A Ferrari previously driven by Formula 1 legend Michael Schumacher is set to go up for sale 13 years after the seven-time champion first owned it.
Three years after his initial retirement in 2006, Schumacher was still working with the Ferrari team, and was even close to a return with the Scuderia to replace the injured Felipe Massa following the Brazilian’s nasty crash in Hungary.
Despite having completed some testing in the F2007, the then 40-year-old was declared unfit to race due to a recent motorcycle accident.
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That same year, Schumacher got his Nürburgring silver Ferrari California, and it has personalised ‘MS’ initials embroidered into the headrests.
The German clocked up 9,720 miles in the car that has a 4.3 litre V8 engine and delivers 460 horsepower.
The California is currently based in Switzerland, and it is not the first Schumacher-owned vehicle to be put up for sale in recent times.
Earlier this season, the 53-year-old’s second-ever F1 car, the Benetton from 1992 – which led him to victory at Spa – went for $4.9 million at auction, while his old Mercedes road car and the Tesla he used at the 2010 Race of Champions alongside Sebastian Vettel collected a total of a largely disappointing $189,600 at Les Grandes Marques du Mond in Paris.
In an era where meticulous attention to detail on the cars is key in keeping them in an operating window, F1 technical director Ross Brawn – who managed Schumacher for a total of 18 seasons at Benetton, Ferrari and Mercedes, said the seven-time champion would have fit in like a glove.
“That would have been right up his alley,” he told Sport Bild.
“He used to be the last person to leave the paddock on Saturday night before the race. He sat with me and the engineers for hours on dates and numbers. He would be fascinated to analyse all this with the engineers.
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“He would be great in this new era. Michael would love the new Formula 1!”
Schumacher has been at his home in Geneva since 2014 after suffering severe head trauma in a skiing accident at the end of 2013, which necessitated a medically induced coma to treat him.