It’s 1998 and you’re glued to screen watching the Formula 1 British Grand Prix. Eventually, the scarlet red Ferrari driven by Michael Schumacher crosses the line to victory – no major surprise there. The chassis 187 was a car Schumacher would race to victory four times in total. It’s also a car that hasn’t been seen in 20 years. Next month, Sotheby’s will auction the Michael Schumacher Ferrari in California from August 18 – 22.
Although Schumacher did not actually win the championship that year (he came short of McLaren’s Mika Hakkinen, and neither of his seven world championships, were won in this vehicle (that only happened from 2000 on), the German drove the chassis four times without defeat, before it was eventually retired.
The car, Chassis 187, first won at the Canadian Grand Prix, at Circuit de Gilles, on June 7, 1998, claiming the fastest lap of the race with a huge 16-second lead off second place. The victory run would continue in France later that month, Britain on July 12, and a few weeks later at the Italian Grand Prix, bagging Shumi his 33rd career win.
The Chassis 187 is “considered one of the most significant F1 cars in existence”. According to auction house Sotheby’s, it is also the only undefeated car to run in three races. In a short video of Jean Todt, Ferrari’s team boss said it was the car Schumacher “loved like a baby.”
The vehicle was unveiled in 1998. Ferrari invited some 800 journalists to its Maranello showroom to preview its latest car, the F300. The chassis 187 sports a new 3.0-litre V-19 engine, with a maximum engine speed of 17,500rpm, and producing 800 horsepower. The car would be fine-tuned in the coming years, but the original aerodynamics and V-10 would serve as the foundation of Ferrari’s dominance in the early 2000s.
In 2017, Schumacher’s F2100 Ferrari claimed $7.5m at auction. The latest car to go under the hammer was acquired by an unnamed owner in 1999 from Scuderia Ferrari and kept hidden from the public eye for the next 20 years. Chassis 187 will be auctioned by Sotheby’s and is expected to fetch around $8m.
