Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari 248, driven during his final season with Scuderia Ferrari in 2006, will be sold via a sealed auction at RM Sotheby’s next month.
Schumacher drove the Formula 1 car to five Grand Prix victories in what would be his final season racing for the team, capping off what is widely considered one of the greatest runs in the history of the sport. The car carries a pre-auction estimate of $15 million.
Additionally, the chassis (No. 254) powered the seven-time F1 world champion to a pole-position record, passing all-time great Ayrton Senna’s mark of 65.
Following his first retirement announcement, Schumacher appeared in the car for the Finali Mondiali celebration in Monza, his final appearance as a driver for the team. The chassis was then used by his successor, Kimi Räikkönen, during the 2007 world championship season.
Schumacher returned to race for Mercedes in 2010 before retiring again in October 2012. He suffered a brain injury in a skiing accident in December 2013.
The auction house calls the car one of “the most significant of all Formula 1 cars in existence.”
It was subsequently acquired directly from Ferrari in 2007 by a private collector and later received Ferrari Classiche certification, a certificate of authenticity offered by the manufacturer to certify historically significant Ferrari vehicles.
In 2017, it appeared in an exhibit at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles during the “Seeing Red: 70 Years of Ferrari” show. The single-owner example is said to have been “within one of the world's greatest collections, possessed by one of the most sophisticated enthusiasts” by the auction house.
F1-driven vehicles are extremely rare to see at auction, often retained by the racing team for its own exhibition. Earlier this year, a Sotheby’s representative told PlanetF1, “There’s no question that Ferrari and McLaren F1 cars lead the way in desirability, and those driven by Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna are the most desired.”
The most expensive F1 vehicle ever sold was a 1954 Mercedes W196R, which fetched nearly $30 million in 2013. Second place is a 2013 Mercedes W04, raced by Lewis Hamilton during his first Mercedes win, which sold for $18.8 million in 2023.
If the $15 million estimate is met, it would place the Schumacher car as the third-most expensive F1 vehicle ever sold. Schumacher’s Ferrari F2003 from the 2003 season currently holds the third spot, selling for $13.2 million in 2022.
Will Stern is a reporter and editor for cllct.