8 million).

The auction is being run by RM Sotheby's between 10 and 12 May 2023. You can view the listing here.