Motor racing in the Mugello valley began in 1914 with an open-road street circuit through the towns of Scarperia, Firenzuola and San Piero a Sieve. The race was a 66 km lap through the Apennine foothills, contested in pre-WW1 sports cars and again in the post-war years through the 1920s. The original Mugello road course was used intermittently through the 1960s before safety concerns rendered open-road competition untenable.
Construction of a permanent purpose-built circuit on the Borgo San Lorenzo / Scarperia site began in 1972 and the track opened in 1974. The original layout was substantially the same as the modern circuit, with the long flat-out main straight, the technical first sector, the high-speed Arrabbiata sweepers in the second sector, and the Bucine-Casanova-Savelli sequence onto the pit straight.
Enzo Ferrari was an early supporter of the Mugello project — the circuit's proximity to Maranello (about 100 km north) made it a natural test venue. After Enzo's death in 1988, the Ferrari family acquired the circuit outright; it has been Ferrari-owned ever since. The company uses Mugello as its primary private test track, with restricted access during Ferrari testing weeks and unrestricted commercial operation in other periods.
The modern Mugello lap, taken clockwise from the start–finish line on the pit straight:
San Donato — A heavy first-braking right-hander after the 1 km pit straight.
Luco-Poggio Secco — A flowing left-right sequence climbing through the lower Apennine foothills.
Materassi — Fast right-hander named for the local district.
Casanova-Savelli — A right-then-left, technically demanding mid-speed section.
Arrabbiata 1 and 2 — Two long right-hand sweepers taken at very high speed. The defining sequence of the lap; the cars accelerate continuously through the pair.
Scarperia — Tight right-hander named for the nearby town.
Palagio — A long right-hand sweeper.
Correntaio — A double-apex left.
Biondetti — Right-hand kink onto the back straight, named for Clemente Biondetti, four-time Mille Miglia winner.
Bucine — The final corner onto the pit straight.
The lap rewards a car with very good high-speed aerodynamic balance. The Arrabbiata sweepers in particular punish any aero deficiency, and Mugello is consequently a favoured Ferrari test venue for aero validation work.
The 2020 Formula 1 calendar reshuffle (COVID-19) produced Mugello's one and only Grand Prix to date — Ferrari's 1000th F1 race, run on 13 September 2020 and won by Lewis Hamilton for Mercedes. The race was notable for two red-flag periods caused by multi-car incidents at restart; the chaotic race finished with Hamilton ahead of Valtteri Bottas and Alexander Albon, the latter scoring his first F1 podium. F1 did not return to Mugello in subsequent years; the circuit remained Ferrari's test venue and the MotoGP host.
Mugello has hosted the Italian motorcycle Grand Prix continuously since 1976 (with a brief interruption in 2020 due to COVID-19). The motorcycle race is consistently among the most-attended MotoGP rounds; the Italian crowd's tifoso enthusiasm rivals Monza's. Mugello has also hosted World Superbike, the Italian touring car championship, and is the site of the Ferrari Challenge Finali Mondiali, Ferrari's annual marque-club gathering.
Mugello is in Assetto Corsa as mugello (Kunos stock, one of the first tracks shipped at the game's 2014 launch); AMS2 as Mugello (DLC). It is not in ACC (no GT3 manufacturer category), iRacing (curiously absent given its profile), or LMU (no WEC fixture).