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That's a cracking photo!
That Hawthorn clip is a wonderful snapshot in time, but I find it hard to come to terms with his matter-of-fact tone to the track changes following that terrible accident a year before - an accident he was involved in. He just notes in passing that there was a "terrible accident which occurred here last year".
And those changes for 1956 were so minimal that it scarcely looks safer for the spectators in the Masion Blanche area! They would have prevented an identical crash from happening, but the spectators were still incredibly close to the circuit at high speed.
Totally different attitude to death in that era, which is hardly surprising given what happened in the previous decade. The track still bared the scars of the WWII at that point. You'll notice at the end of the Mulsanne straight, the trees are very young and some hadn't even grown yet. That's because that area was cleared by the Nazis for a Prison Camp.
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