Michael Schumacher is arguably the greatest Formula 1 driver of all time and whenever one of the cars he has driven goes up for auction, it’s bound to sell for a staggering amount. That will inevitably prove to be the case once again when the Ferrari he won the 2000 championship in will be auctioned off by RM Sotheby’s during a sealed auction held from April 3-12.
The car in question is the Ferrari F1-2000 chassis 198. It was originally used as the team’s spare car but the German drove it during qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix, starting in third position and ultimately crossing the finish line in first place during the race. Schumacher also drove the car to pole position at the Spanish Grand Prix and while he led most of the race in the car, a refueling issue and a slow puncture dropped him back to fifth.
Read: Michael Schumacher’s Victorious Ferrari F2003-GA Sold For Nearly $15 Million
Schumacher next drove chassis 198 at the Monaco Grand Prix. He started in pole position for the race and at one stage, had a 35-second lead over the rest of the field. Unfortunately, he was forced to retire from the race with a broken pushrod. The car made its final competitive debut at the A1-Ring in Austria when Schumacher qualified in third. Schumacher ultimately won the 2000 Drivers’ Championship and Ferrari claimed the Constructors Championship.
“RM Sotheby’s has demonstrated that it has an unrivaled track record in bringing the most important Formula 1 cars to auction; a track record which is most closely associated with selling important Ferraris driven by Michael Schumacher, the greatest Ferrari F1 driver of all time,” global head of Private Sales at RM Sotheby’s, Shelby Myers said. “2022 saw us sell the famed F2003-GA chassis no. 229, at Sotheby’s Luxury Week sale in Geneva for CHF 14,630,000, making it the most valuable Formula 1 car of the modern era ever sold. The previous record was held by another ex-Michael Schumacher Ferrari, an F2001 which sold for $7,504,000 at Sotheby’s evening contemporary art sale in New York on 16 November 2017.”
Ferrari rebuilt chassis 198 after its professional retirement and it can now be used on the track through Ferrari’s Clienti program.
