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Michael Schumacher's 2003 F1 World Championship-winning Ferrari is set to go on auction and could fetch a whopping $9.4 million.
The seven-time world champion drove the F2003-GA Chassis 229 to seven race victories during the 2003 season, when he won his sixth world title. The car was also one of the four Schumacher-era Ferrari F1 chassis with seven or more wins in a world championship-winning season.
The car will go up for auction in Geneva, Switzerland, the same country where the Schumacher family has been residing since 2007. According to the Sotheby's Auction House, which is in charge of the auction of the car, the Ferrari could fetch up to $9.4 million.
Vincent Luzuy, the executive assistant to the director of RM Sotheby’s sales, expressed pride in being able to auction the car, saying:
“It’s special because this car is one of the only four cars with more than four wins in the Ferrari history and especially with one of the most skilled driver of his generation, Michael Schumacher.”
Luzuy also added the car is 'track-ready; should the buyer wish to give their new purchase (one of the best machines of its time) a spin.
If the car meets its estimated auction price, it will become the second-most expensive F1 car sold at the auction. It would rank behind another Michael Schumacher car — the 2001 title winning Ferrari F2001 — which fetched $7.5 million at a Sotheby's auction in New York.
The most expensive F1 car ever sold was the 1954 Mercedes W196R. That was Juan Manuel Fangio's car when he won the second of his five World titles. It was purchased for $29,650,095 at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2013.
The other Ferraris on the most expensive list
The 2001 is not the only car driven by Michael Schumacher that makes its way on the list. The F2002 (the car Schumacher dominated with in 2002) fetched $6.64 million in Abu Dhabi, while Schumacher’s F300 was purchased for $6,220,000.
The other cars that find themselves on the most expensive list include Lewis Hamilton's 2010 McLaren MP4-25A. It sold for $6.65 million and was the first of the seven-time world champions' cars to be sold. Ayrton Senna's last driven F1 car in 1993 — the McLaren MP4/8A — earned $4.35 million in 2018 in Abu Dhabi.
Looking at the prices these cars sell for, it's safe to say that F1 has always been a rich man's sport and is likely to remain so for a while.
