This Aprilia scooter was once ridden by Michael Schumacher and just sold for over €14,000

Anyone remember when Michael Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya came together in the tunnel while following the safety car in the 2004 Monaco GP?

Go on, think back a couple of decades – Schumacher was warming his tyres and brakes and locked up his front left under the Fairmont Hotel, and an already-lapped Montoya tried to avoid a shunt by jinking to the right. Unfortunately, Montoya still clipped the back of Schumacher’s Ferrari and ended up punting the German into the wall, thus ending his chance of winning all six of the opening six races that season. Still, he did at least go on to win the world championship that season.

Why are we replaying all of this through the magic of the written word? And why now? We need the history to justify why someone just dropped €14,160 on this Aprilia Leonardo scooter. 

Time for some further context. This scooter was first registered in April 2003 in Italy, and in 2004 it was decked out in a Scuderia Ferrari livery (complete with that cigarette branding) and presented to Schumacher as his transport for the race weekend in Monaco. As a result, it has probably heard some rather choice language. 

It was up for sale at the Monaco Car Auctions sale last weekend (8 June), and someone really did offer over €14,000 (almost £12k) to take it home with them. Described by the auction house itself as ‘a unique opportunity’, this is certainly one of the more niche bits of F1 memorabilia that we can think of.

Good value for something that Michael used for one weekend?