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F1 cards: Turbo Attax, Topps Chrome and what to buy
Modern, licensed Formula 1 collecting began in 2020, when Topps got the licence and made the main series, with Topps Chrome Formula 1 as the foundation and several premium lines on top. Besides the trading cards, there is Turbo Attax, a card series for swapping with albums, which works like Match Attax in football. The value lies in rookie cards of new drivers, signatures and numbered parallels.
Quick facts
| Largest manufacturer | Topps |
|---|---|
| Base series | Topps Chrome Formula 1 |
| Swap card series | Turbo Attax, with albums and tins |
| Season marking | One year per season |
| Value drivers | Rookie cards, signatures and numbered parallels |
| Collected besides drivers | Cars, teams, circuits and historic moments |
The series you will come across
| Topps Chrome Formula 1 | The base series. Chrome cards with colour parallels. |
|---|---|
| First Day Issue | A box that Topps sells itself before the regular release, with cards that are not found in any other format. |
| Logofractor | Its own patterned chrome surface with many parallel tiers. |
| Sapphire | Its own chrome technique and a higher price level. A collector series. |
| Dynasty | A premium line with few but very lavish cards. |
| Turbo Attax | Swap cards with starter albums, packs, tins and displays. |
Formula 1 Topps NOW
Topps prints the cards in Formula 1 Topps NOW to order after wins and other events during the season, and the first card in 2020 marked Pierre Gasly’s first Formula 1 win, at Monza. Each card can only be ordered for a limited time on Topps’ website, and the print run is the number of cards ordered when the window closes. In some orders the base card is replaced by a numbered parallel or a signed card.
The chase cards are the designs that had the lowest print runs when the order window closed, and the cases where the base card was replaced by a numbered parallel or a signed card.
Topps Turbo Attax Formula 1
Turbo Attax is Topps’ trading card game for Formula 1 and arrived with the 2020 season, the same year Topps got the exclusive worldwide rights to Formula 1 trading cards and stickers. The game belongs to the same Attax family as Match Attax in football, and the driver cards have values for attack and defence and a budget figure that is used when you play. The starter pack has an album and a playing field, and the collector tins have cards that are not found in regular packs, such as Guardians of the Grid and Sunshine State in the 2026 Mega Tin. The Diamond Edition Mega Tin was made in 2025 for Formula 1’s 75th anniversary, and in 2026 the series got chrome cards for the first time – Turbo Chrome – with parallels down to a SuperFractor in a single copy.
The chase cards are the Turbo Chrome parallels down to a SuperFractor in a single copy, and the exclusive tin cards Guardians of the Grid and Sunshine State, which are not found in regular packs.
Topps Chrome Formula 1
Topps Chrome Formula 1 is Topps’ main chrome series for Formula 1, and the first edition covered the 2020 season but came out in 2021. Topps counts the cards of every driver in that edition as rookie cards, including Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, and the base set also has drivers from Formula 2 and, from 2024, Formula 3. Every base card exists as a SuperFractor in a single copy, and from the 2025 edition there are Debut Patch Autographs – one-of-one signed cards with a patch the driver wore in their first Formula 1 race. The 2026 edition is the first with a signed card in every hobby box.
The chase cards are the one-of-one SuperFractor of every base card, the Debut Patch Autographs with a patch from the driver’s first race, and the very first rookie cards from the 2020 debut edition of drivers who later became world champions.
Topps Chrome Formula 1 Sapphire Edition
In Sapphire Edition, the base set from that year’s Topps Chrome Formula 1 is reprinted with a blue surface in a cracked ice pattern on every card. The first edition belonged to the 2020 season and was sold in May 2021 only through Topps’ own online shops, and the Sapphire parallels of the base cards end with a one-of-one Padparadscha Sapphire. The first editions had no signed cards, and signatures arrived with the 2023 edition, including in the Sapphire Selections insert set.
The chase cards are the Padparadscha Sapphire in a single copy, the signed SuperFractor autographs in Sapphire Selections, and autographs of drivers such as Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton and Alain Prost.
Topps Eccellenza Formula 1
Eccellenza arrived in 2023 as a premium series with an Italian theme, sold only online through Topps Italy and printed to order. The subsets have Italian names, such as Prodigio for young drivers and Supremo for former world champions. Each box of seven cards has a relic card with a piece of equipment used by a driver and two parallels numbered to 99 or fewer, and some boxes have signed cards. The 2026 edition has on-card signatures from all 22 drivers on the grid and the Grande Fresco card with 22 signatures on the same card.
The chase cards are Grande Fresco with 22 signatures on a single card, the Reliquia Visiera relic cards with pieces of the drivers’ helmet visors, and the Only1 card with Lando Norris’s signature in a single copy.
Topps Chrome Formula 1 Logofractor Edition
The Logofractor cards have a shiny Formula 1 logo running through the whole background, while the base set is the same as in that year’s Topps Chrome Formula 1. The edition came to Formula 1 with the 2024 season, after Logofractor was first used in Topps’ baseball series, and has its own parallel ladder that ends with a one-of-one Rose Gold LogoFractor. The 2024 edition was sold through Topps’ European online shops and had no signed cards, while the 2025 edition was sold only in Fanatics’ shop in London and got signed Black & Red LogoFractor cards numbered to 75.
The chase cards are the Rose Gold LogoFractor, the series’ highest parallel in a single copy, available both on the base cards and on insert sets such as Helmet Collection and Speed Demons.
Topps Finest Formula 1
Finest is Topps’ series with Refractor parallels, and the first Formula 1 edition, 2024 Topps Finest Formula 1, came out in April 2025. The base set is divided into tiers with the same Refractor parallels in each tier but lower print runs the higher the tier: in 2024 there were three tiers of 100 cards each – Common, Uncommon and Rare – and in 2026 a fourth, Super Rare, with 25 cards. The cards show drivers from Formula 1, F2 and F3 as well as legends. A hobby box has six packs of ten cards with at least one relic or autograph, and the 2026 edition was the first after the debut.
The chase cards are the one-of-one SuperFractor, Finest Duos Signatures with two drivers, numbered to five in the 2024 edition, and the Super Rare tier in the 2026 edition.
Topps Chrome Formula 1 First Day Issue
First Day Issue of the 2026 Topps Chrome Formula 1 was sold directly on Topps’ website just over a month before the regular release, through an auction where the price was lowered until the boxes sold out. The box has as many packs and cards as the hobby box, but also a signed Molten Mercury card and two Molten Mercury parallels numbered to 15, and these cards are not found in any other format. The Molten Mercury signatures are on-card, while most signed cards in the series since the start have had sticker autographs. The format had existed in other sports before it came to Formula 1 with the 2026 edition.
The chase cards are the signed Molten Mercury card and the two Molten Mercury parallels, numbered to 15, which are only found in this box.
Topps Chrome Formula 1 Hongbao Edition
Hongbao Edition is an edition of Topps Chrome Formula 1 for sale in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, and it has been available since the 2026 edition. Hongbao is Mandarin for the red envelopes with money that are given at Chinese New Year, and the cards are in red and gold. The box has a single pack of eight cards – six Red/Gold parallels of the base cards and two Kaleidoscope cards numbered to 28 or 8 – and the signed cards have their own Red/Gold parallel that is only found in this edition.
The chase cards are the signed cards in their own Red/Gold parallel and the Kaleidoscope cards in two rarity tiers, numbered to 28 and eight respectively.
Topps Atlassian Williams Racing
Topps Atlassian Williams Racing is Topps’ team set for the Formula 1 team Williams, which Frank Williams and Patrick Head founded in 1977. It was Topps’ second team product in Formula 1, after McLaren Racing in 2025. The base set has 60 cards in six themes, including Behind the Scenes, Behind the Wheel and Vintage Williams. A box has 25 cards with one autograph and two numbered parallels, and the signatures include the team’s drivers Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz and legends such as Alain Prost and Nigel Mansell. The Williams Racing Relics memorabilia cards have pieces of seat belts and skid planks.
The chase cards are the one-of-one FoilFractor, the four dual-signed cards and the Union Jack insert set with three of the team’s legends.
Futera Formula E
Futera makes cards for Formula E, and Futera’s card checklist calls the edition for the 2025/26 season Formula E FX. The hobby box has ten foil packs of up to three cards and guarantees an on-card autograph from a driver of the season, two foil-numbered parallels and two foil-numbered inserts. The signed cards state when and where the driver signed, there are one-of-one autographs, and some cards are gilded with 23- or 24-carat gold. The drivers include Jake Dennis, Pascal Wehrlein, Oliver Rowland and Nyck de Vries. Futera was founded in 1989.
The chase cards are the one-of-one autographs and the cards gilded with 23- or 24-carat gold.
The formats
| Hobby box | The hobby channel. The most cards per pack and guaranteed contents. |
|---|---|
| Value box | Retail, more packs at a lower price per pack. |
| Mega box | Retail, its own exclusive parallels. |
| Blaster | A cheaper retail format, smaller than a value box and a mega box. |
| Tin | A collector tin with packs, often with its own card. |
| Starter album | Turbo Attax, an album plus the first packs. |
What makes an F1 card expensive
- A rookie card of a new driver. The first official card in a major series.
- An on-card signature. Drivers’ signatures are few and in demand.
- Numbered parallels. A lower print run gives a higher price.
- Legends. Cards of drivers who have already made history have their own group of buyers.
- The season’s outcome. A driver who wins the title lifts all their cards from that year.
Which product should you buy
| Children who like F1 | Turbo Attax starter album and packs |
|---|---|
| Trying the category | Value box or tin |
| Chasing rookie cards | Topps Chrome Formula 1, hobby box |
| Chasing signatures | The premium lines |
| Collecting limited editions | First Day Issue or Sapphire |
Common mistakes
- Comparing a Turbo Attax card with a chrome card of the same driver.
- Thinking that all cards of a well-known driver are valuable.
- Buying a whole box to chase one particular driver.
- Missing that First Day Issue and the base series are different products.
- Storing the chrome cards without card sleeves.
Frequently asked questions
- Who makes F1 cards? Topps has held the licence since 2020, both for the trading cards and for Turbo Attax. The manufacturer is printed on the packaging.
- What is First Day Issue? A box that Topps sells directly on its website before the regular release, through an auction where the price is lowered until the boxes sell out. It has as many packs as the hobby box but also its own cards – in Formula 1, signed Molten Mercury cards that are not found in any other format.
- Are there cards of the cars? Yes, besides drivers, collectors also collect cars, teams, circuits and historic moments.
- Are F1 cards a new category? Modern, licensed F1 collecting began in 2020, when Topps got the licence for Formula 1 trading cards.
- What is the difference between Sapphire and Chrome? Different chrome technique, different print runs and different price levels.
The most expensive Formula 1 cards
Because the licensed series began in 2020, the top tier looks different from football and hockey.
- Signed cards of active world champions. There are few drivers and they rarely sign, which makes the supply much smaller than in team sports.
- Rookie cards of drivers who made their breakthrough. The first official card of a driver who went on to win.
- Cards marked 1 of 1. A single copy, often in Dynasty or a similar premium line.
- Cards of legends from the sport’s history. Names that have already made history have their own group of buyers, whatever happens in a single season.
- Early modern editions. The 2020 debut edition of Topps Chrome Formula 1 set the starting point for the whole modern card series, and those drivers’ very first cards are only found in that edition.
Because the licensed series began in 2020, there is no large supply of older cards in the way there is in baseball or hockey, where collecting has gone on for decades. Instead, it is the print runs and the signatures that create scarcity.
How to read an F1 card
| Series name | On the front, e.g. Topps Chrome Formula 1 |
|---|---|
| Season | A year |
| Card number | On the back |
| Parallel name | The colour has its own name in the series’ list |
| Numbering | Print run on parallels, e.g. 25 of 99 |
| Subject type | Driver, car, team, circuit or moment |
Starting to collect F1 cards
- Choose whether you collect one driver, one team or a whole season.
- Buy a value box or a tin first to see what the cards look like.
- Put the chrome cards in penny sleeves straight away. They scratch each other.
- Keep the seasons separate in storage, or they will be impossible to sort later.
- Buy the cards you really want as singles rather than opening packs against the odds.
Turbo Attax and the trading cards side by side
Turbo Attax is F1’s card series for swapping and works the way Match Attax does in football. The cards are printed on card stock, have game values on the front and are made for swapping and playing. They are sold with starter albums, loose packs, tins and displays, and the price level is low.
The trading cards in the Topps Chrome family are a different product. They are chrome, have numbered parallels and are bought by collectors who chase individual cards. A card of the same driver can therefore belong to completely different price classes depending on which series it comes from, and this is the most common source of confusion for people new to the category.
In practice: First decide which of the two worlds you are buying in, and compare prices only within the same world.
From our range
Read more about rookie cards, hobby or retail and the manufacturers.
Shop: Formula 1 cards, F1 displays and Turbo Attax at Bangerpack.
Written by those of us who run Bangerpack. The range and prices change all the time. What applies when you read this is shown in the category.
