Benetton F1 Car from 1993 Season Heads to Auction

F1 cars don't come up for auction very often, but later this month bidders will have the chance to compete (with their wallets) for a Benetton F1 car Riccardo Patrese drove to a second-place finish at the 1993 Hungarian GP. The car will be offered at Bonhams' Bonmont Sale in Cheserex, Switzerland, later this month, offering an elite group of collectors the chance to purchase a car with some history from one of the more drama-filled periods in the motorsport.

Those familiar with this time period in F1 will perhaps recall it as one of the highlights of Benetton's entire F1 team venture. Backed by the clothing brand fortune, the Benetton family fielded an F1 team starting in 1986 with Alessandro Benetton at the helm starting in 1988.

This period in Benetton history is certainly known for Michael Schumacher's early wins, and for the 1993 season he was joined by Patrese. After Benetton finished third in the '92 Constructors' Championship, instead of making the decision to modify and race the 1992 car the team decided to begin with a clean sheet, sparked by a new F1 mandate for narrower tires.

"Therefore, the B193B design began from scratch, the first car not ready to race until April," Bonhams notes. "The cars were built in a new 85,000 square foot factory, and from the Imola race forward these B193B cars with their Ford HB 75-degree V8-cylinder engines proved competitive in the hands of drivers Schumacher and Patrese."

The car that Bonhams will offer later this month, chassis B193B-02, served as the team's spare car and was used for testing, but then became the chassis that was given to Patrese, with the car's first F1 outing taking place at the German GP at Hockenheim. Patrese's best finish that season was at the Hungarian GP where he finished second behind Damon Hill, who won his first Grand Prix race in that event, driving for Williams-Renault.

B193B-02 continued to compete with Patrese behind the wheel that season, but failed to finish the Portuguese GP at Estoril after colliding with Derek Warwick's Footwork-Mugen-Honda. The damage was not extensive, but it was used as a spare chassis for the remainder of the 1993 season after it was repaired, including at the Australian GP and the Japanese GP towards the end of the year.

"Riccardo Patrese – having driven the active-suspension Williamses through 1992 – brought much knowledge to Benetton which proved invaluable early in the 1993 season with these B193B cars so equipped," Bonhams adds.