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By James Broughton, November 11, 2022
The Ferrari F2003-GA Formula 1 car driven by Michael Schumacher has sold for £13,200,000 at an auction in Switzerland held by Sotheby’s Auction House. The fee paid by a mysterious phone bidder is double that of pre-auction estimates. The race car competed in the 2003 F1 championship and was of course piloted by Michael Schumacher who won six races securing his sixth world title. No other driver before or after Schumacher has given so much to the team. Before his arrival, Ferrari was merely a competitor with over two decades of evaporating championship hopes and dreams, a team relying on past glories to keep a directionless momentum from stopping.
Schumacher changed everything bringing a new dynamic and energy. His first year at Ferrari was dogged by reliability issues but Schumacher carried the team on his shoulders and won 3 races against the odds and against an ultra-dominant Williams Renault.
Schumacher was Ferrari, and in 1996, combined with a crack team of designers and engineers he would go on to lead the Scuderia into its most winning most dominant period ever with 5 consecutive driver titles in a row between 2000-2004.
No driver since has ever come close to matching what Schumacher did for Ferrari. And that is why a phone bidder paid $13.2M for the Ferrari F2003-GA / Chassis 229. The provenance of Michael Schumacher and the allure of Ferrari is a massive selling point to any motor racing fan/investor.
The Ferrari 2003-GA was powered by a 3.0-liter V10 engine that produces 917 hp (684 kW / 930 PS) and revs up to 19,000 rpm. Prior to the sale, it had one owner, Ferrari, and therefore it has been kept in pristine condition ever since.
But Schumacher’s 2003-GA is cheap next to Juan Manuel Fangio’s 1954 Mercedes W196R which sold at auction for $30M in 2013.
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