In addition to David Coulthard’s demo runs, the Ferrari 310B proved to be one of the main attractions at the Racing Day in Assen. It is the Formula 1 car with which Michael Schumacher won the 1997 Monaco Grand Prix.
Today the car is owned by 80-year-old Erich Zech. The German was already in Assen last year, but the car was not yet ready for use. At the beginning of this month the 310B could finally be seen on the track.
“It was phenomenal,” admitted Zech. “What I liked most and what touched me most was the reaction of the fans. They stood up and applauded, it was great to see.”
“What I love most is being able to show people this car again. My main goal is to make the experience as close as possible to that of back then with Schumacher.”
Part of the experience is that Zech will be driving a replica of Schumacher’s helmet. The car and helmet combination is very reminiscent of how it looked decades ago, with the man behind the wheel making the main difference.
Schumacher drove this car when he was 28. Zech is 80. “That’s sad!” he laughs in conversation with Motorsport.com. “But it’s something special, isn’t it? Driving a car like that is a challenge, but I still feel incredibly fit. I had to get the official (racing) license to be able to drive it and pass a health check. I was also surprised that I’m still so fit.”
Even more remarkable than his age is that Zech had never driven a single-seater until last year.
“I only started driving racing cars in May last year, but I always said: If I buy a Formula 1 car, then one day I want to drive it. In this respect, I owe everything to Ingo Gerstl,” said the Austrian Boss GP driver, who holds the lap record on the TT Circuit Assen with his Toro Rosso STR01.
“He got me to the point where he said, ‘We’ll do a health check and if everything goes well, we’ll do it.’ I bought a GP2 car from him and that’s my training car now.”
Ferrari 310B
Photo by: Angelo Poletto
“I started in this car and drove Michael Schumacher’s Ferrari for the first time in May. We already presented the 310B here in Assen last year, but it wasn’t running at the time.
“A lot of data seemed to have been deleted. Ingo Gerstl has great contacts in Italy and thanks to him the car was able to run in his own workshop for the first time in March. That was a phenomenal moment for all of us. This is the only historic Ferrari that runs without the support of the ‘F1 Clienti’ from Maranello.”
There is also a special story behind the purchase of Schumacher’s 1997 Ferrari.
“My daughter has been living in Dubai for 20 years. This is what happened there: They were building a completely new Ferrari workshop in Dubai. I went there with my daughter to look at the cars. We were speaking German in the showroom and suddenly a young man came up to me and said: ‘Oh, you’re German?’ He said he also spoke German and was the sales manager for Ferrari Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
“He asked if I was a Ferrari fan and what cars I owned. When I told him what I owned – including two La Ferraris, two SF90s and an 812 – he looked at me in surprise. I invited him to dinner at the Burj Al Arab hotel and during dinner he told me that five months ago he had sold a Formula 1 car, one without an engine.
“My answer was that I would be interested in something like that, but not in a car without an engine…
“He knew of a Ferrari collection in Europe whose owner had died. All of these cars were going to be auctioned at Sotheby’s. He remembered that one of them was a Michael Schumacher F1 car, although I said, ‘A Michael Schumacher F1 car? I can’t buy that because it’s far too expensive.'”
“Anyway, he would gather information, check whether the car was even for sale and how much it might cost. Four weeks later, he called me again, told me that it was indeed a 1997 Schumacher F1 car and said he could arrange the deal for me.
“I asked how much the car would cost and if he could send me a picture. Based on that photo, without having seen the car in real life, I bought it. Three days later, Schumacher’s car was in my garage… That’s how it happened.”
After all the efforts to get the 310B running again, Zech drove it for the first time at the Jim Clark Revival in Hockenheim earlier this year. “It was like Easter and Christmas fell on the same day, so nice!” he smiles.
“Hockenheim is like a home race for me as I live only 30 kilometres away. After Hockenheim we drove to Spielberg (where the pictures in this article were taken) and then the weekend in Assen, the third time we drove there. I really enjoyed Assen, especially the fans.”
Zech would like to return to the TT Circuit in September for the Classic GP and next year for the Racing Day. “I hope so! I’m at an age where you can’t say what tomorrow will bring, but if all goes well, I’d like to come back.”
Zech fulfilled his boyhood dream at a respectable age. “I used to watch Schumacher’s races and also went to the Grand Prix when it was still in Hockenheim. I can still remember it well, those were great times in Formula 1, also in terms of the sound.”
“When the races took place abroad, we sat in front of the TV and crossed our fingers that he would win.” Decades later, Zech himself drives around in the car of one of the greatest motorsport athletes of all time. “It’s a pretty cool story…”
Ferrari 310B
Photo by: Angelo Poletto
