Mugello Circuit

Mugello Circuit

Location	Mugello, Tuscany, Italy
Time zone	GMT+1
Coordinates	43°59′51″N 11°22′19″E / 43.99750°N 11.37194°E / 43.99750; 11.37194Coordinates: 43°59′51″N 11°22′19″E / 43.99750°N 11.37194°E / 43.99750; 11.37194
Major events	Italian motorcycle Grand Prix, A1GP, DTM, WSBK, Formula One Testing
Closed course (1974–present)
Length	5.245 km (3.259 mi)
Turns	15
Lap record	1:34.316 (Gary Hauser, Racing Experience, 2014, BOSS GP)
Road course (1919–1970)
Surface	Asphalt/Concrete
Length	66.2 km (41.3 mi)
Turns	400+
Lap record	29:51.100 (Arturo Merzario, Abarth Corse, Abarth 2000 SP, 1970)

Mugello Circuit (Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello) is a race track in Mugello, Tuscany, Italy. Its length is 5.245 km (3.259 mi). It has 15 turns and a long straight (1141 metres).^[1] The circuit stadium stands have a capacity of 50,000.

Grand Prix motorcycle racing host an annual event here (MotoGP and smaller classes). Also, the Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters hold an annual event. The track is property of Scuderia Ferrari which uses it for Formula One testing. The first race of the A1GP 2008/09 season was originally planned to be held at the Mugello circuit on 21 September 2008. However, the race had to be cancelled due to the delay in building the new chassis for the new race cars.^[2]

History

Road races were held on public streets (road racing) around Mugello since the 1920s. Giuseppe Campari won there in 1920 and 1921, Emilio Materassi in 1925, 1926 & 1928.

The Mugello GP was revived in 1955 and from the 1964 to 1969 as a Targa Florio-like road race consisting of eight laps of 66.2 km each, including the Passo della Futa of Mille Miglia fame. The anticlockwise track passed the towns of San Piero a Sieve, Scarperia, Violla, Firenzuola, Selva, San Lucia. It counted towards the 1965, 1966 and 1967 World Sportscar Championship season. The last WC race was won^[3] by Udo Schütz and Gerhard Mitter on a Porsche 910. After two Porsche wins, the local fans could celebrate again in 1968, when the Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 driven by Luciano Bianchi, Nanni Galli and Nino Vaccarella prevailed over the Porsche driven by Rico Steinemann and Jo Siffert, and in 1969, when Arturo Merzario won with an Abarth 2000, and he won again in 1970 with the same car, where Abarth prevailed 1-2-3 with Leo Kinnunen and Gijs Van Lennep finishing 2nd and 3rd respectively. The 1970 event brought about the end of the 66 kilometer Mugello public road circuit; a seven-month-old baby was killed when local racer Spartaco Dini crashed his Alfa Romeo GTA into a group of people at the village of Firenzuola during a private test there, when the roads were open to the public (the roads were only closed on race day and for qualifying; and left open for every other day including open practice for the event). Four other people, including 2 young children were seriously injured. Although there had only been one previous fatality at the original Mugello circuit (Günther Klass in 1967), this happening put a bad stain on the whole event, and the 1970 race turned out to be the last one held on the public road circuit, which was won once again by Merzario. After this incident, Dini spent 2 months in jail, and after his time served he moved out of Italy and did not return for years.

The present-day closed Mugello circuit was constructed in 1973 and opened in 1974, about five km east from the easternmost part of the original road circuit.

The circuit was used over 1–3 May, for the in-season test during the 2012 Formula One season, by all teams except HRT. The track was praised by Mark Webber, who stated that he "did 10 dry laps today around Mugello, which is the same as doing 1000 laps around Abu Dhabi track in terms of satisfaction".^[4] Two-time Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel was impressed too, saying that “unfortunately we don’t have this track on the calendar. It’s an incredible circuit with a lot of high-speed corners”.^[5] On the other hand, Vitaly Petrov from Caterham F1 complained that "It is not safe and wide enough. If you lose it, the walls are so close and you will smash into the tyres. It is not for Formula 1 and, if you lost the steering or the tyre pressure dropped or whatever, then it will be a big crash."^[6] Nevertheless, it holds a grade 1 FIA license, meaning it meets the standards to host a Formula 1 race.^[7] An unofficial track record of 1:21.035 was set by Romain Grosjean during the test.^[8]

Winners of the Mugello Grand Prix

The winners of the Mugello Grand Prix for automobiles (1919–1969: Circuito del Mugello, 1974–present: Gran Premio del Mugello) are:^{[9][10][11][12][13]}

Winners on the closed circuit (3.259 mi/5.245 km)

Year	Driver	Constructor	Class	Report
2000	Ricardo Sperafico	Lola	Formula 3000	Report
1999	Not held
1998
1997	Ricardo Zonta	Lola	Formula 3000	Report
1996	Ricardo Zonta	Lola		Report
1995 - 1992	Not held
1991	Alessandro Zanardi	Reynard	Formula 3000	Report
1990 - 1987	Not held
1986	Pierluigi Martini	Ralt	Formula 3000	Report
1985	Not held
1984	Mike Thackwell	Ralt	Formula Two	Report
1983	Jonathan Palmer	Ralt		Report
1982	Corrado Fabi	March		Report
1981	Corrado Fabi	March		Report
1980	Brian Henton	Toleman		Report
1979	Brian Henton	March		Report
1978	Derek Daly	Chevron		Report
1977	Bruno Giacomelli	March		Report
1976	Jean-Pierre Jabouille	Elf		Report
1975	Maurizio Flammini	March		Report
1974	Patrick Depailler	March		Report

Winners on the road circuit (41.3 mi/66.2 km)

Year	Driver	Constructor	Class	Report
1970	Arturo Merzario	Abarth	Sports car	Report
1969	Arturo Merzario	Abarth		Report
1968	Lucien Bianchi Nino Vaccarella Nanni Galli	Alfa Romeo		Report
1967	Gerhard Mitter Udo Schütz	Porsche		Report
1966	Gerhard Koch Jochen Neerpasch	Porsche		Report
1965	Mario Casoni Antonio Nicodemi	Ferrari		Report
1964	Gianni Bulgari	Porsche		Report
1963 - 1956	Not held
1955	Umberto Maglioli	Ferrari	Sports car	Report
1954 - 1930	Not held
1929	Gastone Brilli-Peri	Talbot	Grand Prix	Report
1928	Emilio Materassi	Talbot	Formula Libre	Report
1927	Not held
1926	Emilio Materassi	Itala	Formula Libre	Report
1925	Emilio Materassi	Itala		Report
1924	Giuseppe Morandi	OM		Report
1923	Gastone Brilli-Peri	Steyr		Report
1922	Alfieri Maserati	Isotta-Fraschini		Report
1921	Giuseppe Campari	Alfa Romeo		Report
1920	Giuseppe Campari	Alfa Romeo		Report

Lap records

See also

• List of Auto Racing tracks

References

External links

• Website English/Italian
• RacingCircuits.info's history of Mugello Circuit
• Trackpedia's guide to Mugello
• http://www.circuitostradaledelmugello.it/
• http://theracingline.net/racingcircuits/racingcircuits/Italy/MugelloOld.html
• Free audio walkthrough of the track, for use with games
• Stadium Journey Article