A torrent of unrelenting joy. It’s an apt way to describe the outpouring of emotion from Rubens Barrichello after the 2000 German Grand Prix at Hockenheim. It was the Brazilian’s maiden Formula 1 race win and boy, did he do it in style.

Rubens Barrichello celebrates his maiden Formula 1 race victory in the 2000 German Grand Prix 

A fumbled start to the weekend saw Barrichello line up in a lowly 18th position on the grid. But with a threatening weather forecast and a dice to roll on the pit-stop strategy, the Scuderia Ferrari driver relished the challenge before him. A storming opening to the Grand Prix saw Barrichello climb to sixth position after only four laps. The decisive and clinical fashion in which he picked off his opponents was extraordinary to watch.

The raw pace was equally impressive. Consecutive fastest laps meant that, by his first pit-stop on lap 17, Barrichello was sitting pretty in third – a position most drivers would have given their everything to keep. When the long-anticipated rain began to fall on lap 33, however, the Brazilian spied an opportunity. As almost everyone else pitted for wet tyres, including the McLaren of the race leader Mika Häkkinen, so Barrichello took an almighty gamble and opted to stay out.

A storming drive from 18th on the grid saw Barrichello win his first Formula 1 Grand Prix in style

In what was a staggering display of driving skill and mental resolve, Barrichello managed to keep his scarlet Ferrari on the asphalt and assume a lead he would not relinquish. In fact, when the chequered flag fell, he had carved out a lead of over seven seconds. After 122 starts and a string of near misses, Barrichello had finally reached the top step of the podium and, perhaps more importantly, emerged from the long shadow cast by his Scuderia Ferrari teammate Michael Schumacher.

“Before the race I was thinking that this one had to be mine,” the Brazilian exclaimed in the post-race press conference. “I told myself it could come good, so I decided to make it as simple as possible. I still can’t believe it.”

Of course, Barrichello could not have managed such an extraordinary feat without a great car beneath him. Suffice to say, Ferrari’s F1-2000 was one for the record books.

Todt, Brawn, Allison, Byrne, Costa et al. The exceptional team which Michael Schumacher had galvanised around him since joining Ferrari in 1996 was operating at a level of professionalism and skill unseen in Formula 1 since McLaren in the late-1980s. So much so that the resulting dominance is perhaps unsurprising looking back.

Resting on its laurels after the successful 1999 season was never going to be an option for the Scuderia, which had just finished its new state-of-the-art wind tunnel in Maranello. It’s fair to say the British design wunderkind Rory Byrne and his crack team went to town on the 2000 car, raising the nose to improve the aerodynamics and incorporating a wider-angle V10 engine in order to lower the centre of gravity. Even the brake calipers were mounted lower on the discs to assist with the latter. No stone was left unturned on the quest to create the quickest and most efficient Formula 1 car ever. That it also happened to be among the most elegant was a very happy coincidence.

The 2000 season was a truly momentous one for Ferrari – a double World Championship year which heralded an era of total dominance in Formula 1. The F1-2000 garnered 10 out of a possible 17 victories, and a further 11 podiums. The Prancing Horse defended its Constructors’ title and Michael Schumacher finally clinched his third Drivers’ gong. It was Ferrari’s first Drivers’ title since 1983. Momentous, indeed.

Just eight F1-2000s were built. And while each played a role in Ferrari’s incredible 2000 title success, certain chassis were inevitably more pivotal than others. Chassis number 202, for example, which is the very F1-2000 Rubens Barrichello piloted to victory on that day at Hockenheim and the car we are honoured to be offering – once again – here at Girardo & Co. Headquarters.

Chassis 202 made its Formula 1 debut in the 2000 European Grand Prix at the Nurburgring 

Interestingly, its story begins not with Barrichello, but with his teammate, the seven-time Formula 1 World Champion and all-time Ferrari great Michael Schumacher. Ahead of the Spanish Grand Prix in April, a traditional test was held over three days at the Circuit de Catalunya. Chassis number 202 was designated to Schumacher for the duration, the German completing 239 laps and topping the timesheets each day. Schumacher had already won three of the four opening races, but if the Scuderia needed any further reason to be reassured, this was surely it.

Following a further shakedown at Fiorano in the hands of Ferrari’s longstanding test-driver Luca Badoer, this F1-2000’s racing début came in May at the Nürburgring for the European Grand Prix. It was Barrichello’s time to shine in chassis number 202. And while he couldn’t quite match the pace of his teammate and the McLarens of Häkkinen and David Coulthard, fourth position at the finish was a strong result, especially from the team’s perspective.

Second position in the 2000 Monaco Grand Prix was arguably every bit as impressive as the victory in Germany

Once again, the car was sent back to Maranello to be fastidiously set up by Badoer for its next competitive outing, the Monaco Grand Prix. The sheer volume of mid-season testing is indicative of the mind-boggling level of development permitted at the time. We can’t begin to imagine the Scuderia Ferrari’s budget for the season, especially compared to some of the other comparatively tiny teams on the Formula 1 grid.

A staggering 100,000 expectant spectators poured into the principality of Monaco to watch the Grand Prix in 2000 – the commonly held jewel in Formula 1’s crown. Barrichello was admittedly disappointed with his sixth-position qualifying position on the Côte d’Azur, though he was able to capitalise on a chaotic start to the race and quickly advance further up the field. At a racetrack on which it’s notoriously difficult to overtake, the Brazilian masterfully threaded chassis 202 past a number of opponents, finishing second only to McLaren’s David Coulthard.

Consistency was very much the key to Ferrari’s success in 2000 and Barrichello played a blinder with his impressive run of results piloting chassis number 202. A deluge midway through the Canadian Grand Prix coupled with a rear-end issue for the race leader Michael Schumacher saw Barrichello miss out on victory in chassis 202 by a mere 0.174sec. And he followed that stellar result up with two further podium finishes at the French and Austrian Grands Prix in the weeks that followed – his fourth and fifth of the season.

As highlighted at the beginning of this description, chassis 202’s crowning moment came at the German Grand Prix in July, where Barrichello stormed to the first – and arguably the finest – of his 11 Formula 1 race victories. Following its success at Hockenheim, the car was raced by Barrichello at the Hungarian, Belgian and Italian Grands Prix, before it was honourably retired and returned to the factory in Maranello. The season tally? Nine races, one win and five podiums.

In addition to the victory in Germany, Barrichello scored four further podiums throughout the course of the season with chassis number 202

Chassis number 202 was retained by Ferrari for over eight years, during which time it was exhibited both in the factory in Maranello and on the Prancing Horse’s stand at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Crucially, the car was also submitted for Ferrari Classiche certification – certification it duly received, confirming the originality of the chassis, engine and gearbox.

March of 2009 saw this F1-2000 finally fly the proverbial nest. Its first private owner used it on a single occasion, selling on to a European collector in 2013. During his seven-year tenure as chassis 202’s owner, the car remained with Corse Clienti in Maranello and was maintained by the factory regardless of cost. It was used on only four occasions: twice at Fiorano, once at the Hungaroring in Hungary and once at the Circuit Paul Ricard in southern France.

In 2016, courtesy of Girardo & Co., this Formula 1 car crossed the Atlantic to join the collection of its penultimate American owner, residing alongside a plethora of ultra-special Ferrari competition cars including a 250 LM, 312 PB and 333 SP. Since receiving chassis number 202 here at Girardo & Co. in June of 2023, we have sent the car back to Corse Clienti in Maranello for what it refers to as a ‘base check’. This important process involved changing all the fluids, checking the engine with an endoscope and firing up the engine.

Ferrari also issued a report documenting the mileage, or wear, on the car’s fundamental components. We are pleased to report low mileage across the board – the engine has 70 percent remaining, the chassis 91 percent, the gearbox 77 percent and the clutch 63 percent. The Corse Clienti technicians noted the especially low mileage of the engine installed in chassis number 202 – just 559 kilometres of its maximum 1400.

For disciples of the Prancing Horse, there can surely be no higher peak to summit than acquiring one of its history-steeped single-seaters and following in the tyre tracks of the Ferrari heroes of yesteryear. The so-called ‘Schumacher era’ in the early 2000s showed the Scuderia at the very peak of its powers and inspired an entire generation with some of history’s fastest, most technologically advanced and most beautiful Formula 1 cars.

Chassis number 202, which was tested by seven-time champion Michael Schumacher and driven to victory (and five podiums!) by Rubens Barrichello, is the perfect embodiment of the might and magic of the Scuderia at that time. From a simpler albeit no less tantalising driving perspective, there’s the sensation of mastering a 650kg single-seater with a skip-load of aero and an 800HP V12 that revs to 17,300rpm. Is there a more awe-inspiring challenge?

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