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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.

Sebastian Vettel risks losing F1 championship lead in Sunday's Italian Grand Prix

MONZA, Italy — Sebastian Vettel has been on the podium at Ferrari's home Italian Grand Prix for the past two years, but anything less than a win on Sunday could cost the German the lead in the Formula One championship points race. The Ferrari driver is only seven points clear of Lewis Hamilton, the difference between first and second place, with his Mercedes rival fresh from last weekend's pole-to-flag success in Belgium and 5-4 up on race wins. Hamilton won at Monza in 2014 and 2015 and was runner-up last year to now-retired teammate and eventual champion Nico Rosberg. The Briton has also been on pole at the "Pista Magica" for the past three years. But Ferrari has closed the gap, and Vettel can count on a wave of local support at the historic Milanese track where he took his first grand prix victory with Toro Rosso in 2008. "I think Monza is never a critical race for Ferrari. I think it's the nicest race," the four-times world champion told reporters ahead of a weekend that will also see his team celebrate their 70th anniversary. "We have a lot of support, so I'm really looking forward to it already." Vettel, with a new three-year contract signed only last weekend, won at Monza with Red Bull in 2011 and 2013 but has yet to do so in Ferrari red. If he does, he will become the first driver to win the race with three different teams since Britain's Stirling Moss in the 1950s. In 2015, Vettel's first season since switching to Ferrari, he finished second. Last year he was third. "We've been second, we've been third, so maybe we can get the last step on the podium that is missing," said the 30-year-old, adding that there was no reason for Ferrari to fear any circuit from now on. Hamilton will also have plenty of fans, with the locals respecting a true racer, and can make history with a record pole position after equaling Michael Schumacher's all-time tally of 68 in Belgium. The Mercedes driver knows he needs to make the most of the moment in the last European race of the season, with Ferrari likely to have the upper hand again once the action switches to Singapore. "Clearly we have not a bad car on the straights. I imagine it's going to be very, very close in the next race," he said after Spa. Red Bull, with Australian Daniel Ricciardo in his ancestral homeland and smiling following his third place in Belgium, will again be the best of the rest although Max Verstappen is likely to have grid penalties following his retirement in Spa.

Awaiting Chevy Trailblazer, driving Ford Ranger | Autoblog Podcast #580

In this week's Autoblog Podcast, Editor-in-Chief Greg Migliore is joined by Consumer Editor Jeremy Korzeniewski and Green Editor John Beltz Snyder. First, they discuss the news, including the Chevy Trailblazer, Ferrari to stop providing Maserati with engines, an upcoming Ferrari Hybrid, Elon Musk's sex jokes and the reveal of the McLaren GT. They also talk at length about a couple vehicles they've been driving: the Kia Niro EV and the Ford Ranger. Autoblog Podcast #580 Get The Podcast iTunes – Subscribe to the Autoblog Podcast in iTunes RSS – Add the Autoblog Podcast feed to your RSS aggregator MP3 – Download the MP3 directly Rundown Chevy Trailblazer could be coming to the U.S. Ferrari to stop supplying engines to Maserati Ferrari to reveal a hybrid supercar Sex on Autopilot McLaren GT revealed Cars we're driving: 2019 Kia Niro EV 2019 Ford Ranger Feedback Email – Podcast@Autoblog.com Review the show on iTunes Related Video: Green Podcasts Chevrolet Ferrari Ford Kia Maserati McLaren Tesla Truck Coupe Crossover Hatchback Electric Future Vehicles Hybrid Off-Road Vehicles Performance Supercars