The world of motor racing and timekeeping have been inseparable bedfellows for over a century. While today races are timed to the nearest thousandth of a second using complex computers, it was a very different story in the late 1920s. Back then, the famous Mille Miglia (i.e. the 1,600 miles) reigned supreme in the world of open road racing, as drivers raced from Brescia to Rome and back against the clock. “It’s all about precision,” stresses former Formula 1 driver Jacky Ickx, sitting on the doorstep of his car. Karl-Friedrich Scheufele, co-president of ChopardThe Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing from ‘s.
The watchmaker and the racing driver may seem an unlikely pair on paper, but both are obsessed with timekeeping – one has spent his life trying to beat the watch the other has created. As you watch Scheufele and Ickx glide around in their sleek Mercedes-Benz ahead of this year’s race, Mille Miglia eventIt’s clear that they are compatible. This is the 15th time they have competed in 36 years of working together as part of Chopard’s sponsorship as the event’s official timekeeper.
For the duo, it is the heady mix of mesmerising scenery, classic cars and competition that keeps them coming back to the Mille Miglia again and again. “As an event that celebrates car racing and how it used to be, there is nothing better,” says Ickx. “It will never exist as a race again, but it is important to recognise that it is about car culture. We should continue to celebrate it, as the Scheufele family does.”
Flat-out racing was banned after the 1957 Mille Miglia, when Ferrari’s Alfonso de Portago and his co-driver crashed into spectators, killing nine people and injuring many more. After a 20-year hiatus, the event was reinstated in 1977 as a regularity rally, open only to pre-1957 vehicles belonging to a car model that had taken part in at least one edition of the Mille Miglia between 1927 and 1957. Drivers attempt to get as close to the average speed and time requirements as possible, over the specified sections of the route.
“It was a race like no other,” says Ickx. “Stirling Moss and his co-driver Denis Jenkinson set the record in 1955 at the wheel of the Mercedes-Benz 300SLR. It was incredible: they achieved it in 10 hours, seven minutes and 48 seconds with an average speed of almost 160 km/h.”
Ickx was a child when the Mille Miglia disaster struck, but the Belgian driver knows the bravery it takes to compete and has spent much of his career living through “the years of danger”. “I wanted to be a gardener or a forester. That’s the mystery of destiny,” he laughs. Despite that, the Belgian won the Le Mans 24 Hours a record six times between 1969 and 1982, took eight wins and 25 podiums in F1 and has completed the Paris-Dakar Rally 13 times.
Scheufele was born a year after top-speed racing was banned at the Mille Miglia and was just a child when Ickx was starting his motorsport career. The pair met, somewhat predictably, at a motorsport event at the famous Nürburgring in Germany in 1988 – a race track Ickx still refers to as the “Green Hell” despite having claimed several victories there. “I wanted to get a discount on a watch…” Ickx jokes of their meeting, interrupting his friend as the duo lean against his Mercedes-Benz before the event. Both are wearing Chopard’s Mille Miglia Classic chronograph. Made to celebrate running 2024.
“No, it was actually an after-sales thing,” Scheufele corrects, rolling his eyes at Ickx’s attempt to divert the conversation. They were discussing a piece of Chopard jewelry Ickx had previously purchased, when Scheufele, then a young aspiring driver, took the opportunity to ask Ickx for advice on how to improve his racing skills.
“He drives very, very well, but I try to discourage people I like from racing,” Ickx admits, recalling the many friends he has lost during his career. However, the two quickly found common ground. “There are similarities between the world of racing and the manufacture of high-end watches or jewellery,” Ickx explains. “Both are based on precision and always going against the clock.”
A year later, the couple took part in their first Mille Miglia, driving together for five days through Italy. “I remember Jacky arriving and immediately sitting in the passenger seat,” says Scheufele, still a little perplexed by the decision. “He announced that he would sit and look at the scenery.”
“It’s because he’s better than me,” Ickx says with a smile. “I don’t normally enjoy being a passenger,” he explains, recalling a recent incident when he was asked to be a passenger on a hot lap around the Nürburgring. “I said, ‘We have a problem.’ There’s no reason for me to be driven by someone I don’t know, especially at the Nürburgring. I know it was some time ago, but I had some good results there,” says the 79-year-old, with a twinkle in his eye.
Ickx is more than happy to travel in Scheufele’s company. After 36 years, the two have an enviable friendship. “I trust him, both in normal life and on the road. I feel so comfortable with him that I even fall asleep in the passenger seat,” says Ickx. “He has driven pre-war Bentleys and all kinds of models. He has a real passion for what he does, and when it becomes a passion, it is no longer a job.”
Sometimes there are disagreements. Having been locked away in a classic car with character for three and a half decades, the two are well aware of their differences. “Sometimes he tries to talk me out of my duty to keep up with the Mille Miglia,” says Scheufele. “He tells me: ‘Come on, enjoy, accelerate and keep going’, but we are already 20 car numbers ahead of our position and have overtaken everyone,” he explains. Ickx shrugs. “The Mille Miglia is not about speed, but about precision,” explains the watchmaker.
The duo also find time to visit each other outside of classic motorsport events. “We used to always spend a week together in Saint Tropez, at Jacky’s place, but now they come to our vineyard in the southwest of France,” says Scheufele.
“Yes, it’s time for revenge,” Ickx shouts excitedly. They get up early in the morning and often go out cycling together. “Jacky always woke me up at five in the morning in Saint Tropez to go cycling. We were out for two hours or more,” he says.
With another Mille Miglia awaiting them, the pair climb into their Mercedes-Benz and head for the start line in the centre of Brescia. Ickx asks his driver to stop every few metres so the Belgian can sign autographs for fans. “We’ve only been doing this for 36 years, so there’s still a long way to go,” he says, still beaming with excitement and anticipation. For Ickx and Scheufele, both lost in the moment, time seems to have stood still.