Twenty years ago, Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello donned the red jumpsuit and tackled the 2003 Formula 1 season in Ferrari’s F2003-GA.
That year would also be when the Red Barron won his fourth successive F1 Drivers’ championship with the Italian team, seeing off challengers en route to his success.
Those were special times, and Schumacher and Ferrari’s success between 2000 and 2004 would forever engrave them in the sport’s history books as one of the most successful team-driver combos.
Schumacher would win six of the 2003 season’s 16 races and Barrichello two, gifting both titles to the Italians again.
These successes came in Ferrari’s golden era when the focal people in the team were Schumacher, Jean Todt (team boss), Ross Brawn (technical director), and South African Rory Byrne – the engineer who designed Schumacher’s championship-winning cars at Benetton and Ferrari.
Michael Schumacher driving his 2003 Ferrari F1 car, the F2003
Then came Leclerc
Being one of the Ferrari F1 team’s current drivers comes with a certain amount of perks, as Charles Leclerc recently discovered when he drove the F2003 around the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi. The raging naturally aspirated 3.0-litre V10 engine roared throughout the racetrack – the same venue where Max Verstappen won his first F1 championship under ‘questioning’ circumstances.
Leclerc uploaded a video of him driving Schumacher’s 2003 F1 car around Yas Marina, giving an onboard glimpse of the experience.
The activation was part of Ferrari F1’s buildup to the reveal of its 2023 car, which will take place on Valentine’s Day, 14 February. The team confirmed that the new car would be called the SF-23.
Ferrari said of the naming convention: “This is the eighth Scuderia Ferrari car to be designated SF, and the fourth time that it also references the current year.”
We live in a world where facts and fiction get blurred
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