Mille Miglia: Mercedes-Benz as main automotive sponsor

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• Green light given for long-term partnership
  Another brand ambassador at Mille Miglia 2013: Marcel Tiemann

Mercedes-Benz is the main automotive sponsor of Mille Miglia. The corresponding agreement was reached between Mercedes-Benz Classic and 1000 Miglia S.R.L. in Brescia (Italy), with the aim of establishing a long-term collaboration. Mercedes-Benz Classic will be represented at this year’s event with a number of vehicles, as well as five famous faces taking up their position at the starting line.

Marcel Tiemann will also be representing Mercedes-Benz Classic as a brand ambassador at this year’s Mille Miglia, alongside former Formula 1 racing drivers David Coulthard, Jochen Mass and Karl Wendlinger, as well as Bernd Mayländer, the current driver of the Official F1™ Safety Car.

Mercedes-Benz and Mille Miglia are inextricably linked. One of the major triumphs celebrated by the brand at what is probably the most famous thousand-mile race was the legendary victory by Rudolf Caracciola in April 1931 as the first non-Italian driver, together with his co-driver Wilhelm Sebastian in an SSKL racing car. The second major success from Mercedes-Benz involved the 300 SLR (W 196 S). In 1955, Stirling Moss and his co-driver Denis Jenkinson won the Mille Miglia with the vehicle sporting the starting number 722. Travelling at an average speed of 157.65 km/h, they completed the course in the fastest ever time of ten hours, seven minutes and 48 seconds. Juan Manuel Fangio with starting number 658 took second place, completing the race solo.

Today, the Mille Miglia is promoted as a test of endurance, stretching from the northern Italian town of Brescia to Rome and back. Along the thousand-mile course (around 1600 kilometres), a number of challenges await the participants and their classic cars. The rules state that only vehicle models which were part of the original race line-up (1927 to 1957) are permitted to take part. Mercedes-Benz Classic reports on the Mille Miglia on a daily basis both on its own website (www.mercedes-benz-classic.com) and on Facebook. Every day, around six hours after the end of the stage, an up-to-date summary of the day will be published. This allows followers around the world to keep an eye on the proceedings and also experience the flair of the Mille Miglia for themselves.

Taking place at the same time as this year’s Mille Miglia, there will be an exhibition of the Daimler Art Collection from 7 March to 30 June at the Museo di Santa Giulia in Brescia, entitled “Novecento mai visto: From Albers to Warhol to (now)”. Taking centre stage at this event are more than 230 works from around 110 international artists. This exhibition will also be accompanied by a special show in Museo Mille Miglia. Here, three exquisite original vehicles from the Mercedes-Benz Classic collection will be exhibited together with corresponding Warhol motifs.

Another brand ambassador takes up position

Marcel Tiemann 

Born: 19 March 1974 in Hamburg

In comparison to other racing drivers, Marcel Tiemann from Hamburg turned to motorsport at a late stage but still managed to quickly work his way to the top following his early successes. In 1997, Mercedes-Benz signed up the promising young driver for the FIA GT championship as the driver of the AMG-Mercedes CLK-GTR. Tiemann finished his first season in fourth place of the driver rankings, scoring the same amount of points as Alessandro Nannini. In 1998, he again started the FIA GT championship season for Mercedes-Benz. When the German Touring Car Masters (DTM) returned in the year 2000, Tiemann was one of the drivers of the Mercedes-Benz CLK DTM. From 2001 onwards, he was active with a number of racing teams. His five victories at the 24-hour Nürburgring races are legendary: in 2003 for Opel and then from 2006 through 2009 four times in succession for Porsche. In May 2010 and through no fault of his own, Tiemann was involved in an accident in his Audi at the GT Open in Imola, after which he had to end his racing career. He is amongst the most successful long-distance drivers of his time: at least every third race in which he drove in his early career, Tiemann could be seen on the podium and in two-thirds of his races, he was amongst the top five drivers. Since 2012, Marcel Tiemann works as a brand ambassador for Mercedes-Benz Classic.

Courtesy of Mercedes-Benz USA Online Newsroom