Highest bid on wednesday A 2003-GA Ferrari Formula is sold at a classic car auction by auction house RM Sotheby’s. An anonymous collector paid 14.6 million Swiss francs for the car, which translates to 360.6 million crowns. At the same time, Canadian auctioneers’ estimates ranged between 7.5 and 9.5 million Swiss francs.

The chassis with the production number 229 made its racing debut in 2003, which was marked by greater pressure on the Italian team than the competition, and therefore the development of the single seat had to be carried out more quickly this season.

However, at Ferrari 2003-GA, Michael Schumacher finally managed to get five wins from a total of six world titles in nine race weekends. And besides, he rode the fastest three laps of this F1 season with him.

The year 2003 was very important for the legendary racer. After almost completely dominating this cup and winning it, he broke the previous record for the championship title held. For 35 years until then, it has belonged to Juan Manuel Fangio, who has five wins overall in F1. The famous German racer broke this year’s record with six titles. And overall, he’s made seven stops in his career.

The Schumacher Formula that was auctioned off was one of the last single seats of the top trophy with a ten-cylinder engine. Since 2006, it has switched to eight cylinders with a volume of 2.4 liters. The three-liter V10 engine of the 2003-GA Ferrari reaches 943 horsepower at 19,000 rpm, and the car weighs just 600 kilograms. For comparison, the current formula has a six-cylinder hybrid engine and over 1,000 horsepower, but the minimum weight limit is already 798 kilograms.

The chassis with production number 229 is said to have traveled 238 kilometers in the race and received a complete renovation earlier this year. In the video that opens this article, he is introduced by Schumacher’s son, Mick.

The seven-time F1 world champion started riding karts at the age of four. This was followed by the junior formula, where he also started in F3 at Brno in 1989. He made his Formula 1 Grand Prix debut just two years later at the Belgian Grand Prix, then still for the British team Jordan. From there he was transferred to the Benetton team, where he became world champion in 1994 and 1995.

Schumacher left for the Ferrari team in 1996, and with the Italian stable he won five world championships between 2000 and 2004. In total, he scored 72 victories during this period. He is known for his uncompromising driving style, where he often goes above and beyond the rules. In 1997, he was even barred from participating in the entire championship season due to an accidental collision with another pilot. Throughout his career, he has only suffered a serious injury on the circuit once, and that was in 1999, when he broke his leg after a failed brake.

The legendary driver first ended his career at the end of 2006. However, four years later, he returned to racing for his home Mercedes. However, he did not win another championship title or win in a Grand Prix. He definitively ended his racing career with a third place at the 2012 European GP.

In late December nine years ago, a racing pilot was seriously injured while skiing in the Alps. More precisely, in Méribel, France, where he owns a mountain chalet and sets out to help a friend’s daughter, who falls off the runway and falls. While driving towards him, according to witnesses, he hit a rock, which threw him in the air, after which, falling to the ground, he hit another piece of rock and injured his head.

According to subsequent investigations, Michael Schumacher was driving at a normal speed before the accident and had a helmet, which experts say saved his life – otherwise he might have died soon after the fall.

Although the famous rider still communicated with rescuers during transportation to the hospital, he later fell into a coma from a brain injury. He then underwent two surgeries, after which doctors described his condition as critical.

In the weeks and months that followed, a number of unofficial reports and speculations began to spread, which spoke of the decline and improvement of Schumacher’s health. It was only in early April that his manager Sabine Kehm confirmed that he would sometimes regain consciousness and wake up.

In mid-June, the former F1 driver was transferred to the Swiss University Clinic in Lausanne, where he began his rehabilitation. In early September of the same year, doctors released him for home treatment, and his family reportedly had to significantly change their residence on the shores of Lake Geneva because of this. However, since then, news about his health has only appeared sporadically to the public.

In late 2014, his former partner Philippe Streiff, for example, stated that the legendary racer was paralyzed, in a wheelchair, unable to speak and had memory problems.

The last time Michael Schumacher’s relatives gave their official statement was in a documentary that premiered last September. “He keeps showing me how strong he is every day. We stayed home together, rehabilitated and did everything we could to make Michael feel good and just feel his family, his bond,” his wife Corinna said in the documentary.

No other information is known about the health status of the legendary F1 racer. His family and loved ones did not publish it.

The successor to the famous line, the son of Mick Schumacher, who described his father’s auction formula in a video at the beginning of the article, has only won in smaller races so far. He became the European F3 champion in 2018 and F2 a year later.

Last year, the junior finally started racing in F1 for the North Carolina team Haas. However, he finished twelfth on the Hungarian circuit at the Hungaroring in a car that was not highly acclaimed.

This year, Mick Schumacher had two accidents on the racing circuit. In March, he slipped and crashed in qualifying for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. However, he did not suffer serious injuries and remained conscious after being rescued. In May, at the Monaco Grand Prix, he went off the track and even split a Haas car in two – even in this accident, he got lucky and left the track on his own two feet.

Next season, i.e. later this year, the legend’s son will be a reserve driver for Ferrari and get a theoretical chance to race in a formula where his father won five of the seven world titles between 2000 and 2004.