McNish / Audi crash - today Le Mans

[pu911rsr]

The first thing they teach you in race school "to finish first, first you must finish". Sports car racers have been dealing with large speed differentials for years, not really easy for slow or fast cars but it's part of the sport. The thought as I was watching was a couple of folks would lose their lives, thankfully that did not happen.
Phil

[a911s]

McNish interview after crash:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOx742p_a_I

[Nine17]

Randy, thanks for posting the McNish P.C. from Sunday. In my view, McNish was his usually classy self. Having seen many of his charismatic drives in LMP's, I think that he is correct in refusing to apportion blame. These new LMP's have the torque of a Formula 3 car and when a leading car goes wide it's appropriate to carry momentum through the racing line. It's unfortunate that Beltoise couldn't see him coming through, but McNish does not blame him under the circumstances, even though it was Beltoise's right front that collided with McNish's left rear (a completed pass).

I find it to be particularly unfortunate that the FIM has created that morass of chicanes place in the former Dunop bend to slow the bikes down re-entering the Circuit Bugatti. Le Mans always worked for multi-class racing (imagine a D-Type vs. a Panhard Dyna or a 917 LH vs. a 914/6) because it was a high-speed circuit with many long, sweeping, high-speed turns where passing was easier. This was as much a cause of McNish's incident as anything, in my view.

--David

[a911s]

David, thanks for your explanation. Also thanks for pointing out that McNish's recollection was the opposite of what actually happened (the Ferrari's right front collided with McNish's left rear). Obviously neither driver was fully aware of everything that occurred - it happened that fast. As a result, neither driver should be expected to take complete responsibility for this particular "racing incident". However, it should not take an accident that leads to someone's death (which could have easily happened here) to cause drivers to become more circumspect about the decisions and actions they make while occupying the same area on the race track.

To me, there is an apparent disconnect that exists between the LMP and GT drivers. At one extreme it could be argued that the LMP drivers assume the GT drivers will always see them coming and stay out of the way. On the other hand, the GT drivers assume that the faster LMP cars will always make sure that the pass happens safely. Neither can be 100% right all of the time of course. But I would hope that something like this would inspire them to find a common ground on which to communicate rather than taking such strong positions on either side. Nobody really wins at LeMans that way.

[Nine17]

Randy, most of the drivers are the same, but the CARS have changed with the ACO's emphasis on Green Racing (as Scott Atherton likes to call it). The mighty V-12 of the R10 is now a V-6 in the R18 -- still plenty of horsepower, but much less of the torque needed to maintain momentum when managing traffic. At the same time GT1 has been eliminated, with all GTE cars having significantly less downforce and much less tire. All of these changes, combined with close racing at the front of each class, has changed the inter-class dynamic significantly.

-- David

[Chris Tallon]

The fifth frame tells the story. What was he thinking????

[JohnT]

Somewhere between frame 4 and frame 5 was the moment when Sir Isaac Newton had taken control of both cars........

I thought it a pretty ambitious move for use on a teammate and inside the first hour of the race.

johnt

[boba]

That sequence of photos show how there was no way for that to work even if he got passed the Ferrari.

Just to be clear I do believe McNish is at fault, he made a bad move.

Having said that I can also understand how it happened. If you have walked the track you know that the front straight is uphill getting increasingly steep as you crest at the Dunlop bridge and then a steep downhill curve where the shunt occurred. The issues were the two Audi's running nose to tail with restricted visibility (due to the low cockpit and high front fenders), the slower GT cars running up the hill as the Audi's were still on the front straight, tremendous speed differential. The Ferrari would have checked his mirrors at the crest before coming down into the turn. The #1 Audi came over the crest and checked up to follow the three GT cars thru the corner and make his pass after the corner. I think McNish got caught out when the #1 checked up and he made his pass which he was able to complete but then had the Ferrari and the two Porsches in the line, which he may not have even been aware were there. The proverbial AH SH!T moment, there was nowhere to go, and he was there already. The Ferrari most likely did not know McNish was there until they made contact.

Contributing factors visibility from the Audi cockpit, speed differential, the point on the track (cresting at high speed blind turn-in), car in the lead checks-up.

[Nine17]

If you have walked the circuit (as I have inside the fences wearing a photo vest) you will know that the front straight at Le Mans hasn't swept up the hill to the Dunlop Bridge in years. Today there is a sharp chicane just past the pit-out taking the cars left and right BEFORE the crest under the bridge.

As Alan McNish pointed out in his P.C., Timo Bernhard is shown in the celebrated YouTube clip completely off-course on the Astro-turf (the rumble-strip is dead-center at 1:29 when the in-car clip from the #1 Audi R18 begins) at the exit of the chicane before the bridge. Timo has clearly made a mistake, but the clip that is the genesis of all this Monday-morning quarterbacking doesn't really show that part of the sequence. Nishy saw Timo's mistake and wasn't going to follow him off-course onto the Astro-turf at track-out, now was he? Unfortunately, when Bernhard recovered he squeezed down on McNish who was now beside him, setting off the so-called "bad move" by McNish.

It amazes me how a truncated YouTube replay can set off a frenzy of trashing one of the finest endurance racers of his generation. There is much more to this accident than meets the eye. The mistake (if any) was Timo Bernhard's.

[JohnT]

As David has pointed out, the course has been changed with some chicanes added to get motorcycles back into the short, Bugatti, circuit. Putting in the fiddly bits with the limited visibility in all the cars (production and prototype) seems to have increased the opportunities for mayhem.

I wouldn't place the blame in either of the Audi wrecks on any party. $hit happens, and very quickly too.

johnt