![Typhoon Mugello](https://theaviationist.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Typhoon-Mugello.jpeg)
While flyovers in Italy are usually carried out by the Frecce Tricolori display team, four F-2000s flew over the starting grid of the Grand Prix near Florence, Italy, today, to celebrate the 1000th Formula 1 race of the Ferrari racing team.
On Sept. 13, 2020, four Eurofighter Typhoon jets, two belonging to the 4° Stormo (Wing), based at Grosseto Air Base, and two belonging to the 36° Stormo, from Gioia del Colle, performed a flyover at the first ever Formula 1 race hosted by the Ferrari-owned track, at Mugello, near Florence, in central Italy.
The four jets literally rocked the starting grid with a formation pass, right after the national anthem, followed by a couple of cool, noisy low passes in pairs.
👀 Pre Show: i caccia Eurofighter dell’@ItalianAirForce sfrecciano sopra il circuito. Un orgoglio italiano, per un legame, quello tra Arma e Ferrari, suggellato da un simbolo: il cavallino rampante 🇮🇹 #TuscanGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/GeCPgViC5J
— Mugello Circuit (@MugelloCircuit) September 13, 2020
Although the flyovers in Italy are traditionally carried out by the Frecce Tricolori, the Italian Air Force aerobatic display team, today’s mission was carried out by the F-2000As (as the Typhoons are designated in Italy) to celebrate the 1000th Formula 1 race of the Scuderia Ferrari: in fact, both the Eurofighters and the famous Italian racing team’s cars sport the worldwide known “Prancing Horse”, a symbol inherited from the Italian WWI ace Francesco Baracca.
![](https://theaviationist.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Mugello-Flyover-706x397.jpeg)
The red cars from Maranello and the Italian Air Force jets have always been intrinsically linked by their use of the Prancing Horse emblem: for instance, the first Eurofighter wearing the markings of the 4° Stormo made its first public appearance at Grosseto on Dec. 11, 2003, during a famous event that also featured the race between a Eurofighter (the aircraft serialled MM X614 IPA2 operating with the Alenia flight team at the Turin-Caselle facility, piloted by the Italian astronaut and Alenia test pilot Maurizio Cheli) and the Ferrari F2003-GA piloted by Michael Schumacher.
Four @ItalianAirForce @eurofighter Typhoons have rocked the starting grid of the Mugello Grand Prix to celebrate @ScuderiaFerrari’s 1000th GP. The jets of 4th and 36th Stormo sport the famous Prancing Horse of WWI ace Francesco Baracca, that has also become the symbol of Ferrari. pic.twitter.com/2FVR0c1Sb5
— David Cenciotti (@cencio4) September 13, 2020
Back to today’s Grand Prix, it’s also worth of remark that, in order to take part in the flyover at Mugello at 14.55LT, two F-2000s flew from Gioia del Colle, in southeastern Italy, to Grosseto, in the central part of the country, in the morning on Sunday Sept. 13: during the ferry flight, the two aircraft were “diverted” to intercept and perform a VID (Visual IDentification) on an ultralight aircraft that had lost radio contact with the civilian Air Traffic Control (a typical “COMLOSS” mission – from Communication Loss). The two Typhoons continued their flight to Grosseto after the “zombie” (as the intercepted aircraft is dubbed in the fighter pilot “lingo”) was identified and re-established the radio contact with the ATC agencies.
![](https://theaviationist.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Typhoon-ItAF-36-Stormo-706x471.jpg)
Since Sept. 8, 2020, four Eurofighters from the 36°, 4° and 37° Stormo are deployed to Šiauliai, Lithunia, to support NATO Baltic Air Policing mission: the Typhoons of the Task Force Air “Baltic Thunder” performed their first A-Scramble (Alert-Scramble) to intercept a Russian Il-20M ELINT aircraft on Sept. 11.
Last week, on Sunday Sept. 6, 2020, the Monza F1 GP was opened by the Frecce Tricolori:
The Monza F1 GP 2020 flyover as seen from the cockpit of “Pony 5”. Awesome footage released by the @ItalianAirForce. pic.twitter.com/RvNZlbZPe3
— David Cenciotti (@cencio4) September 6, 2020
As happened today, also on Sunday Sept. 6, the Italian Typhoons were scrambled to intercept an aircraft following a COMLOSS event:
Scramble today for two Eurofighter Typhoons of the @ItalianAirForce from Grosseto, which were launched to intercept a CL600 OE-IGA flying as IJM607 from Moscow to Olbia following a COMLOSS event – loss of radio contact with the ATC. Screenshot from @ADSBexchange pic.twitter.com/f724d8IDUO
— David Cenciotti (@cencio4) September 6, 2020