Formula 1 cars come up for sale more often than you might think, but it’s very rare that one with as much pedigree as this goes under the hammer.
Later this year Sotheby’s of New York will be auctioning off the Ferrari F2001 which Schumacher used to win the title in 2001. And when we say win the title, we mean literally – because it’s the exact chassis he drove to victory in Hungary, in the process winning his fourth world championship and equalling Alain Prost’s then-record number of F1 wins. Quite the car, then!
Chassis No.211 was also the car Schumacher used to win the 2001 Monaco GP – his fifth and final win in the Principality – thanks to a bit of help from pole-sitter David Coulthard stalling at the start and then getting stuck behind Enrique Bernoldi’s Arrows for half the race.
Compared to the F2002 and F2004, the F2001 tends to get somewhat overlooked in the history of great Ferrari F1 cars, but it was still a pretty dominant beast.
The Rory Byrne-designed machine won nine races that season in the hands of Schumacher, who scored almost double the points of runner-up Coulthard. Poor Rubens Barrichello didn’t manage to win at all that year but his brace of podiums was more than enough to give Ferrari its third consecutive constructors’ title and 11th in total.
Unlike some F1 cars which crop up for sale, this isn’t just some engineless static display piece, oh no. This is a complete car that’s ready to go – well, apart from the team of qualified mechanics and engineers needed to run it, that is. But that’s what Ferrari’s Corse Clienti programme is for, right?!
So, what will it cost you to get your hands on this slice of Formula 1 history? Well, the answer is a lot – it’s estimated to make upwards of $4million when it goes up for auction on 16 November. Bargain!
