Michael Schumacher Ferrari F2001 (chassis 211)

The droop-nosed Ferrari

New rules for 2001 cut downforce, and Ferrari's answer was a break with its own habits. The F2001, drawn up by a team led by technical director Ross Brawn and chief designer Rory Byrne, abandoned the high nose of Ferrari's recent cars for a low, drooping 'droopsnoot' nose with a spoon-shaped front wing, while keeping familiar Ferrari touches like periscope exhausts and small bargeboards.

Behind the driver sat Ferrari's Tipo 050, a naturally aspirated 3.0-liter V10. Published figures differ slightly: one source gives 825 horsepower at 17,300 rpm, the auction description 820 brake horsepower at 17,000 rpm. Power went through a seven-speed semi-automatic sequential gearbox, and the car ran on Bridgestone tires and Shell fuel. It weighed 600 kilograms.

The F2001 debuted at the 2001 Australian Grand Prix and was the class of the field, winning the constructors' title. An updated F2001B started the opening races of 2002, and Schumacher took the car's last win at the 2002 Australian Grand Prix before the F2002 took over. Across its career the F2001 won 10 races and took 13 pole positions and three fastest laps.

Monte Carlo, May 27, 2001

At Monaco, David Coulthard took pole for McLaren, 0.201 seconds faster than Schumacher. Then Coulthard's launch control failed on the formation lap and he stalled, sending him to the back of the grid and leaving Schumacher, in chassis 211, at the front of the race.

Mika Hakkinen's McLaren retired early with a steering problem, and in all 12 of the 22 starters failed to finish the 78 laps. Schumacher won from teammate Rubens Barrichello, with Eddie Irvine third for Jaguar's first-ever podium. It was Schumacher's fourth win of the season, the 48th of his career and his fifth and final win at Monaco. Sources disagree on the margin of victory, so it is left out here.

Afterward Schumacher sounded almost bored: 'I don't feel that emotional because it has been a very straightforward win.' The win stretched his championship lead over Coulthard from 4 points to 12.

Clinching the title in Hungary

Chassis 211 did not race every weekend. The auction history records it as a spare at the Canadian Grand Prix, called into qualifying for Barrichello after he crashed his own car into the wall and used by Schumacher in the race-morning warm-up; in warm-up only at the European and French Grands Prix; pressed into service at the German Grand Prix after a gearbox problem on the parade lap, where it retired with a fuel pressure fault; and in practice and qualifying at the Belgian Grand Prix, where Schumacher qualified third.

Its second win was the one that mattered. At the Hungaroring on August 19, Schumacher put the car on pole with a 1:14.059 and led every lap except during the pit-stop cycles, finishing 3.363 seconds ahead of Barrichello. The win clinched his fourth drivers' championship, his second in a row with Ferrari, making him the first Ferrari driver to win back-to-back titles since Alberto Ascari in 1952-53. Barrichello's second place clinched Ferrari's third straight constructors' title. Four races were left in the 17-race season.

The Hungarian win was Schumacher's 51st, tying Alain Prost's all-time record. He broke it at the very next race, in Belgium. He finished the year with 9 wins and 123 points, 58 clear of Coulthard; Ferrari scored 179 points to McLaren's 102.

From the paddock to the saleroom

In November 2017, chassis 211 was offered in a contemporary art evening sale in New York, the first time that auction house had put a car in an art sale. Against a pre-sale estimate of $4 million, eight bidders fought for six minutes and drove it to $7,504,000, a record at the time for a modern-era Formula 1 car. Reports differ on whether the sale was November 16 or 17.

In 2025 the car went through a major overhaul at the factory before returning to market. On May 24, 2025, it was sold in the F1 Paddock Club at the Monaco Grand Prix, the first car auction ever held at the race, a few hours before qualifying. The hammer fell at EUR 14.2 million, and with fees the price was EUR 15,980,000, about $18.2 million.

That made it the most expensive Ferrari Formula 1 car ever sold and the second most valuable modern-era Formula 1 car sold at auction. A donation from the proceeds went to the Keep Fighting Foundation, which carries on Schumacher's charitable work after his 2013 skiing accident.

Why this chassis

Schumacher won seven world titles, and Ferrari built many cars for him. What sets chassis 211 apart is the overlap: it is the only Ferrari in which he won the Monaco Grand Prix and the world championship in the same season, and it carried Ferrari to its first back-to-back drivers' and constructors' double.

Its price history also traces the market's view of Formula 1 cars: offered as a work of art in 2017, then sold in the Monaco paddock in 2025 for more than twice the earlier price.

The numbers

2001 Monaco GP

Started 2nd, won; 78 laps; Barrichello 2nd, Irvine 3rd

2001 Hungarian GP

Pole (1:14.059), won by 3.363 seconds over Barrichello; title clinched

Schumacher 2001

World champion, 9 wins, 123 points (Coulthard 65, Barrichello 56)

Ferrari 2001

Constructors' champion, 179 points (McLaren 102)

F2001 career (2001-2002)

10 wins, 13 poles, 3 fastest laps

Career wins after Hungary

51, tying Alain Prost's record

Timeline

1. Mar 4, 2001

   The 2001 season opens in Australia, where the F2001 makes its debut.

2. May 27, 2001

   Schumacher wins the Monaco Grand Prix in chassis 211, his 48th career win and fifth at Monaco.

3. Jun 2001

   Chassis 211 serves as a spare and warm-up car in Canada, at the European and French Grands Prix, and races in Germany, where it retires.

4. Aug 19, 2001

   Schumacher wins the Hungarian Grand Prix from pole in chassis 211, clinching his fourth title and tying Prost's 51 wins; Ferrari clinches the constructors' title.

5. Sep 2001

   At the Belgian Grand Prix, Schumacher qualifies chassis 211 third.

6. Oct 14, 2001

   The season ends; Schumacher finishes with 9 wins and 123 points.

7. 2002

   The updated F2001B races the opening rounds before the F2002 replaces it.

8. 2013

   Schumacher is seriously injured in a skiing accident.

9. Nov 2017

   Chassis 211 sells at an art auction in New York for $7,504,000, a record for a modern Formula 1 car.

10. 2025

    The car receives a major factory overhaul.

11. May 23, 2025

    The car is shown to Paddock Club guests in Monaco.

12. May 24, 2025

    Chassis 211 sells in Monaco for EUR 15,980,000, about $18.2 million, a record for a Ferrari Formula 1 car.

The world in 2001

• Mar 2, 2001

  The Taliban begin destroying the Buddhas of Bamiyan in Afghanistan.

• Mar 23, 2001

  The Russian space station Mir is deorbited into the South Pacific.

• Sep 11, 2001

  The September 11 attacks kill about 2,977 people in the United States.

• Oct 7, 2001

  A U.S.-led coalition invades Afghanistan.

• Dec 11, 2001

  China joins the World Trade Organization.

• Dec 15, 2001

  The Leaning Tower of Pisa reopens after 12 years of reconstruction.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Michael Schumacher Ferrari F2001 (chassis 211) is number 3 of 100 in the memorabilia entries of the FLOAT 100. 100 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (3 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Schumacher started the 2001 Monaco Grand Prix second; pole-sitter David Coulthard stalled on the formation lap because of a launch control glitch and had to start from the back.
• Monaco 2001 was the first Formula 1 podium for Jaguar, with Eddie Irvine in third.
• In 2017 chassis 211 was sold in a contemporary art evening sale in New York, the first car its auction house had ever offered at an art auction.
• In 2025 it became the first car sold at an auction held at the Monaco Grand Prix itself.
• Monaco 2001 was the last of Schumacher's five wins in the principality.
• Launch control and traction control, which tripped up Coulthard at Monaco, had only just been allowed back, from the Spanish Grand Prix that year.
• Its price rose from $7.5 million to about $18.2 million between 2017 and 2025.