Three Technical Reports in the Trial of Enzo Ferrari for the 1957 Mille-Miglia Car Crash

In 1957, a car crash at the Mille Miglia – an Italian competition on a street circuit – caused the death of 11 people. As a matter of course, the car manufacturer, Enzo Ferrari, was investigated for negligent homicide. In order to clarify the car dynamics and the root causes, a first committee of technicians and academics had been assigned to produce an expert report. This report pointed directly towards the specific design of the tires used (made by the Belgian manufacturer Englebert) and, as a consequence, towards the Ferrari team and his owner. Other two reports followed, one provided by the defense and a third one to finally settle the issue. This paper won’t focus on the media aspect that the personalities involved aroused, but on the technical aspects of the reports produced by the three committees. Accidentally, these memories differ in the approach followed and allow a comparison on what the optimal approach should be to solve a technical problem, as well as a memory of a significant event in Italy which saw technical-scientific reasoning as the key to arriving at the truth and clearing Enzo Ferrari of all charges.