The World’s Most Beautiful Race

In 1927, two young Italian playboys, Count Aymo Maggi and Franco Mazzotti, decided to hit back at the decision to move the Italian grand prix from their home town of Brescia to its current track, the autodromo nazionale Monza.

Today, Monza is steeped in history, and is the spiritual heart of Italian motor racing. But at the time, the decision to relocate to Monza was a controversial one, particularly among wealthy circles from area surrounding Brescia.

A racing driver himself, a two-time winner of the Circuito del garda, as well as a winner of the Rome grand prix, Maggi was apparently incensed by the Italian grand prix’s move to Monza. So, in a two-fingered salute to the racing body responsible for the change, he, Mazzotti, and a handful of other wealthy racers, decided to run their own race.

This competition would be one of endurance, and it would run from Brescia to Rome and back—a figure-eight shaped course of around 1,500 kilometres, or a thousand Roman miles. The competition, of course, became the famous Mille Miglia.

Throughout its lifetime, the Mille Miglia  went through numerous changes—new routes were decided upon, and new rules for cars came up. there were brief hiatuses due to the second world war, but by the time it had officially been cancelled in 1957, the Mille Miglia had become one of the most prestigious and recognisable events on the global racing calendar.

While the event had been banned due to a number of fatal accidents, it was reborn in 1977 as a regularity race for classic and vintage cars, and that continues to this day, with sponsorship and timekeeping from luxury timepiece manufacturer Chopard.

Participation is limited to cars, produced no later than 1957, which had attended or were registered to the original race. What’s more, the route is similar to that of the original race, maintaining the point of departure and arrival at Viale Venezia in Brescia.

This year, 436 competing cars took off from the famous starting ramp on Viale Venezia. The cars, constructed between 1927 and 1957 belonging to 61 different brands, were of inestimable value and challenged each other along an ancient and picturesque route, precisely a thousand miles long, giving credence to the Mille Miglia’s adopted name—“the world’s most beautiful race”. This year marked the 33rd edition of the race’s new format.

It started under a sunny sky. The 436 crews took off from Viale Venezia on Thursday at 2.30 pm. And for the next three days, they passed through more than 30 cities and towns among Verona, Rimini, San Marino, Roma, Siena, Pisa and Parma before heading back to the starting point.

Enthusiastic locals and guests bid the drivers farewell during the first kilometers of the race, and thousands of spectators lined the streets of the route, shouting out encouragement to the drivers. This year, drivers from over 40 different nationalities campaigned for victory.

Not for the first time, Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, co-president of Chopard, chose to honour Chopard’s partnership with Porsche Motorsport by co-driving the Porsche 550A Spyder RS, a loan from the Porsche Museum, with his wife, Christine The car was specially created in 1956.

Elsewhere in the field, Albert Carreras, son of the famous tenor José Carreras, drove the race with Jordi Pascual in a Mercedes Benz 300 SL, owned by the Scheufele Chopard and the Mille Miglia.

In 1988, Chopard took on the twin roles of partner and official timekeeper to the Mille Miglia race. These ties were born from co-president Karl-Friedrich Scheufele’s own passion for classic cars. Under his impetus, Chopard became the main sponsor of the Mille Miglia and one of the first watch brands to associate its name with the automobile world.

For Scheufele, this came about naturally: “Lovers of fine cars often have a weakness for fine timepieces and vice versa. In both cases, extreme precision and sporting elegance are especially important,” he says. Scheufele makes a point of personally competing in the race every year. This union has also given rise to a collection of sports watches: the Mille Miglia, of which a limited numbered series is introduced with each new edition of the race.