Racing across Italy in a strawberry-red 300 SL: Mille Miglia underway for 2021

Historic Racing News

He has driven in 33 Mille Miglia events and his company is a leading partner. Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, co-president of Chopard explains what makes the endurance classic so special

Start of the 2021 Mille Miglia

39th Mille Miglia re-enactment began with Stirling Moss and Denis Jenkinson's '55-winning Mercedes 300 SLR on the start ramp

Mille Miglia

Sponsored by Chopard

Rudolf Caracciola sped to victory in the Mille Miglia in 1931, enduring a gruelling 16-hour dash through Italy to become the first non-Italian to win the legendary race.

He was also the first to record an average speed of more than 100km/h (62mph) at the wheel of his Mercedes-Benz SSKL.

The relentless challenge of the event was described in his first autobiography, three years later: “1600km on dusty country roads, passing gorges and ravines … around horrible corkscrew bends and snake-like passages; through cities, towns and villages and again along dead-straight roads at an average of 150, 160, 170km … one night and then another day.

“I sat behind the wheel for 16 hours, we thundered across the length and breadth of Italy for 16 hours, following the beam of our headlights through the night, driving into the blinding glare of the spring day.”

Ninety years later, and the 39th re-enactment of the Mille Miglia departed Brescia in somewhat less of a hurry: the gorges, ravines and corkscrews ahead now hotly anticipated, rather than feared as part of a four-day event reinvented as a regularity rally and interspersed with lunch, dinner and overnight stops.

Romain Dumas with Karl-Friedrich Scheufele

Romain Dumas, here with Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, is competing in a Porsche 356

Chopard

Among the departees was a man who knows the race better than most. Also German, also driving a Mercedes, Karl-Friedrich Scheufele is taking part for the 33rd time.

And it’s not just him: Scheufele is co-president of the watchmaker Chopard, which is in its 34th year as official timekeeper to the Mille Miglia and has a total of five cars in the race.

“It is difficult to pinpoint a single aspect of the Mille Miglia that makes it appealing, because it is really a 360-degree experience made up of many different ingredients,” says Scheufele. “But I truly love the opportunity to drive some wonderful old cars and to be among more than 400 other people who all share the same passion. There is simply nothing to compare with experiencing the sound and the smell of the cars, the enthusiasm of the thousands of spectators and, of course, the wonderful Italian roads. Put all that together, and you realise that the Mille Miglia is difficult to beat.”

“It is a very authentic event, it’s not the type of car rally where people spend more time eating than driving,” says Scheufele. “Secondly, it is genuinely sporting and competitive and, while it attracts the elite of the classic car world it is also inclusive – it is just as interesting, for example, to see a Fiat Topolino taking part as to see a Ferrari Testa Rossa.  I like to think Chopard and the Mille Miglia enjoy a sort of shared elegance.”

From the archive

This year, 375 cars took the start ramp, including a 1928 Alfa Romeo 6C 1500 Super Sport, BMW 328s, Lancia Lambda Spiders and Aston Martin Le Mans.

Among the Chopard cars is an Ermini Sport 1100 and a Porsche 356 driven by Romain Dumas. Jacky Ickx has come along for the ride too — literally, as Scheufele’s passenger in a car that is part of Mille Miglia folklore.

Caracciola returned to the race in 1952 at the wheel of a Mercedes 300SL; three years later, Stirling Moss famously won with Motor Sport’s Denis Jenkinson as navigator driving an SLR version. And when Scheufele was looking to compete in his first race, back in 1988, there was only one car that fitted the bill. The very first time was in the family’s 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL ‘Gullwing’ which I persuaded my father to buy in 1988 so we could take part. It has since completed the Mille Miglia around 15 times and is quite well known because of its unusual, pale strawberry paint colour.”

Karl-Friedrich Scheufele Mercedes 300 SL

The Mercedes 300 SL took part in the 2019 running of the Mille Miglia

Chopard

Since then, he has completed the event in a pre-war Bentley and Ferrari 750 Monza, as well as a Porsche 550 Spyder, but returned this year in his distinctive Mercedes.

“Who could fail to be inspired by the incredible record time set by the late Sir Stirling Moss and his navigator Denis Jenkinson?” asks Scheufele. “They completed the course in their Mercedes-Benz 300SLR in a time of 10 hours and seven minutes. That is an almost unbelievable speed, especially considering the state of the roads at the time and  that they had to roaring through villages lined with spectators. They finished a full half-hour ahead of Juan-Manuel Fangio, and the account of the drive that Jenkinson subsequently wrote for Motor Sport is something I have read many, many times.”

Jacky Ickx with Karl-Friedrich ScheufeleWith more than 15 races under its belt, Scheufele’s Mercedes is likely to take this year’s race in its stride and, as long-term friends, driver and navigator are unlikely to fall out over map reading.

But the race can still be a stern test of competitors and machine — as Scheufele found in 1994 when he used that year’s Mille Miglia to make certain that he had made the right choice in the biggest decision of his life.

“I took part with my now-wife, Christine, shortly before our wedding,” he says, “We took part in our four-and-a-half litre Bentley, which we drove from Geneva to the start line. Not long before it had been restored by someone who was not, shall we say, a Bentley specialist and who didn’t know the cars terribly well.

“When the event got underway I soon noticed that everyone else seemed to be braking much later than I was and seemed to be far more in control. We carried on and completed the course, despite snow and hail causing much of the car’s interior  to freeze-over. As we drove back to Switzerland, the accelerator pedal broke off – I made a temporary one with a screwdriver –  the battery went flat and the windscreen wipers and lights consequently stopped working on the motorway, but we made it home. Later, I took the car to a Bentley specialist who was amazed to hear that we had completed the Mille Miglia. He said the brakes simply weren’t working, which explained why I had ended-up relying entirely on engine braking to slow us down.”

Despite the mechanical drama, harmony reigned behind the wheel and the wedding went ahead. “It was a test in disguise, to make sure I was marrying the right person – and I have no regrets!”

Chopard 2021 Mille Miglia watch

The 2021 Chopard Mille Miglia Race Edition

Chopard

Each year, the race inspires a new watch and this year is no exception: Scheufele will be driving with the latest Chopard Mille Miglia Race Edition. “I always drive wearing the latest version,” he says. “But if I had to choose one favourite from all the different models we have made, it would be the one from 1995 which was the first watch to be fitted with a rubber strap featuring a tyre tread pattern. The idea came to me when I was lying on the grass studying the road book between rally stages, and I happened to glance across at the Porsche 550 Spyder I was driving and noticed the tread of its Dunlop racing tyres.  Jacky Ickx arranged a formal introduction to Dunlop and we were subsequently allowed to reproduce the pattern on our rubber straps. It was the first time anyone had made such a watch strap, but plenty have done so since.”

With an endurance champion alongside, the latest in timekeeping on his wrist, and a race-proven car underneath him, Scheufele could well follow in the wheel tracks of Caracciola, 90 years earlier and claim victory in this year’s event. Or he may bask in the landscape that bedevilled his compatriot, and admire the cars of his fellow competitors. “I completely agree with the Italian sentiment that it is ‘the most beautiful race in the world,” he says.