Michael Schumacher’s 1998 Ferrari F300 goes under the hammer. He owns an unrivalled record.
Some kids have a bed shaped like a racing car – if you bid at the Monterey Auto Week auction (18-20 August), you could find your sleeping quarters in a real Formula One racer.
And not just any: for sale is the legendary 1998 Ferrari F300, in which Michael Schumacher set a hitherto unbeaten record. If you’ve got enough money on the high side, you can strike here, in Pin Up casino.
The F300’s overall package was just right
The red racer’s characteristics awaken tired spirits: the newly developed three-litre engine, called Tipo 047, develops 802 hp.
Combined with the F300’s extremely good aerodynamics, the V10 engine with a top speed of 340 km/h laid the foundations for the great success of the Ferrari racing team in Formula 1 in the early 2000s.
A total of nine F300s were built for the 1998 racing season, the car for sale with chassis number 187 being the seventh.
It made its first official racing appearance with racing legend Schumacher at the wheel of the Circuit de Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal and went on to win immediately, followed by two more first places in France and Great Britain .
Michael Schumacher’s unbeaten record
After the chassis 187 was put on pause for the race in Belgium , Schumacher was back behind the wheel in Monza, Italy, for the car’s fourth win.
In doing so, this F300 set a previously unbeaten record: it is the only Ferrari chassis to have competed in at least three races and won each of them. Schumacher had also won in Argentina and Hungary on another car, while his co-driver Eddie Irvine was without a win.
At the end of the 1998 season, however, these victories did not bring Ferrari the title; Mika Hakkinen and McLaren-Mercedes won the drivers’ and constructors’ cups.
But the cornerstone of a successful series had been laid: in the following years Ferrari won the Constructors’ Cup six times in a row, Michael Schumacher was the best driver five times in a row.
But the Chassis 187 as a single machine remains unsurpassed in its successes.
Hidden from public view for over 20 years
Ferrari sold the car in its original condition to a private individual in September 1999. Since then, the car has been hidden from public view and, as RM Sotheby’s auction house advertises, has been well kept and not restored.
Sotheby’s expects the auction proceeds to be between $6 million and $8 million. Considering that such a racer is not a street racer, a solution with a built-in sleeper might not be a bad thing – and certainly a very exclusive one.
