Michael Schumacher’s first winning F1 car set to sell for millions | F1 | Sport

The car in which Michael Schumacher took victory for the very first time in a Formula 1 race is set to go under the hammer. The striking green-and-yellow B192-05 was raced by the Benetton team in the 1992 season, which also just so happened to be a certain Mr Schumacher’s first full campaign as an F1 driver after making a splash on debut the previous year.

He would, of course, go on to become the sport’s first seven-time world champion and remains to this day one of F1’s most decorated drivers ever. Schumacher’s record of 91 Grand Prix victories has been beaten only by Lewis Hamilton since, and the very first of those victories came at an iconic venue during that first full year on the grid.

Having been snatched away from Jordan Grand Prix by Benetton and ruthless boss Flavio Briatore, Schumacher set about establishing himself as one of the front-runners in F1. And he wasted little time, securing his first victory at the Belgian Grand Prix in August 1992 to become the first German driver to win a race since Jochen Mass 17 years earlier.

Schumacher qualified third but faced the unenviable task of getting past two legendary drivers in their own right ahead of him. Nigel Mansell took pole position, having already secured his status as that year’s drivers’ title winner, while joining the Brit on the front row was three-time world champion Ayrton Senna.

But it would be a day for a new superstar to come to the fore as Senna made the wrong decision to stay out for too long on dry tyres when rain began to fall, while Mansell and Williams team-mate Riccardo Patrese both suffered engine issues late on which opened the door for Schumacher to win by more than half-a-minute.

For the latest breaking stories and headlines, sign up to our Daily Express F1 newsletter, or join our WhatsApp community here.

It would be his only victory of the 1992 campaign but, of course, many more were to come. He went on to become a double world champion with Benetton, securing back-to-back titles in 1994 and ’95, before agreeing to join Ferrari and winning five more in a row in the early 2000s.

But the first of those 91 wins came in that humble little Ford-powered 1992 car, which became a valuable piece of F1 history as a result. It remained in possession of the team, which later became Renault and now competes under the Alpine name. But the car was moved out of their Enstone base back in 2015 when it was sold on. It now has a private owner and has undergone restoration with work having been done on the chassis, engine and gearbox to get it back into running order.

It is now being auctioned off online with Broad Arrow, though anyone who fancies owning the remarkable machine must be prepared to pay a premium. Estimates on the car suggest it could sell for around £7.38million, with open bidding taking place for seven days between January 23-30.