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Race Recap: 2013 Malaysian Grand Prix is a fool in the rain

Humidity, hunger and heartbreak were the takeaways from the Malaysian Formula One Grand Prix. A proper track with a wider variety of straights and corners than the street circuit in Australia, the second race of the season was expected to be a better test of the performance of the 11 teams on the grid. It was also supposed to be a more accurate test of the Pirelli tires, the bits of rubber at the four corners of the car still at the top of the performance agenda for all the top teams except for McLaren, which even larger issues with its new car to deal with.
Then it rained. Then it rained some more. Then it rained so hard just before the race that numerous drivers slid off the track on the parade lap. Then came the race, and then came the figurative tears and ones of the crocodile variety as well.

Michael Schumacher’s championship 2002 Ferrari F2002 set for auction

RM Sotheby's November auction in Abu Dhabi might still be months away, but Formula 1 just gave racing fans a huge reason to get excited for the event now. F1 and Sotheby's announced 10 early entries for the auction, and the most special of the bunch is the 2002 Ferrari F2002, Michael Schumacher's championship-winning race car. Schumacher dominated the field throughout the 2002 F1 season by finishing first or second in every race. That season, he won in Australia, Brazil, San Marino, Spain, Austria, Canada, Great Britain, France, Germany, Belgium and Japan. Schumacher didn't use this exact car, chassis No. 219, for every race, but it is the vehicle he was driving when he won at the French Grand Prix, where he secured his fifth drivers' championship title (his teammate Rubens Barrichello took second but had about half as many points as Schumacher). Ferrari, having won all but two races that season, also took the constructors' championship that year. After its time in competitive racing, 219 was used as a test car for the remainder of the 2002 season before eventually retiring the next season. Since then, it has been owned by various private collectors. The F2002 was an absolute force of a machine. It used a 299.66-cc 90-degree V10 that made 823 horsepower at 17,800 rpm that paired with a fused titanium seven-speed gearbox. The car's structure was a honeycomb and carbon-fiber composite monocoque. Steering was mechanical power-assisted rack-and-pinion. It also had carbon-ceramic composite brakes and a suspension setup with independent push-rods, twin wishbones, torsion bar springs and telescopic shock absorbers. So how valuable is a car with this much history? Well, a 2013 Gooding & Company auction at Pebble Beach offered F2002 chassis No. 220, and it sold for $2,255,000. We expect this car to easily surpass that number. However much it sells for, RM Sotheby's says "a percentage of proceeds" will go to the Keep Fighting Foundation, which is inspired by Schumacher. Mark the date on your calendar: November 30, 2019.

Ferrari planning 458 Speciale Spider?

The Ferrari 458 comes from a long line of mid-engined V8 supercars to roll out of Maranello, from the 348 and F355 to the 360 and F430. Each has also bred a Spider version, and starting with the 360 Challenge Stradale (through the 430 Scuderia and 458 Speciale), a hardcore performance version. But combining the best attributes of Spider and performance model is relatively new territory for Ferrari, one which it attempted only with the limited-production Scuderia Spider 16M. And if the latest rumors are to be believed, it's about to go at it again.
Though we can't verify its sources, 4WheelsNews says it has double confirmation from within Ferrari that a 458 Speciale Spider is in the works. When reached for confirmation, Ferrari refused to comment, as it typically does on the prospect of new models yet to be announced. Given the precedent of the Scuderia Spider 16M, it would seem to make sense, but for the time being we'll have to chalk this one up as a rumor.
If it were built, the Ferrari 458 Scuderia Spider (or whatever it would ultimately be called) would take the best of the 458 Spider and 458 Speciale to pack the 600-horsepower version of Maranello's sweet-revving 4.5-liter V8 underneath a folding hardtop. The latter is something the 16M did not offer, but crucially, the new McLaren 650S Spider does. We'd also expect only a limited number to be produced at a suitable premium over the Spider's $257k MSRP and the Speciale's $288k sticker.