At the final checkpoint, Portago waves off a set of new tires because he is losing to a slower car. As he darts toward the finish line, he passes through the town of Guidizzolo, where the residents line the roads. Just 30 miles from the checkered flag, Portago’s 4.1-liter Tipo 335 loses control and becomes a two-ton scarlet pinwheel with a V-12 engine. It ricochets out of a roadside bank before slamming into a pole, ripping through a crowd of spectators, and finally ending its gruesome havoc in a drainage ditch.
The sequence in the film is brief but breathtaking, as it would be if it happened right in front of you. It elicits the visceral response to such a horror with artful carnage. Mann’s non-fetishistic attention to detail avoids any lurid thrills a more superficial portrayal might exploit.
When the dust settled, the bodies of Portago and his navigator lay scattered on the ground along with ten spectators including five children. Many newspapers joined the Vatican in demanding the end of the Mille Miglia, while some motorsport reporters lamented the calls to discontinue the decades-long tradition as emotional and hasty. “It was Le Mans all over again,” wrote Taruffi in his excoriating article. “I tried to look as a victor should look, but in my heart there was only despair, for I realized that the Mille Miglia had become too dangerous and that I must be one of its pallbearers.”
1957 was the 24th and final edition of the Mille Miglia. It exists now only as an exhibition of historic cars.
While constructors continue their attempts to outwit physics and manipulate aerodynamics, a half-century of safety protocols and innovation have caught up to the developments in speed. Death is no longer a near-inevitability, for drivers or spectators.
The growing popularity of Formula 1 in the United States means there are now three grand prix races that take place on American circuits (by contrast, France and Germany have none). Fans can enjoy Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz dance their Ferraris around circuits in Austin, Miami, and the Las Vegas strip, with relative comfort regarding their safety.
The death of Jules Bianchi in 2014 is a poingant reminder that while fatalities are fewer and further between, they still occur. But even through horrific incidents like Zhou Guayou’s turn one crash at Silverstone in 2022 and Romain Grosjean’s fireball in 2020drivers can walk away with minor injuries.
Scuderia Ferrari continues to be the most popular team in motorsport today. Its car won this year’s Le Mans and despite its current struggles in Formula 1, the Tifosi usually outnumber all other teams’ supporters.
And just for fun, close your eyes and picture a race car.
What color is it?