Racing
© taka_suzuki
Ferrari will honor Michael Schumacher with a special livery on Lewis Hamilton’s and Charles Leclerc’s SF-26 cars at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza on September 4-6, marking two major anniversaries in the German driver’s history with the team.
The design will commemorate 30 years since Schumacher’s first Ferrari victory, scored at the 1996 Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, and 20 years since his final win for the Scuderia at the 2006 Chinese Grand Prix. Ferrari previewed the Monza tribute in a video posted to its social-media channels on August 25, accompanied by the message, “Home is calling.”
The team has yet to reveal the complete livery, but the teaser has pointed toward a design inspired by Schumacher’s Ferrari F310 from his first season at Maranello. That car combined Ferrari red bodywork with black wings and gold wheel rims, a look that could give Hamilton’s and Leclerc’s 2026 cars a sharply different appearance for Ferrari’s home weekend.
Monza is a particularly fitting venue for the tribute because Schumacher won the Italian Grand Prix there in 1996, his first season driving for Ferrari. It came shortly after his victory at Spa and was his final win of that campaign, which he finished third in the drivers’ championship behind the Williams pair. His Monza success began a connection with Ferrari’s home crowd that endured throughout his decade with the team.
Schumacher joined Ferrari in 1996 and went on to win five of his seven Formula 1 world championships with the Scuderia. The period is regarded as the most successful in Ferrari’s history, with Schumacher becoming the defining driver of an era that established the team as Formula 1’s benchmark.
The special livery therefore places Hamilton and Leclerc in cars carrying a direct visual reference to the start of that partnership. At the 97th Italian Grand Prix, Ferrari’s home race will serve not only as a showcase for its current drivers, but as a commemoration of the driver whose achievements shaped the modern identity of the Scuderia.