Michael Schumacher's final Ferrari F1 car could fetch $22 million at auction
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The last Ferrari F1 car raced by the record-setting, seven-time world champion could set another record when it goes under the hammer in New York next month.
Michael Schumacher's last Ferrari Formula One car will be auctioned off by Sotheby's in New York on 14-19 November and could fetch more than $22.5 million – the highest price paid for a Schumacher F1 car to date.
The 2006 Ferrari 248 – designated chassis 254 – is one of eight built for the German driver's last season with the Italian team and is one of only four Schumacher-era Ferraris to record five or more wins.
The seven-time world champion – regarded by many as the best F1 racer of all time – drove it to victory at the San Marino, European, United States, French and German Grands Prix in 2006.
It was also the actual car in which Schumacher broke Ayrton Senna's all-time record of F1 pole positions, setting his 66th pole position at the 2006 German Grand Prix.
As part of a Sealed Sale, the car will be on display at Sotheby's New York from 8-20 November.
Bidding opens on 14 November and closes at 5:00pm New York time on 19 November 2024 (9:00am AEDT on 20 November 2024).
"There are cars that Schumacher drove and perhaps won a race or two in, and then there are the few cars that truly define his legacy, such as Chassis 254," Shelby Myers, Head of Private Sales at Sotheby's, said in a statement on Motor Sports News Wire.
"Never before has anything carrying the Schumacher name come to public sale with more wins or podium finishes. In fact, there is only one other chassis with more wins than chassis 254.
"When we peel back the layers, very rarely does a Schumacher-era car carry as much weight as this one."
While it did not win a world title – with Schumacher beaten by Alonso to the 2006 Drivers’ Championship by 13 points – chassis 248's win rate in the German's final year at Ferrari means sales price expectations are high.
With Sotheby's estimate sitting at $US15 million ($AU22 million), it could threaten the highest price paid for a Schumacher Ferrari F1 car – which currently stands at 14.63 million Swiss francs ($AU23 million at the time).
That was the price Sotheby's Geneva achieved for F2003 chassis 229 in 2022 – beating pre-auction estimates by 5 million Swiss francs ($AU9.7 million) – in which the German won seven races and claimed the sixth of his seven driver's titles.
In August 2023, the Ferrari F2001b Schumacher that won the 2002 Australian Grand Prix (chassis 215) was auctioned in California by Sotheby's for an undisclosed amount, after estimates of around $US10 million ($AU14.9 million).
Bolstering chassis 254's appeal is its one-owner status, having been purchased from Ferrari directly in December 2007 – authenticated by Ferrari Classiche Red Book in 2008 – and not traded since.
It's also the first Ferrari of the modern era with a V8 engine, as new regulations for 2006 saw it drop the previous season's V10 engine.
Even if chassis 254 beats its $US15 million ($AU22.43 million) estimate – and surpasses the $AU23.18 million Schumacher-era Ferrari record – it's still unlikely to match the highest price paid for an F1 car.
That belongs to Juan Manuel Fangio's 1954 Mercedes-Benz W196R, which was sold for £19.6 million ($AU38.1 million) by Bonhams in the UK in 2013.
The current auction record for a modern F1 car goes to Lewis Hamilton's first Mercedes racer – a 2014 Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 W04 – which sold for $US18.8 million ($AU28.1 million) in November 2023.
Hamilton replaced Schumacher at Mercedes-Benz in 2014 – the German driver returning to F1 for a final three-season stint in 2010 – with the British driver set to leave Mercedes for Ferrari in 2025.
Hamilton's first race for Ferrari will be the 2025 Australian Formula One Grand Prix.
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