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TimesLIVE
23-05-2025
- Automotive
- TimesLIVE
‘Crown jewel' Schumacher Ferrari F1 car up for auction at Monaco GP
As motorsport fans prepare to tune into the Monaco Grand Prix this weekend, auction house RM Sotheby's has announced the availability of the 2001 Michael Schumacher Formula One car on the sidelines. The German record title holder won the Monaco Grand Prix of the same year and also clinched the world championship in the same season, his fourth, in the Chassis 211 car on sale. Though not the primary car for the 2001 season, it is regarded as the crown jewel among all Schumacher F1 cars. Schumacher relied mostly on Chassis 210, part of a range of cars masterminded by Jean Todt, Ross Brawn and Rory Byrne — a collective known as the super team. Chassis 211 is the final Ferrari F1 car to win in Monaco in a championship-winning year, in a race where Schumacher pipped two-time champion Mika Häkkinen, Ferrari teammate Rubens Barrichello, Juan Pablo Montoya, Jos Verstappen (father of Max) and younger brother Ralf Schumacher. It comes from the golden era of screaming V10 engines, with an output of 611kW at an incredible 17,000rpm. Notable achievements include pole position and winning the 2001 Hungarian Grand Prix, but it was the reigning F1 world champion's stunning Monaco 2001 drive in the car that's for the books. A weekend of attrition started out with a messy qualification for Schumacher, resulting in a damaged suspension after brushing the barrier to avoid the Arrows of Enrique Bernoldi. This forced a car change into Chassis 211, but David Coulthard had capitalised, snatching a pole position start. Schumacher lined up in second position for the Sunday race but with a clear view ahead after Coulthard's McLaren experienced launch control failures on the formation lap, killing the engine. The Scot joined up at the back. The starting grid included Finnish driver Häkkinen in third, Barrichello in fourth and Ralf in fifth. The German driver launched the F2001 strongly and had cemented first place entering the Sainte Devote Corner, the first challenge drivers must face on the Monaco circuit. Despite setting some of the fastest laps on the day, Häkkinen had no reply to Schumacher and lost the position to Barrichello on lap 8. Schumacher went on to extract an 18-second gap from the rest and also closed to lap Coulthard by lap 25. He slowed down to allow Barrichello to catch up for a dramatic Ferrari 1-2 finish. Chassis 211 remained on the sidelines after Monaco, serving as a standby for the Canadian Grand Prix. It was called into action in qualifying, though, after Barrichello connected with the 'Wall of Champions'. Schumacher again climbed into chassis 211 for the warm-up laps before the European and French Grands Prix before returning to F2001 210. A niggle in the seven-speed semi-automatic sequential gearbox struck the 210 on the parade lap at Hockenheim and 211 was called back into action but failed to finish owing to a fuel pressure fault. Chassis 211 was back in action at Hungary and took the win. It would prove to be the only Ferrari aboard which Schumacher won the Monaco Grand Prix and Drivers' Championship in the same season. It's the most sought-after of all F2001s and was recently subject to a major overhaul by the factory in 2025.
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Brawn GP F1 car heading to auction for the first time
The first Brawn GP Formula 1 car is being made available to the public for the very first time as part of Bonham's auction at the Miami Grand Prix this May. BGP 001/01 is one of just three Brawn GP chassis ever produced, and is finished in the livery sported by Jenson Button's car at the 2009 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, although it was Button's teammate Rubens Barrichello who raced this particular chassis at the time, Barrichello drove the car from the Australian Grand Prix until the Singapore Grand Prix in 2009 before switching to chassis 001/03 for the final three races of the season. It scored two victories in Barrichello's hands – at the European Grand Prix in Valencia and the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, the car's penultimate outing – and a further four podiums, including second in a Mercedes one-two on the team's debut in Australia. 'This car represents the ultimate Formula 1 fairy tale – a revolutionary design that redefined what was possible,' said Louis Frankel, Miami head of sale at Bonhams. 'Chassis 001/01 is a piece of motorsport history, and its offering at auction is sure to captivate collectors worldwide. 'We are honored to present this unrepeatable opportunity over the Miami Grand Prix, a stage befitting its legendary status.' Brawn GP's sole Formula 1 season is the stuff of legend. Rising from the ashes of the departed Honda team and running on a relatively modest budget following an 11th hour management buyout, the team shoehorned customer Mercedes engines into its car that had been developed by the team when it was still under the Japanese brand's ownership, then went on to win both the Drivers' and Constructors' championships. In total, the team took eight wins from 17 races in 2009, including six of the first seven as it capitalized on the 'blown diffuser' loophole to get a competitive advantage in what was the first year of new aerodynamic regulations. At the end of the season Mercedes purchased the team, with it going on to add seven more Drivers' and Constructors' title doubles between 2014-2020, and another Constructors' title in 2021. Following the 2009 season BGP 001/01 fell under Mercedes ownership as part of its acquisition of the team and went on to serve as a showcar, complete with silver livery. It was later passed on to Button as part of a contractual clause that stipulated he was to receive a car in the event of him winning the championship. Mercedes initially refused to hand over a car, and the case eventually went to London's High Court in June 2010. Bonhams states the car remained in Button's possession until 2024. It is unknown whether he is the seller. The other two Brawn cars also survive, but have never been sold on the open market. Chassis 001/02 – the car Button drove in every race in 2009 en route to his title win – is owned by Brawn GP team principal and namesake Ross Brawn, and is the only one of the three in running order. It ran at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2016 (after being restored) in the hands of Martin Brundle, and 2019 when it was driven by former-Brawn GP test driver Anthony Davidson and Barrichello, and again at Silverstone ahead of the British Grand Prix that year when Button drove it for the first time in a decade. The third chassis is still owned by Mercedes, but is on loan to the Silverstone Museum. It too saw life as a Mercedes showcar, but has since been returned to its period livery. Nevertheless, it still sports plaid trimming in the cockpit (akin to Mercedes grand prix cars of the 1950s), a hangover from its early post-race life. Coincidentally, news of the upcoming Brawn GP car sale comes after a Mercedes became the most expensive grand prix car sold at auction last week. A 1954-55 W196R Stromlinienwagen (Streamliner), driven to victory in the 1955 Argentine Grand Prix by Juan Manuel Fangio and to the fastest lap of the Italian Grand Prix of the same year by Stirling Moss, sold for $53.9 million at RM Sotheby's Paris sale. It was sold from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum collection, which received the car in 1965 as a donation from Mercedes parent Daimler-Benz. That smashed the previous record for the highest price of a grand prix car sold at auction. That was another W196R, albeit in its standard guise, which was sold by Bonhams for $29.6 million at the 2013 Goodwood Festival of Speed. The third-highest selling grand prix car at auction also happens to be a Mercedes – a 2013 F1 W04 that was driven by Lewis Hamilton to his first race win for the factory Mercedes team, and later owned by McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown. The only modern Mercedes F1 car in private hands, it was sold to an unknown buyer for $18.8 million at RM Sotheby's auction at the Las Vegas Grand Prix in 2023. All three fall way short of the overall auction record for a car though. That, again, is a Mercedes – one of two 1955 300 SLR Uhlenhaut Coupes – which sold for $142 million in 2022. Story originally appeared on Racer
