Schumacher's Ferrari went under the hammer for a record amount

      In the spring, it became known that during the Monaco Grand Prix, RM Sotheby's auction house would put up for auction a Ferrari car, which Michael Schumacher performed in 2001 and won victories in Monaco and Hungary.

      We wrote about this at the time, so it makes sense to tell you how the story ended: the Ferrari F2001 went under the hammer for a record amount of 15.98 million euros and became the most expensive car of the great German racing driver ever sold at auction.

      The bidding took place on the Saturday before qualifying in Monaco and was held at the track's Paddock Club. Bets were accepted both by phone and from people who attended the event directly – it was one of them who offered the highest possible bid of 14.2 million euros, and the final amount, including additional fees, was almost 16 million euros.

      Schumacher's champion Ferrari became the fourth most expensive in the ranking of the most expensive Formula 1 cars, and Mercedes racing cars occupy the first three places in this list. The record was set in February of this year, when the unique W196 Streamliner, on which Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss once performed, was sold for 51.15 million euros.

      In its own way, it is symbolic that Michael Schumacher won his fifth and final victory in the Monaco Grand Prix in a car that went under the hammer on Saturday. And in Hungary, where he piloted the F2001 again, on August 19, 2001, he secured his fourth title ahead of schedule in four stages before the end of that season.