Thu 10 November 2022:
At a Geneva auction on Wednesday, the Ferrari driven by Formula One legend Michael Schumacher to his 2003 World Championship victory brought in close to $15 million.
“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 car went under the hammer for 13 million Swiss francs ($13.2 million).
The auction house later reported that the ultimate price, including taxes and fees, was 14.6 million francs ($14.9 million).
Another Schumacher-driven Ferrari, an F2001 model that sold at Sotheby’s in New York in 2017 for $7.5 million, held the previous record.
The final price, offered by an unidentified telephone bidder from Europe after a bidding war of more than 40 minutes, far outstripped expectations, with the auction house estimating before the sale that the car would fetch up to 9.5 million Swiss francs.
It is “one of the most significant Formula One cars of all time”, the auctioneers said.
Schumacher, who has not been seen in public since suffering serious injuries in a skiing accident in 2013, raced nine times in the car.
‘Very important car’
He won five Grands Prix with it in the 2003 season and drove it when he clinched the title in Japan.
“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 brought in at the Spanish Grand Prix, the fifth race of the 2003 season. Chassis 229 is by far the most successful of the six F2003-GAs that were built.
In addition to winning the Austrian, Canadian, Italian, and US Grands Prix in the vehicle, Schumacher also drove it to victory in Spain.
Additionally, he claimed the car’s pole position in Spain, Austria, and Italy, as well as the fastest laps in Austria, Italy, and the US.
The vehicle helped Schumacher win his sixth F1 championship, surpassing Juan Manuel Fangio of Argentina’s five titles from the 1950s.
It also aided Ferrari in capturing their fifth consecutive constructors’ title, the Italian team’s 13th overall victory.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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