The history of the automobile is far from a single story. It is a constellation of narratives, bringing together enthusiasts and exceptional machines. To celebrate these extraordinary stories, Rétromobile presents One Vehicle, One Story, a video series that gives the floor to passionate voices from every corner of the motoring world. In this episode: the Maserati 250F, the legendary 1950s single-seater, brought to life by Richard Mille, legendary watchmaker and devoted collector.
In video

Maserati 250F: a silhouette etched into motorsport memory

There are shapes the eye never forgets. The Maserati 250F is one of them. A long spindle of polished aluminium, taut flanks, a slender nose aimed at the horizon: in the paddocks of the 1950s, it was known as the “cigar”. An affectionate, almost literary nickname, one that captured everything this decade had given to motorsport in its purest form. At Maserati, as at Ferrari, BRM or Vanwall, bodywork embraced the air without brutalising it. It was the absolute stereotype of the 1950s, as Richard Mille says with the enthusiasm of someone who has never stopped loving these machines.

A collector and founder of one of the most daring watch manufactures in the world, Richard Mille remains, above all, a car enthusiast who admits to a chronic inability to part with his automobiles. “I have always bought cars, since forever,” he says with a smile. “And I have a problem: I cannot manage to sell a single one.” This Maserati 250F is a car he knows. A car he feels. And he knows that to understand what it represents, one must first understand the era that gave birth to it.

Maserati, Orsi and the birth of a legend

 

In 1947, the Orsi family, which had acquired Maserati a decade earlier, decided to relaunch the marque into competition on a major scale. The challenge was immense: to take on a rapidly rising Scuderia Ferrari, in the context of an emerging Formula 1 that was attracting the finest engineers and the greatest drivers in the world. It was in this climate that the 250F was born in 1953. Designed by Gioacchino Colombo and Vittorio Bellentani, it was conceived from the outset to be sold to private teams, a novelty for the period. Its 2.5-litre straight-six engine, producing around 220 horsepower, allowed it to reach 270 km/h and compete in the greatest races in the world.

Yet the example owned by Richard Mille is of a different nature altogether. While most 250Fs were fitted with a six-cylinder engine, this one is powered by a straight-12. A breathtaking architecture, certainly, but one that also brought its share of complexity: heavier than its six-cylinder cousin, it was also more demanding to drive and more fuel-hungry. Drivers of the time often preferred the lighter version on technical circuits. But in terms of mechanical purity, noble sound and raw presence, nothing could rival this 12-cylinder engine.

 

Fangio at the wheel of the Maserati 250F: the sacred union of man and machine

 

If the 250F entered legend, it was largely thanks to one man: Juan Manuel Fangio. A five-time World Champion, with five titles in seven years and four different constructors, the Argentine is universally regarded as one of the greatest drivers in motorsport history, even before modern Formula 1 existed as we know it today. In 1957, at the wheel of a Maserati 250F, he delivered what many historians still consider the greatest race of all time: the German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring.

That day, after an extended pit stop left him more than 45 seconds behind the Ferraris of Hawthorn and Collins, Fangio began to climb back, lap after lap, at a pace nobody around him could match. He broke his own lap record ten consecutive times, passed his rivals in the final laps and crossed the finish line victorious at the age of 46. After the win, he said he had never pushed his limits so far in his entire career. The 250F had found its interpreter. Fangio had found his machine.

The car in the Mille collection also knew the touch of those legendary hands, as well as those of Jean Behra, another guiding figure of French motorsport at the time.

 

Maserati 250F: courage as the only standard equipment

 

To climb into the cockpit of a 250F is to step into another world. The driving position is strikingly rudimentary, especially when set against the speeds these men were reaching. A fuel tank within arm’s reach, a large steering wheel, heavy controls, no assistance whatsoever, no multi-point harness. The philosophy of the 250F can be summed up in a few words: a seat, a steering wheel and four tyres. “It was still quite rustic inside, to drive these cars at insane speeds,” Richard Mille concedes, which makes him all the more aware of what those drivers achieved.

And safety? It was almost non-existent. No survival cell, no foam barriers, no automatic fire-extinguishing system. They were fully conscious of the risks they were taking, but it was, as Richard Mille puts it, “a total passion”. They raced in the rain, in the fog, on circuits partly laid out on open roads, at speeds unthinkable for ordinary mortals. That excess, that courage, remain part of what the 250F still embodies today.

 

Maserati 250F: when automotive history keeps racing

 

The Maserati 250F from the Richard Mille collection is not, however, a piece condemned to stillness. It is eligible for Le Mans Classic, the gathering that brings the great single-seaters and sports prototypes from before 1979 back to life on the legendary Sarthe circuit. That eligibility says everything: this car can still race. It can still let its 12 cylinders sing through the corners of the Sarthe, before an audience that comes from Japan, the United States, Latin America and every corner of the world.

Because the Le Mans circuit is another story within the story. Voted France’s favourite monument in 2023-2024, it belongs to the great trilogy of mythical circuits, alongside Monaco and Monza. Le Mans is the complete myth, says Richard Mille. And in May 2026, that myth will have a new home: the all-new museum of the Circuit des 24 Heures du Mans, promised as the most beautiful motor racing museum in the world. Sports prototypes, Formula 1, Indycar, Can-Am, rally cars: the entire universe of competition brought together in a single place, just metres from the corners that have seen the greatest names pass by.

 

Richard Mille: passion knows no limits

 

Richard Mille states it in the opening seconds of the episode as something self-evident: “Passion knows no limits.” This is not a slogan. It is a philosophy running through his entire life, from his watch manufacture to his automobile collection. “Richard Mille watches would not be what they are without this love of cars,” he confides. In both worlds, the quest is the same: lightness, precision, performance and beauty in service of the extreme.

The Maserati 250F embodies all of this. It proves that a technical constraint, a heavy and complex 12-cylinder engine, can become a work of mechanical art. It proves that a car can pass through the decades without losing any of its emotional power. And in Richard Mille’s hands, it proves that the most beautiful collections are not the ones that simply accumulate, but the ones that are truly lived.

 

Discover the Maserati 250F and many other exceptional vehicles in Rétromobile’s One Vehicle, One Story podcast. To make sure you never miss an episode, visit the Rétromobile website and listen on all streaming platforms.