The F1-2000 drove Schumi to many notable achievements more than two decades ago.
Michael Schumacher's first championship-winning Formula 1 car, the Ferrari F1-2000, has appeared for sale in Hong Kong via an RM Sotheby's Sealed auction. The 2000 Drivers' World Championship-winning machine needs no introduction to Schumi and Ferrari fans, but for our younger readers who can only remember how many touchscreens the latest Ferrari 296 has, here's a quick recap.
After four years of fighting to make Ferrari competitive again, Schumacher was given the F1-2000 for the first season of the new millennium, with the car boasting improved aero and a redesigned 3.0-liter 90-degree V10 engine producing 805 horsepower at 17,300 rpm.
Combined with Schumi's talents and Technical Director Ross Brawn's brilliance, the F1-2000 took the win at the season opener in Australia, but that exact car is not the one offered here.
In qualifying for the second race of the season (Interlagos, Brazil), Schumacher ran wide and badly damaged the undercarriage of his first car. In those days, teams were allowed a spare vehicle, and that spare vehicle, chassis 198, is the one that lined up on the starting grid on Sunday, helping him win in Brazil.
The chassis also took him to his first pole position of the year at the Spanish GP. The next time we saw it was at Monaco, where Schumacher was once again on pole and, at one point, pulled a lead of some 35 seconds over his nearest rival. A broken pushrod ultimately ended hopes of a famous Ferrari win in the principality, but chassis 198 returned at the A1-Ring in Austria.
Unfortunately, Ricardo Zonta, in a BAR-Honda, managed to rear-end Schumacher at the start, ending the races of both drivers before they began in earnest. If Zonta's name doesn't sound familiar, it's because he scored a grand total of just three points over his entire F1 career.
The damage was relatively light, and the car was repaired, but although the chassis traveled to all the remaining races of the season, it never raced in Grand Prix competition again. It was returned to Maranello for a complete rebuild, and the following year, in March 2001, it was displayed at the Geneva Motor Show. It was then sold to Texan Ferrari collector Kevin Crowder, who had it Ferrari Classiche certified in 2005 and prepared for use in F1 Clienti events. Its current owner acquired it in 2016 and drove it at various Ferrari Corse Clienti events.
Lot 101 will be offered from 3-12 April, but an estimate has not been revealed. Last year, Schumi's F2003-GA sold for a record-breaking $14.87 million, the highest price ever paid for a former F1 car; could this go for even more?
As the first Championship-winning car of the Schumacher/Ferrari golden era, it just might.
Keyword: Michael Schumacher's First Title-Winning Ferrari F1 Car Can Be Yours