Sunday November 7th, 1999

Michael Schumacher, Mika Salo and Luca Badoer demonstrated Ferrari Formula One cars at the Vallelunga circuit, north of Rome today, in a celebration of Ferrari's 1999 Formula One Constructors' championship win.

The occasion was Ferrari's traditional end-of-season championship finals of their worldwide F355 Challenge and their historic series. But the Formula One team was also there in strength with two F399s, and drivers Michael Schumacher, Mika Salo and the team's test driver Luca Badoer.

After demonstrating Ferrari 360 Modenas, which will be used for the Ferrari challenge next year, Salo and Badoer were out first in the Formula One cars, demonstrating them with a standing start in front of the main grandstand and then lapping in close proximity for several laps before coming into the pits. Afterward, Michael Schumacher took out Badoer's car to huge applause from the packed grandstands. After a quick lap and a fabulous, smoking standing start, he came into the pits for his first pit stop, then went out and came back in for his second.

A "thief" appeared, masked and dressed in black and white stripes, and appeared to run off with one tyre. It was a moment of comedy as he ran around the car with the wheel before allowing it to be fitted again. It was a lovely response to the criticism of 'the lost wheel at Nurburgring' when Ferrari only seemed to have three wheels at Eddie Irvine's first pit stop.

Schumacher rejoined but promptly did a U-turn at the end of the pit lane and set off around the track the wrong way. He did a couple of laps - with a best of 1m 14.6s - before doing a spin turn and doing a single lap in the right direction and then coming into the pits.

The trio were enthusiastically applauded by some 25,000 spectators during the light-hearted demonstration. Italian TV carried the event live as well.