This Benetton F1 car has garnered a lot of press lately. We had to feature it here, not because you won’t see it elsewhere (you will) but because of our admiration for Michael Schumacher, his 7 Formula One World Championships, and our appreciation for the 1994 F1 season. This is the car Schummi won the 1994 Championship in, it was his first world title and helped propel him to worldwide super-stardom. Given the history, we can see why it’s bid up to $4,000,000 on EBay.

For those who don’t (or didn’t) follow Formula One, 1994 was arguably one of the most influential seasons in its history. Substantial rule changes to make the series more involving and less costly resulted in significant, life ending, crashes including that of Roland Ratzenberger. On the same race weekend, auto racing suffered one of its largest losses in history when Ayrton Senna was killed in the first few laps of the San Marino Grand Prix. Senna was one of the most brilliant and determined drivers in auto racing’s history and was also very concerned about car safety. If you don’t know much about Senna’s story, we’d encourage you to search the web, you will be occupied for hours reading about the man. His death largely influenced safety measures which we see in current Formula One cars and circuits; it also attracted many new followers to the sport, after vast media attention was paid to Senna.

Getting back the rest of the ‘94 season, the guys over at Autoblog wrap up the 1994 Championship well: “After a hard-fought season, Michael Schumacher (Benetton) and Damon Hill (Williams) arrived in Adelaide for the final round separated by just one point. Both titles would be decided then and there, but on lap 35 the two front-runners collided, ending the race for both. Schumacher was crowned champion – the first of seven career F1 titles – and while many called foul play, Williams, still dealing with the aftermath of Senna’s death, lodged no official protest. And this is the car it all happened in.”

Bottom line, this is the first Driver’s Championship winning car of the most successful driver in Formula One’s history, in one of F1’s most significant seasons. We can understand why it’s attracted so much attention and bidding. If you decide to break the piggy-bank, the car is listed on EBay and can be seen in Toronto, Canada.