The Mercedes-Benz CLR at Le Mans: the flying cars

Mercedes-Benz suffered a fairly major setback at the 1999 24 Hours of Le Mans, serious enough that it definitively cancelled the new CLR programme after two of its cars literally took off somewhere on the La Sarthe circuit, either in qualifying or during the race itself.

On that occasion, the CLR was entered with three cars for the race. Car number 4, driven by Mark Webber (yes, that Mark Webber), was the one that flew twice within just a few hours of each other: the first time during night qualifying on Thursday; the second time on Saturday morning during the warm-up, when the Mercedes flew spectacularly once again. Fortunately, Webber walked away unharmed from both accidents, the car was withdrawn (but not the other two), and Norbert Haug agreed to carry on with the two remaining cars, modified with more downforce at the front. The condition imposed on the drivers was that they must not run too close behind another car on the very fast downhill sections of the track.

But there was still a third accident caused by the same factors. A design flaw in the CLR meant the car literally lifted off, forced by air passing beneath the bodywork. Briton Peter Dumbreck, who was driving car number 5, suffered a similar accident in the fourth hour of the race. Once again a flying Mercedes, this time at the Indianapolis corner.

No further emergency aerodynamic solutions were attempted. At this point, Haug withdrew the remaining car from the race and the CLR racing programme for the rest of 1999 was definitively cancelled.

Source | Mulsanne Corner