It’s one of the most iconic and beautiful circuits on the World Championship calendar, located in a valley in Tuscany. Owned by Ferrari since 1988, Mugello is considered the mecca of motorcycle racing for Italian fans.
Mugello holds the top speed record in MotoGP: 354.9 km/h. It was set by Andrea Iannone last season.
Several MotoGP teams use Mugello as a test track. The Italian police force also conduct driving courses there, to prepare themselves for different situations, such as high speed pursuits, with the official cars of the Carabinieri.
The first races held in the Mugello valley date back to 1914, on a 66 km road circuit. The competition, with some interruptions, ran until 1970, when for safety reasons the idea of building a permanent circuit, inaugurated in 1974, came about.
The corners at Mugello are named after farms that were in the area before the track was built (such as Correntaio), nearby towns (Scarperia, Borgo San Lorenzo and Luco) or 20th century riders (Materassi and Biondetti).
The traditional camping grounds for fans are located within the grounds of the circuit, which is converted into a large campsite scattered throughout the area over the weekend.
Motorhomes are allowed inside for a price that varies between 64 and 80 euros. The record attendance for this type of vehicles at an Italian GP is over 1,800.
The famous motto for the Italian Grand Prix is “Al Mugello non si dorme”, which means “At Mugello you do not sleep,” referring to the party that is held every night -especially Saturday. Anything goes to generate noise: Chainsaws, mopeds and motorcycles of any size. The goal is to make noise and for this they also use loudspeakers to play music.
Precisely for this reason, some riders who usually stay in a motorhome at circuits check into a hotel on the Saturday before the race, in order to be able to rest.
At the end of the MotoGP race, a track invasion by fans is traditional. This has spread to other World Championship events, such as Misano.
The invasion is open to all fans and allowed by Race Direction. Ten access points to the track are opened to guarantee the safety of participants.
The Mugello Valley is around 30 kilometres from Florence, the most important city in the region and capital of Italy under the Medici dynasty between 1865 and 1871. Its historical centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Medici family was originally from the Mugello valley and, together with the Lorensi family, they invested large sums of money to give relevance to the area. They attracted artists and architects from all over Italy.
Tuscany has around 3.8 million inhabitants and receives around 40 million tourists per year.
In the town of Borgo San Lorenzo, close to the circuit, one finds a statue of Fido -a stray dog that was adopted by a worker from a brick factory. Every day he accompanied his owner to the bus stop when he went to work and waited for him to return. In 1943, during the bombings in World War II, his owner died, but Fido continued to wait for him at the bus stop for months. The story became famous throughout Italy.
