Michael Schumacher's championship‑dominating Ferrari F2001 could be yours

Do contemporary Formula 1 cars get any better than this? Not for RM Sotheby’s they don’t. When the exquisite machine crosses the block at its Contemporary Art Evening Auction on November 16th in New York the car will be billed as “the most important modern Formula 1 race car in existence. 

F2001 chassis 211 is the car Michael drove in the 2001 season, winning nine Grands Prix including Monaco – the last of his five victories there. This is the car that took his overall F1 win tally past that of Alain Prost’s – 53 by season end. By round 13 that year, the Hungarian Grand Prix, Schumey had the 2001 title sewn up, with almost twice the points of his nearest challenger, David Coulthard.

The car gave Schumey his fourth world drivers’ title (he would go on to win seven of course) and provided the second of his two back-to-back titles. The car was the zenith of a period in which team and driver set records that may never be broken, says RM. 

The F2001, designed by the Ferrari dream team of Jean Todt, Ross Brawn, Rory Byrne and Paolo Martinelli, was such a state of the art thing it started the 2002 season in only lightly modified form and promptly won the season-opener in Melbourne.

And did we mention that it – more specifically its 900bhp 3.0-litre V10 – sounds quite good? Check out the video for a reminder of just how spine-tingling the F2001 sounded when it hit its 18,500rpm limit… 

To us that noise is priceless and to a collector? There’s no price guide as yet but one thing for sure is that old F1 cars can’t match old sports cars in the price stakes. The 1964 Le Mans-winning Ferrari 275 P is tipped to make between £22-30 million when it comes up for sale at Artcurial’s auction in Paris on February 9^th.

We will have to wait to see what Schumacher’s championship-winner makes. With Sotheby’s selling a car at a contemporary art sale for the first time, who knows what could happen.  

Why sell a car at an art auction? Because, like the best art, the F2001 “challenges boundaries” says Sotheby’s. “This auction is the perfect setting for the Ferrari F2001 because it is such an artful combination of beauty, design, and balance.”

So, a Rothko or this Ferrari? We know which we would choose. 

Photography courtesy of LAT Images