Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari F2003 Formula 1 car sold for $14.8m
09/11/2022 20:58
The Ferrari Formula 1 car in which legendary driver Michael Schumacher won the 2003 F1 title was sold for more than $14.8m ($14,873,327 to be exact) at auction in Geneva on Wednesday.
“This remarkable car has achieved a world record price for a modern-era Formula One,” the Sotheby’s auctioneer said after the F2003-GA, Chassis 229.
The previous record was held by a different Ferrari F1 car of Michael Schumacher: the F2001 model sold by Sotheby’s in New York five years ago for $7.5 million.
The final price, offered by an unidentified telephone bidder following a bidding war of almost one hour, exceeded expectations by far, as the auction house felt ahead of the sale that it could get about $10 million.
It is “one of the most significant Formula One cars of all time”, the auctioneers pointed out.
Michael Schumacher raced nine times in the F2003 challenger, taking five race wins in the 2003 campaign (three pole positions and two more podiums), on his way to the Formula 1 world championship, which he on at the Suzuka circuit in the Japanese Grand Prix. car, winning five Grands Prix in the 2003 season and driving it when he clinched the title in Japan.
It was even given a once over by Mick Schumacher at Fiorano (Ferrari’s private test ground), and by ‘once over’, well… you know what that means. Suffice to say, it “provided an unforgettable moment for all Formula One fans”, according to RM Sotheby’s.
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“It’s one of the Ferraris with the most victories in the constructor’s history, so it’s a very important car in the history of motor racing,” Vincent Luzuy, from the Sotheby’s branch dealing with luxury car sales, told AFP.
Designed by Rory Byrne and Ross Brawn, the F2003-GA featured a longer wheelbase to improve aerodynamics, he explained. The model was introduced at the Spanish Grand Prix, the fifth round of the championship. Chassis 229 is by far the most successful of the six F2003-GAs which were built.
Michael Schumacher drove it to victory in Spain and also won the Austrian, Canadian, Italian and United States Grands Prix in the car, while also securing pole in Spain, Austria and Italy in the car, and the fastest laps in Austria, Italy and the United States.
The car helped the Ferrari driver take his sixth Formula 1 title — a total that saw the German overtake the five won by Argentina’s Juan Manuel Fangio in the 1950s.
The car was shaken completely rebuilt in 2022 by Ferrari’s Formula 1 Clienti department, and was shaken down at the Maranello team’s Fiorano test circuit by Schumacher’s son and current Ferrari Driver Academy member, Mick Schumacher.
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