You don’t have a fraction of the talent that Michael Schumacher held in his left pinky finger, but if you have enough money you can buy the car he used to win his final races. Fighting tooth-and-nail with eventual champion Fernando Alonso in 2006, Schumi used this chassis as a tool to win the San Marino, European, United States, French, and German Grands Prix.
The iconic 2006 Ferrar 248 F1 was Schumacher’s Scuderia swansong, and this exact chassis was the one he used to surpass Ayrton Senna’s all-time pole position record. This car marked the end of an era when Schumacher retired from his spot as king of the Tifosi. And now you, a nobody who hasn’t ever won anything, have an opportunity to bid on it.
You’re not just buying a car, you’re buying an important piece of the sport’s greatest dynasty.
I was not a Ferrari fan in the mid-2000s. For one thing I lived in Spain and got to see Fernando Alonso lift the spirits of an entire nation with his back-to-back ’05 and ’06 championships. For another thing, Schumacher had been winning in red overalls for so long at that point I sort of assumed you were at least a little boring and a maybe a bit evil for cheering them on. That said, the Scuderia under the tutelage of Jean Todt, developed maybe the best winning strategy in F1 history. They built the entire team around Schumacher, using his unique blend of talent and ruthlessness, combined with Phillip Morris money, to practically shut everyone else out of the sport.
According to the selling auction house, and Ferrari’s Classiche certification, this car retains all of its original “numbers matching” components, including engine number 056F-197 and gearbox 657-11. It’s possible that Ferrari’s FXX program would get this car running and driving for you again if you asked nicely and gave them a blank check. But I cannot stress enough that you’ll never be able to deliver a lap time in this car even close to what Schumacher could. You are not him, and you never will be. No amount of money can get you an F1 win. If you need proof of that, just look at Lance Stroll.
There’s no word on what this car is estimated to sell for, and it’s a private “sealed” sale, so the final gavel number will never be made public, but you can bet it’s in the high seven figures, if not eight. I don’t have any delusions that I might be able to extract the kind of performance from this car that it deserves, and I know I’ll never be like Mike. That’s why I’m not bidding. Good luck!
