News June 5 2006

For sale: a selection of F1 cars - slightly used

Price on application. Ferrari is making the dream of driving an F1 car a reality for a very select few through its F1 Clienti programme which enables the purchase of a Ferrari Formula One car and its use, with full Ferrari team support, at five events a year.

These are not spare cars or cars that have never seen real action - they are the actual cars used, in some case, by legends of motorsport. 35 Ferrari F1 cars are owned privately, including five cars driven by Michael Schumacher and dating back to a Ferrari T312 driven by Nicki Lauda in 1975 and even a 1953 500 F2 driven by Ascari. Other cars owned privately are the former steeds of Alesi, Regazonni, Prost and Villeneuve.

At Ferrari's Gestione Sportive these cars are maintained by a team of professional racing technicians who looked after their charges during their time in Formula One spotlight.

They prepare the cars and customize them for their new owners, before they are taken to Ferrari's Fiorano test track for a shake down and driver training for their new owners. F1 Clienti organise a series of non-competitive events that provide owners with the opportunity to test their car and themselves at the same venues they were originally raced. The 2006 programme includes events at Hockenheim and the Nurburgring in Germany, Belgium's historic Spa-Francorchamps circuit, Valencia in Spain and the Vallelunga track in Italy.

But F1 Clienti isn't the only way to get behind the wheel of a Ferrari racing car. F1 Clienti is part of Ferrari Corse Clienti, which organizes a host of motorsport and motoring events. The foundation stones of FCC were laid in 1993, when the Ferrari Trofeo Pirelli was created to enable the owners of Ferrari road cars to get on the track and in 2001 this was expanded into the Ferrari Corse Clienti, or Racing Owners, department.

In 2006 FCC will oversee the running of the Ferrari Challenge Pirelli Trophy and the Shell Ferrari Historic Challenge at the international level and supporting Ferrari owners participating in the GT Championships. Along with the F1 Clienti programme, it is also running the Customer-Test Driver programme for the Ferrari FXX. The Ferrari Challenge started with the 348 Berlinetta, before switching to the F355 and, from the 2000 Championship, the F360. By 2006, with the new Ferrari F430 Challenge making its debut, the Ferrari Challenge now runs events in Western, Southern and Central Europe, Japan and the USA.

While the Challenge moves from new model to new model, this does not mean that old Ferrari racing cars fade away. They simply move into another championship, the Shell Historic Challenge. More than 200 owners of classic Ferrari racing cars have taken part in this series and it's not an amble round a track, these are, after all, Ferraris and that means real racing in a unique historic role call of motorsport legends. In 2006 there are two series, one in Europe and a second in North America, with a total of ten events.

For owners who want to pit themselves against rival car makers, Ferrari Corse Clienti provides support in the GT Championships, with the F430 GTC in the GT2 class and the F430 Challenge in the GT3 series, plus the Ferrari 575 GTC in the GT series, enabling competition in the FIA GT series and the new GT3 series that parallels the main GT event.

© italiancar.com.au 05/06/06