The Ferrari F2003GA, the Formula One single-seater with which the German driver Michael Schumacher won five races in 2003, the year of his sixth and penultimate World Championship, was auctioned this Wednesday for a record price of 13 million Swiss francs (one 13.1 millions of euros).
The estimates made by the auction house Sotheby’s ranged between 7.5 and 9.5 million Swiss francs, so the price reached – which does not include taxes and the firm’s commission – has confirmed the great interest that had sparked this sale among collectors.
Sotheby’s indicated that it is the highest price for a modern F1 car, after the sale in 2017 of another car that the same driver had driven in the 2001 season.
Schumacher is – along with Englishman Lewis Hamilton – the only winner of seven world titles in the premier category of motorsport. With the vehicle auctioned this Wednesday he was victorious in the grand prizes of Spain, Austria, Canada, Italy and the United States.
It also allowed him to get on the podium at the Monaco and French Grand Prix.
Schumacher disputed a total of nine races with this Ferrari F2003GA Chasis 229, to which advances were incorporated at the time that allowed it to improve its aerodynamics and that made it one of the historic cars of the golden age of Scuderia Ferrari, with the that the ‘Kaiser’ won five of his seven titles (in a row, between 2000 and 2004).
The German suffered a ski accident in Meribel (French Alps) at the end of 2013 in which he suffered serious brain damage. After two surgeries and six months of induced coma, he was treated in France and Switzerland for his rehabilitation, but his current status is unknown since his life takes place in the strictest conditions of privacy.
