Video: Schumacher blasts through Monaco in his V10 Ferrari
09th June 2023
Simon Ostler
The video we bring you for our Goodwood Elevenses today might only be 20 seconds long, but we’re willing to bet by the time you’ve satisfied your appetite for the sound of a ...
It’s a full 20 years since Michael Schumacher and Ferrari were at the peak of their powers, but within that era of dominance between 2000 and 2004, it was this season in 2003 that Schumacher faced his toughest test. A young Kimi Räikkönen had got his feet under the table at McLaren who themselves had finally managed to build a car with the pace to challenge the Ferraris, and the early season saw the Finn leading the championship.
By the time we got to round seven in Monaco, Räikkönen was four points ahead of Schumacher, and this pair had established themselves as the front runners ahead of Fernando Alonso. The battle on track was as close as it had been for a long, long time, but for all the drama and tension, there was one thing about F1 in the early 2000s that made watching live extra special: that sound.
Here we get to experience the raw howl of that Ferrari 3.0-litre V10 in the back of Schumacher’s car as he comes hurtling out of the tunnel – we can’t see him at this point, but we can certainly hear him coming – and slams on the brakes for the Nouvelle Chicane. Rattling down four or five gears, all goes quiet for a moment before the great German gets back on the throttle and screeches away towards Tabac. You can hear the engine echoing through the streets and up into the mountains. And with that, he's out of sight. Were these the best F1 engines ever?
