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DID MERCEDES SAVE LEWIS HAMILTON'S CAREER BY QUITTING LE MANS IN 1999?
Explore how Mercedes’ 1999 Le Mans disaster and the withdrawal of the CLR project directly paved the way for Lewis Hamilton’s F1 success.
Lewis Hamilton's F1 career and Mercedes' involvement in it might never have happened if Mercedes hadn't bailed out of the 1999 Le Mans 24 Hours race.
They pulled out mid-race after the third incident where one of their CLR cars flipped due to air issues.
Bernd Schneider remembers those crazy events.
Mercedes, with AMG and HWA, made the CLR for the LMGTP rules in 1999, replacing the CLK GTR.
They entered three CLRs in the '99 Le Mans race but didn't spot a design problem before it started, even after about 22,000 miles of testing at different tracks.
The CLR, with its short wheelbase and big overhangs, had a major issue: in the right windy conditions, the front could lift too much. If the lift were stronger than the downforce, the front would come off the ground. This could make the car take off and flip at high speed.
But Mercedes hadn't figured this out when they got to Le Mans for the famous race.
Mark Webber, who later became a successful F1 driver, was driving chassis number four, and he crashed on Thursday when his CLR flipped at high speed. TV didn't catch it; only photos showed what happened.
Webber got back to the pits, but Mercedes wasn't too worried yet, Schneider told the Beyond the Grid podcast. Schneider, a DTM legend and also a former F1 driver, was driving chassis number six.
We didn't know about the flipping problems because other cars had flipped, and our CLK GTR was always a bit in the air. "That's why we didn't race it at Le Mans in '97," he said.
But the '98 car wasn't a big deal. We never had flipping problems. I was in pole position in '98, and the car was really good. We just had an engine issue after a couple of hours.
In '99, we got better. Mark and I were at Hockenheim, going over 200 mph over bumps and everything, really close to each other to see what would happen.
I'm glad nothing happened because there were trees everywhere, and if something went wrong at that speed, I wouldn't want to be in the car. But we never had problems there.
Then we came to Le Mans and had some power issues. We had to turn the power down because it wasn't reliable enough.
This change in reliability made the car act differently.
We had to drive with less power, so we took off some downforce to make up for it and keep the top speed, he said.
We didn't think it would make the car lift so much.
The worst crash wasn't on TV. Mark had it on Thursday. The car was ready for the race, and he was doing laps to see how it would do over the race.
He was behind Frank Biela in the Audi [R8R]. The Audi was slow then, and Biela said he saw Mark coming. After the turn, he stayed left and thought Mark would pass, but Mark disappeared.
[Biela] was scared because he couldn't find him in his mirrors.
Mark said that when he took off, he could see the top of the trees, which are really high. He flipped and landed on all four tires.
I passed the car and thought it was a technical issue. I didn't see any damage. We didn't have cameras in the car, so we didn't see what happened.
I guess it was the highest it ever flew, and it wasn't on TV. But we didn't realize it because we didn't see it. Mark just said he flipped and didn't do anything wrong.
He flipped, but we thought something else must have happened. I remember he was pale and scared, but we didn't really understand what happened.
Even though they weren't sure what caused the crash, Mercedes rebuilt chassis number four. But when Webber went back on the track on Saturday, he flipped again. Luckily, he wasn't hurt either time.
Mercedes decided to take that car out of the race, but Schneider wanted to make sure they didn't stop racing altogether. He said he was okay with driving the CLR, even though motorsport boss Norbert Haug was worried.
I thought the car was fine. "I had no problem," he said.
I drove close to others and never had issues. The team thought there must be a problem with the car's setup, that it was too low in the front. They said if we prepared the car like we did in the simulations, it would be okay.
Then they built a new car for Mark, and he flipped it again in the warmup. Everyone saw it on TV and wondered what was wrong.
Norbert Haug said we had to stop driving at Le Mans if the cars were flipping because if someone got hurt, it would ruin Mercedes' motorsport program.
I told him I wanted to drive, that the car was good.
Then Gerhard Ungar, our engineer, said they'd put the rain setup on it, with more downforce in the front and back, which would make it safe.
We talked him into letting us drive, and that's why we did.
Then Peter flipped into the forest...
Mercedes started the race with the #5 and #6 cars. Peter Dumbreck was driving the #5 on lap 75. He was chasing a Toyota when the front of his car lifted off the ground, and his car flew over the barriers, landing in a patch that had just been cleared of trees. It was all caught on TV.
Unlike Webber's crashes, which were within the track, Dumbreck's crash was on TV and showed how serious it was, so there were no more questions. A lap later, Nick Heidfeld, Schneider's teammate in the #6 CLR, was told to come back to the pits and stop. Mercedes stopped the CLR project and their sports car program.
I had just gotten out of the car. Franck Lagorce, my teammate, came in and said, 'He flipped! He flew into the forest!'
I asked who flipped into the forest.
I was glad Peter was okay, but then I saw the pictures.
It was shocking. I'm thankful he survived and nobody was hurt because otherwise, it would have been my fault for pushing us to race.
It was the second time Mercedes had quit sports car racing. They came back in 2025 with the Iron Lynx project.
During that time, Mercedes focused on Formula 1, where they provided engines to McLaren. They teamed up with Ron Dennis' team in 1995, and Lewis Hamilton joined the McLaren-Mercedes driver program in 1998, getting their help until he joined F1 with McLaren in 2007.
He won his first title a year later. Mercedes entered F1 as a factory team in 2010, and Hamilton switched from McLaren at the end of 2012. He won six more titles with Mercedes, becoming the most successful driver in the sport. All his wins have been with Mercedes power, but he finally left for Ferrari in 2025.
Schneider thinks none of this would have happened if that weekend at Le Mans had been worse for anyone driving the CLRs.
"I always tell people at Mercedes that it was one of the luckiest days for Mercedes motorsports," he said.
If something bad had happened, we wouldn't have had Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes car, for sure.
The CLR never raced again. Haug said he decided to keep going after the first flips because the data from Webber's crash had been looked at, and the drivers didn't feel any problems with the cars in traffic.
After Le Mans, Mercedes did a private test with the remaining CLR at an airfield to check wind tunnel data. They never released any results, but Mercedes stopped the program soon after.
The two crashed CLR monocoques haven't been seen since, but the remaining CLR has shown up, thanks to a private owner. It's in a German car museum now.
LANDO NORRIS SINGLE: F1 CHAMPION CONFIRMS SPLIT FROM MAGUI CORCEIRO IN LEAKED VIDEO
F1 heartbreak: Analyse Lando Norris's split from Magui Corceiro, the "single man" leak, and their on-off relationship history.
Looks like Formula One world champion Lando Norris and his supermodel girlfriend, Magui Corceiro, have split up. The two started dating in 2023 and had a pretty on-and-off thing. She was right there with him when he won the title in Abu Dhabi – definitely an emotional night for both of them.
But now, it seems like it’s over. According to the Sun, a TikTok video caught Norris telling Carlos Sainz Jr that he’s “a single man". The audio’s not great, but you can hear Sainz asking if he and Magui are okay, and Lando just says, “No,” then adds that he’s single. This happened during pre-season testing in Bahrain while the drivers were getting their photos taken.
Magui, who’s also an actress from Portugal, used to date footballer Joao Felix before Lando. She and Norris broke up in 2024 and got back together, but it looks like they’ve called it quits again. People close to them say there’ve been signs for a while; things changed after Lando’s big championship win. The most obvious clue? Magui wasn’t at Lando’s big thank-you party in Bahrain, even though everyone else was there. Naturally, that got people talking.
Back in December, Magui broke down in tears after Norris won the world championship. She gave an interview to TV Guia, saying how happy they both were and how, in that moment, she forgot about the cameras. It all seemed pretty solid then.
Magui’s got a huge social following – around 800,000 fans on TikTok – and she’s done everything from acting in Portuguese dramas to modelling for brands like Intimissimi and Alo Yoga. She was even on Portugal’s Dancing with the Stars in 2020 and co-founded the eco swimwear brand Missus. She’s graced Vogue Portugal, too.
Norris himself talked about Magui in Vogue, saying they met a few years ago but only got together more recently. He called her “down to earth” and said he can just be himself around her. Apparently, he kept trying to get her into golf, but she hated it.
Neither of them has officially announced the breakup, but at this point, it looks like they’ve gone their separate ways.
DISASTER WARNING: OSCAR PIASTRI FEARS 2026 RACE STARTS COULD LEAD TO MULTI-CAR GRID ACCIDENTS
Oscar Piastri warns of chaos at the 2026 start! Discover why the new rules are a "recipe for disaster" and how McLaren found "warp speed."
Oscar Piastri thinks there’s a lot of luck involved in getting a good start these days. Pre-season testing in Bahrain really made it clear that these new 2026 F1 rules have turned race starts into a much bigger headache.
He’s spoken up about this before, especially since so many teams and drivers are running into fresh problems under the new regs. The big one? F1 dropped the MGU-H from the engine formula, and suddenly, starts just aren’t as smooth. It’s a mess.
After last week’s first official test in Bahrain, Piastri didn’t sugarcoat it. He called the 2026 start a “recipe for disaster” because of how wildly different every driver’s launch is. Even the FIA and F1 noticed, so they decided to test out a longer starting procedure during the second test.
Here’s what they did: during the second test, they delayed the starting lights, giving drivers more time to spool up their turbos. Ferrari’s 2026 engine features a smaller turbo, allowing its drivers to maintain lower revs for longer periods. Others? They’re sitting there for up to ten seconds, just waiting.
Piastri says the new procedures and the extra week of testing in Bahrain helped a bit; things aren’t quite as all over the place now. But he’s honest: there’s still a ton of luck involved if you want to get a clean launch and avoid turbo lag or wheelspin.
Holding high revs to prime the turbo, now that the MGU-H is gone, is just one of the traps drivers can fall into. Piastri figures it’s going to take a while before all 22 drivers on the grid are nailing their starts every time.
He summed it up at the press conference in Bahrain: “Mine yesterday wasn’t so bad. I was last, but I also overtook four cars. There’s still a lot of luck involved, and we’re learning what makes a good start and what makes a bad one.
“There are a few pitfalls you can run into that cause problems. Managing the energy and the whole procedure – that’s one thing.
“The way we start is just totally different from last year. It’s trickier across the board. Some drivers are handling it; some just aren’t.”
On the other hand, McLaren looked like they were getting the hang of it by the last day of testing. Jolyon Palmer, watching from the sidelines, was impressed by Piastri’s practice start but even more blown away by Lando Norris.
Palmer thought McLaren had cracked the code. On Friday, Piastri shot off the line in the morning, but Norris outdid everyone in the final session. Palmer joked that Norris hit “warp speed".
He said on the F1 broadcast, “Warp speed, see you mate! That’s a brilliant start from Lando. McLaren is there. I’ve seen it all day. Oscar got a great start. In the pit lane, it looks good.
“I’d love to see that next to the Ferrari, honestly, because it’s really impressive. Their start is much better than Red Bull’s. I’d say it’s even better than Mercedes.”
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