• About AwardsDaily
  • Sasha Stone
  • Advertising on Awards Daily
Awards Daily
  • 2026 Oscar Predictions
  • 2025/2026 Awards Calendar
  • EmmyWatch
  • Buzzmeter
  • NextGen Oscarwatcher
No Result
View All Result
  • 2026 Oscar Predictions
  • 2025/2026 Awards Calendar
  • EmmyWatch
  • Buzzmeter
  • NextGen Oscarwatcher
No Result
View All Result
Awards Daily
No Result
View All Result

Recreating the 1966 Le Mans Race Track for ‘Ford v Ferrari’

Production designer François Audouy talks to Awards Daily about creating the period detail for James Mangold's film.

Clarence Moye by Clarence Moye
December 30, 2019
in Interviews, Production Design
0

(Photo Credit: Merrick Morton TM and © 2019 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation)

Production designer François Audouy was not a car person before he started working on James Mangold’s Ford v Ferrari. Audouy, however, considers acquiring this previously unheld expertise the best part of his job.

“Every movie is completely different, and it’s a different eduction. You get to keep learning,” Audouy said. “Part of my job is to become a resident expert about the material. I’m a car person now after living in this world for about a year.”

The research for Ford v Ferrari started with director James Mangold, a fan of the research process and identifying rules of the period. The film isn’t a documentary, so Mangold and Audouy wanted to know when and how rules could be broken. The end goal, however, is still to create an immersive world for the characters. Audouy starts the process by creating a website for the research team – kind of a cinematic Pinterest – with input from any source available, including the Ford Museum and the Automobile Club de l’Ouest which runs the 24 Hours At Le Mans race. That lead to rare footage of the actual 1966 race depicted in the film.

One important distinction in the film is the visual contrast between the worlds of Ford and Ferrari. The Ford side of the film employed a visual dictionary steeped in modern architectural designs that were stark, glass-based, and full of right angles. These scenes boasted a color palate of steel blue and lacquered wood. The look flowed from the offices in the Ford Glass House management facility into the River Rouge factory. Ferrari’s Maranello factory heavily contrasted the steel blue hue of the Ford scenes, providing a sense of visual geography for a film that lacked location subtitles. Ferrari’s world boasted hand-made craftsmanship anchored in an earthy, naturalistic look and feel.

(Photo Credit: Merrick Morton TM and © 2019 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation)

“When you go through the gates of the Ferrari factory, you’re met with a landscape of lavender and palm trees and a gravel driveway,” Audouy remarked. “We get to go on this tour through the factory into the racing department and see an extension of those ideas. Workers are hand-building aluminum engine blocks for the Ferraris, building cars one at a time. It’s a wonderful visual tapestry to be a part of in telling that story.”

But the most challenging aspect of the film was the recreation of the 1966 Le Mans race track. Nothing of the original 8.5-mile circuit still exists, including the original 1,000-foot long grandstand building that was demolished in the mid-1980s. The famous Dunlop bridge is the only original architectural element still standing today.

To solve this problem, Audouy and team split the sequence into four unique locations: three in Georgia and one in Southern California where they rebuilt about 500 feet of the grandstands and pits to scale.

“One thing that’s very interesting about this race course, fans can recognize each stretch of this race because it’s so esteemed in history and legend. We had this 30-minute long third act sequence where the cars would be going past very recognizable landmarks,” Audouy explained. “Jim [Mangold] wanted us to create a continuity of action where you recognize these locations again and again. There’s very little CGI in the film. It’s all old school, real scenery going by at 150 feet per second.”

Audouy worked in close collaboration with director of photography, Phedon Papamichael, to ensure the overall experience was seamless for the viewer through an environment nurtured by Mangold. This connectivity became especially important as the cars “lived” through the 24 Hours At Le Mans.

“They’re perfectly new at the beginning of the race when they leave the starting line, and then they get dirtier and it rains and they get wet and then dry,” Audouy laughs. “It’s sort of a continuity nightmare than requires a lot of communication and collaboration and integration with the assistant directors.”

Audouy equates the Le Mans racing sequence to that of orchestrating a 30-minute war sequence. It brings a thrilling and emotional conclusion to a film that emerges as one of the very best of 2019.

(Photo Credit: Merrick Morton TM and © 2019 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation)
Tags: Ford v FerrariProduction design
Previous Post

Capturing the Electric Atmosphere of ‘Moulin Rouge’ with a Grammy-nominated Cast Album

Next Post

Phedon Papamichael on Driving the ‘Ford v Ferrari’ Visual Style

Next Post

Phedon Papamichael on Driving the 'Ford v Ferrari' Visual Style

Let’s Talk Cinema: The 2000’s
featured

Let’s Talk Cinema: The 2000’s

by Jeremy Jentzen
October 15, 2025
50

The time has come, my friends, to finally get down to the nitty gritty—the subject that really gets everyone worked...

CNN Frets That The “Male Gaze” Might Be Coming Back

CNN Frets That The “Male Gaze” Might Be Coming Back

October 14, 2025
The Critics Choice Reveal Documentary Nominations

The Critics Choice Reveal Documentary Nominations

October 14, 2025
Nextgen Oscarwatcher: Best Supporting Actress and a Grassroots campaign for Amy Madigan

Nextgen Oscarwatcher: Best Supporting Actress and a Grassroots campaign for Amy Madigan

October 13, 2025
Read Woody Allen’s Tribute to Diane Keaton

Read Woody Allen’s Tribute to Diane Keaton

October 13, 2025
The Buzzmeter — Box Office Disaster: Has Hollywood Lost the Plot?

The Buzzmeter — Box Office Disaster: Has Hollywood Lost the Plot?

October 12, 2025
The Great Diane Keaton Passes On … Leaving a Legacy to Treasure

The Great Diane Keaton Passes On … Leaving a Legacy to Treasure

October 11, 2025
2026 Oscar Predictions: Shakespeare’s Prophecy

2026 Oscar Predictions: Shakespeare’s Prophecy

October 10, 2025
2026 Oscars: Best Actress [POLL] Chase Infinity to Campaign in Lead

2026 Oscars: Best Actress [POLL] Chase Infinity to Campaign in Lead

October 11, 2025
Oscar Podcast: Frontrunners and Challengers Episode 2 with Mark Johnson

2026 Oscars: Frontrunners and Challengers Podcast Episode 4

October 8, 2025

Oscar News

2026 Oscars —  Best Director: There is Ryan Coogler and Everyone Else

2026 Oscars — Best Director: There is Ryan Coogler and Everyone Else

September 23, 2025

2026 Oscars: What Five Best Actor Contenders Will Get Nominated? [POLL]

“Politically Charged” One Battle After Another Dazzles Crowds at Early Screenings

2026 Oscars: The Themes That Will Drive This Year’s Best Picture Race

The Buzzmeter: Can Brad Pitt’s and F1 Invite the Public Back to the Oscars?

2026 Oscars: Neon Nails it Again with Sentimental Value at Cannes

EmmyWatch

CBS Finally Ends the Stephen Colbert Show

CBS Finally Ends the Stephen Colbert Show

July 18, 2025

The Gotham TV Winners Set the Consensus to Come

Gothams Announces Television Nominees

White Lotus Finale – A Deeply Profound Message for a Weary World

  • About AwardsDaily
  • Sasha Stone
  • Advertising on Awards Daily

© 2025 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

No Result
View All Result
  • About AwardsDaily
  • Sasha Stone
  • Advertising on Awards Daily

© 2025 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.