Michael Schumacher Ferrari breaks record with $18m sale at auction

New York Times

24-05-2025

The Ferrari Formula One car that Michael Schumacher used to win the 2001 Monaco and Hungarian grands prix — and clinch that year's world title — has sold for $18.17 million to become the most expensive F1 car driven by the legendary German driver ever sold at auction.
The F2001 car was sold by RM Sotheby's at an event held ahead of qualifying in Monaco on Saturday, which was eventually topped by McLaren's Lando Norris.
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The event took place in F1's Paddock Club hospitality setting that overlooks the city's famous harbor. Bidding opened at €8 million ($9.09 million at current conversion rates), with the sale boiling down to bids from a telephone bidder and an event attendee bidding in the room. The eventual winning bid came from the room bidder and came in at €14.2 million, which rises to the final figure of €15.98m ($18.17 million) with fees included.
The figure beats the $13.2 million paid for a 2003 Ferrari F2003 sold by Sotheby's at an event in Geneva in 2022, concerning cars driven by Schumacher. The new record holder now regains its status in such matters, as it had previously been sold at auction by Sotheby's for $7.5m in 2017.
Overall, the 2025 F2001 sale is the fourth most expensive F1 car ever sold — behind three Mercedes cars. The world record is the $52.52 million paid earlier in 2025 for a Mercedes W196 streamliner once driven by F1 greats Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss during the German marque's initial stint in the championship in the mid 1950s.
The second most expensive F1 car is another W196 that sold for $29.6m in 2013 with a Lewis Hamilton-driven 2013 Mercedes that sold for $18.8m in 2023 the third-most. This was the car Schumacher's fellow seven-time world champion drove to his first F1 career win for Mercedes at the 2013 Hungarian Grand Prix.
The F2001 Ferrari was the car Schumacher used to score his fifth and final Monaco Grand Prix victory. He then used the same chassis on his way to winning the 2001 Hungarian Grand Prix, where he sealed his fourth F1 world title with four races of the 17-round season remaining.
The F2001 is also the most recent Ferrari car to have won the Monaco Grand Prix and a world title in the same season. The Italian team has been victorious at the famous street track twice more in the subsequent 24 years — in 2017 and 2024 — but race winners Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc were respectively beaten to title glory in those seasons by Hamilton and Max Verstappen.
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Schumacher, now 56, has not been seen in public since his December 2013 skiing accident that left him with a severe brain injury. With the help of his wife Corinna, his signature was added to a helmet worn by Jackie Stewart during the 2025 Bahrain Grand Prix, along with those of the other 20 living F1 world champions.