Alfonso de Portago

Alfonso de Portago

Nation:	Spain
Automobile world championship
First start:	1956 French Grand Prix
Last start:	1957 Grand Prix of Argentina
Constructors
1956–1957 Ferrari
statistics
World Cup balance:	WM-15. ( 1956 )
Starts Victories Poles SR 5 - - -
World Cup points :	4th
Podiums :	1
Leadership laps :	-

Alfonso Antonio Vicente Eduardo Ángel Blas Francisco de Borja Cabeza de Vaca y Leighton, Carvajal y Are, Conde de la Mejorada, Marqués de Portago , (born October 11, 1928 in London , † May 12, 1957 near Guidizzolo , Italy ) was a Spanish Automobile racing driver and bobsledder .

Career

All-round athlete from a noble family

Don Alfonso Antonio Vicente Eduardo Ángel Blas Francisco de Borja Cabeza de Vaca y Leighton, Carvajal y Are, Conde (Count) de la Mejorada, Marqués (Margrave) de Portago, as his full name was, was born to an Irish woman and a Spanish woman Nobleman was born in London in 1928 and grew up well sheltered in Biarritz while his father fought in the Spanish Civil War.

Thanks to his fortune, he devoted himself to many sports, especially with horses: he was a jockey , won the French amateur jockey championship, took part in the Grand National twice and also played excellent polo . As a bobsleigh driver he took part in the Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo in 1956 and finished fourth in the two-man bobsleigh with Vicente Sartorius and ninth in the four-man bobsleigh with Sartorius, Gonzalo Taboada and Luis Muñoz . A year later he won bronze in the two-man bobsleigh with Luis Muñoz at the world championships . Alfonso de Portago was also active in swimming .

With all this, de Portago was not a dogged trainer, but what counted for him above all was having fun, which is why contemporaries gave him the nickname “Partygo” based on his name.

Motorsport career

De Portago came to motorsport by chance. Luigi Chinetti , former Le Mans winner, asked him in 1953 if he wanted to be his co-driver in the Carrera Panamericana . De Portago answered in the affirmative and was henceforth an enthusiastic motor sportsman and role model for wealthy sports car drivers. In 1954 he bought a private Maserati and in 1955 he was seen in a striking yellow and black painted private Ferrari .

He soon showed that he was an excellent driver and his performance in endurance racing led Enzo Ferrari to give him a place on his works team in the 1956 World Cup . His best result was second place at the British Grand Prix , which he had to share with Peter Collins , as the drivers could be changed, as was customary at the time. At the 1957 Grand Prix of Argentina , he again achieved world championship points in fifth place.

Death at the Mille Miglia

The memorial at the accident site near Guidizzolo

At Enzo Ferrari's request, de Portago took part in the 1957 Mille Miglia , although he had previously expressed concerns about the race. Originally, he turned down the car offered to him and referred to Olivier Gendebien , who wanted to take part more determinedly in this race, but who, in his opinion, was given a weaker car. Ferrari then provoked him by saying that Gendebien would drive faster that way.

A car race on unsecured Italian country roads, straight through villages with many spectators along the way, seemed dangerous and no longer appropriate to him; but still he drove. At the last service stop before the finish, he was in 3rd place. An urgently needed tire change was refused because it would have cost too much time. A tragedy broke out near the village of Guidizzolo , between Mantua and the finish line in Brescia : a tire burst, the Ferrari came off the road and overturned. De Portago died, as did his co-driver Edmund Nelson and nine spectators, including five children. The accident was the main reason why the Mille Miglia was banned in this form. There was also a three-year lawsuit against Ferrari and the tire manufacturer Englebert .

statistics

Statistics in the automobile world championship

general overview

season	team	chassis	engine	run	Victories	Second	Third	Poles	nice Race laps	Points	WM-Pos.
1956	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari D50	Lancia 2.5 V8	4th	-	1	-	-	-	3	15th
1957	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari D50A	Ferrari 2.5 V8	1	-	-	-	-	-	1	20th
total				5	-	1	-	-	-	4th

Single results

season	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th
1956
					DNF	2	DNF	DNF
1957
	5

Legend
colour	abbreviation	meaning
gold	-	victory
silver	-	2nd place
bronze	-	3rd place
green	-	Placement in the points
blue	-	Classified outside the point ranks
violet	DNF	Race not finished (did not finish)
	NC	not classified
red	DNQ	did not qualify
	DNPQ	failed in pre-qualification (did not pre-qualify)
black	DSQ	disqualified
White	DNS	not at the start (did not start)
	WD	withdrawn
Light Blue	PO	only participated in the training (practiced only)
	TD	Friday test driver
without	DNP	did not participate in the training (did not practice)
	INJ	injured or sick
	EX	excluded
	DNA	did not arrive
	C.	Race canceled
		no participation in the World Cup
other	P / bold	Pole position
	SR / italic	Fastest race lap
	*	not at the finish, but counted due to the distance covered
	()	Streak results
	underlined	Leader in the overall standings

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1954	Officine Alfieri Maserati	Maserati A6GCS	Carlo Tomasi	failure	Engine failure
1956	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 625LM Spider Touring	Duncan Hamilton	failure	accident

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1954	Harry Schell	Ferrari 250MM Vignale	Harry Schell	failure	Axle break
1955	Marquis de Portago	Ferrari 750 Monza	Umberto Maglioli	failure	Gearbox damage
1956	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 857S	Jim Kimberly	failure	Valve damage
1957	Ferrari Factory	Ferrari 315 Sport	Luigi Musso	Rank 7

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th
1953	Scuderia Gustalla	Ferrari 375MM	SEB	MIM	LEM	SPA	ONLY	RTT	CAP
									DNF
1954	Alfonso de Portago Harry Schell Maserati Scuderia Espana	Ferrari 250MM Maserati A6GCS Ferrari 750 Monza	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	CAP
			2	DNF		DNF		DNF
1955	Alfonso de Portago	Ferrari 750 Monza	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	TAR
				DNF
1956	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 857S Ferrari 290MM Ferrari 860 Monza	BUA	SEB	MIM	ONLY	KRI
				DNF		3	3
1957	Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari 290MM Ferrari 315S Ferrari 335S	BUA	SEB	MIM	ONLY	LEM	KRI	CAR
			3	7th	DNF

Web links

Commons : Alfonso de Portago  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Sketch of the course of the accident from L'Automobile from May 19, 1957
• Alfonso de Portago. www.motorsportmemorial.org, accessed on May 15, 2020 (English).