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.
SERGIO PEREZ BREAKS SILENCE ON CADILLAC’S FIRST FOUR RACES OF 2026 F1 SEASON
Discover why Sergio Perez is confident in Cadillac’s 2026 path despite urgent needs for better pace and reliability fixes.
Sergio Perez didn’t waste time sharing his thoughts on Cadillac after the first four races of the 2026 Formula 1 season.
Cadillac shows up in 2026 as F1’s newest team, but honestly, not a lot of people expected fireworks right away. With veterans like Valtteri Bottas and Perez behind the wheel, the team’s start has been a mix, some moments full of promise, others derailed by reliability issues.
Still, Cadillac isn’t just stuck at the back. Lately, they’ve been right there fighting with Aston Martin and even managed to split them in Miami, which turned a few heads.
Perez knows the team is at risk of falling behind in this crazy-fast development race, though. “We still have work to do, but I’m confident we’re on the right path,” he told reporters, including Motorsport Week.
He added, “Sometimes, once tyre degradation sets in, we can hang with the midfield, but they always seem to find another gear. There’s a long way to go this season, but we’re in a rush to find more pace. We know Aston will get stronger, and we don’t want to be left behind.”
Racing Aston Martin has actually brought Perez some enjoyment. He especially likes battling Fernando Alonso, calling those fights fair and satisfying. Still, he pointed out a weak spot: “We’re having fun with them. Racing Fernando is always great because he’s so fair. But we struggled with tyre degradation; we burnt through them too quickly. We picked the hard compound, but honestly, looking back, I should’ve gone with the soft.”
He said there’s plenty to analyse, and really, the key is getting a better grip on their car as they look ahead to Canada. “We don’t have much time, but in the short term, we need to fix the degradation. We have some ideas, but putting them together is our biggest challenge in the next few weeks.”
Cadillac may be the new kid on the block and still finding its feet, but it’s already starting to make an impact. The road out of the lower ranks won’t be easy, but they’re moving in the right direction.
HOW KIMI ANTONELLI’S THREE-RACE WIN STREAK IS REDEFINING THE MERCEDES TEAM HIERARCHY
With a 43-second gap in Miami, Antonelli proves he’s ready to lead the World Championship. Can Russell bounce back in Canada?
David Coulthard, the former Formula 1 driver, recently pointed out that Kimi Antonelli might be on track to overtake George Russell as Mercedes’ team leader.
Antonelli has been on an impressive run, clinching victories in the last three races and pulling ahead by 20 points over his main competitor and teammate, Russell.
At the Miami race, the young Italian once again outperformed his more seasoned teammate, with Russell managing only fourth place, trailing by 43 seconds.
Coulthard acknowledged Antonelli’s rapid rise in 2026, which is just his second season in F1. He highlighted Antonelli’s strengths and suggested that the Italian is, in many ways, now leading the Mercedes team.
“He’s come of age,” Coulthard said during the Up To Speed podcast.
Despite being relatively new, Antonelli has shown resilience, dealing not only with the pressure from a driver like Lando ready to strike but also with technical glitches like inconsistent paddle shifts. Coulthard mentioned how Antonelli kept his cool even when his engineer, Bono, was trying to help troubleshoot the issue in a tense moment.
“I think he’s earned the right to lead the World Championship,” Coulthard added, noting that this situation probably feels uncomfortable for George. Still, the expectations now lean heavily toward Antonelli leading the team, especially based on recent results.
Coulthard also pointed out that Russell has the experience and skill to reclaim his position as the team’s lead driver, but emphasised that only one can come out on top; someone must finish first and the other second.
The rivalry between them might start opening doors for other teams. Coulthard noted that improvements from McLaren, Ferrari, and Red Bull were already noticeable, especially in Miami.
“Winning in the best car isn’t always straightforward. Many have tried and struggled,” he said.
For Russell, who is feeling the weight of this momentum shift, the upcoming race in Canada will be crucial if he wants to close the gap and halt Antonelli’s winning streak.
