Driven in 2003 by F1 legend, seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher and the sixth title winner of his career, the Ferrari car was sold at an auction in Geneva on Wednesday for a record $13.2 million.
After confirming the sale, Sotheby’s stated that the Ferrari F-2003-GA Chassis 229, with which the Red Baron won many races in the 2003 season, had reached “a record price for a modern Formula One car”. That’s nearly double the $7.5 million record set by another Ferrari that Schumacher also drove in the 2001 season and was sold to Sotheby’s New York in 2017.
The auction house later revealed that after taxes and fees, the final price for the 2003 Ferrari was $14.9 million. The identity of the buyer, who made his bid over the phone with a call from Europe after a bidding war of more than 40 minutes, has not been released, and the final price far exceeded expectations, as the pre-sale auction house estimated the car would fetch up to $9.6 million.
“This is one of Ferrari’s biggest wins in brand history, so it’s a very important car in automotive history,” Vincent Lozo of Sotheby’s, who sells luxury cars, told AFP. “It was designed by engineers Rory Byrne and Ross Brown who decided to design a slightly longer wheelbase to improve aerodynamics,” he explained.
Schumacher scored five victories that season, starting at the Catalan circuit and then at the Austrian, Canadian, Italian and US Grands Prix.
Schumi started in Ferrari 2003 from first place 3 times (Spain, Austria and Italy), achieved the fastest lap during races in Austria, Italy and the USA and was twice on the podium in Monaco and France to defeat the German in the Japanese Grand Prix, the last stage of the championship, he won his sixth world title, breaking the previous record he shared with Argentina’s Juan Manuel Fangio (5 each). Scuderia Ferrari also won their fifth title in a row and 13th in their history in the Constructors’ Championship.
