Le Mans - 1955 Disaster Deep Dive

Hey guys, today we’re going back to 1955 to check out what’s been called the “deadliest accident in motor racing history”, the 24 hours of Le Mans race in 1955. Before we jump into the breakdown, some context as to how we got here.

I recently watched Ford V Ferrari, which is actually a really good movie if you enjoy history and sports. Anyways, without giving a full breakdown or any spoilers, the movie is based on the real life rivalry between Henry Ford 2 and Enzo Ferrari. The rivalry came about after a failed merger attempts between the 2 companies, leading the grandson of henry Ford, or Hand the Deuce as he was known, wanting revenge, which would come by beating Ferrari at their own game, racing.

But not just any race, the 24 hours of Le Mans race, which was and still is considered one of the most prestigious and the most grueling automobile race in the world. Now I consider myself a pretty big sports fan, and although I don’t follow racing closely, I was surprised to have never even heard of the Le Mans. I went on a deep dive into the history of Le Mans and that quickly led me to finding out about the race in 1955, which had a crash that killed 84 people and injured 170 others. Those numbers jumped out at me and upon doing more research, I was shocked to find the video and photos from that accident, which led to this breakdown. Some of the images are hard to watch, so I’ll have a warning before we get there. With that said, let’s jump into Le Mans.

The 24 hours of Le Mans has been held annually since 1923 near the town of Le Mans, France. As the name suggests, it’s a 24 hour race, with the winner being whoever completes the most distance rather than having the fastest time, like in most races. A few people have attempted to complete the entire race solo, but its typically always been at least 2 drivers alternating

The main aspect that makes the race so grueling is the course itself. Most races are held on private tracks, which are well maintained and consistent. Le Mans on the other hand has long stretches of what are normally public roads, making the track conditions unpredictable year to year. The original intention of the race was to make manufacturer’s focus on fuel efficient, sporty, yet reliable cars, rather than simply the fastest machines. Andn fact, many of the technological innovations designed for Le Mans have trickled down and been incorporated into consumer cars.

By 1955, there had been considerable innovations to automobiles, but the track had largely been unchanged. there were no barriers between the pit stops and the actual race, and only 4ft of a dirt enbankment between the track and spectators. During the first race in 1923, automobiles traveled at top speeds of 60 miles per hour, by 1955, they were topping out at 180 miles per hour. The cars had no seatbelts, but drivers said they preferred to be thrown clear in a collision rather than being crushed or trapped in a burning car.

Heading into the 1955 race there was a lot of excitement as Ferrari, jaguar, and Mercedes-Benz had each recently won races, but Le Mans was expected to be a contest between jaguar of England and Mercedes of Germany. Finally, at 4pm on June 11th, the French flag is dropped and there is a standing start where drivers run across the track and enter their automobiles. As you can see the standing start is a cluster of chaos and would often lead to violent crashes. I can do a whole video on the history of the standing start, but it was eventually changed after an act of protest by driver Jacky Ickx in the 1969 race. Jacky walked across the track and was almost struck, but he proceeded to calmly put on his safety harness before departing. Another driver ended up crashing and dying during that start, while Jacky would go on to win the race which was enough to change the start.

Back to the 1955 race, approaching lap 35 the Ferrari’s were having issues and have fallen to the middle of the pack leaving Mike Hawthorn in the Jaguar battling Juan Manuel Fangio of Mercedes for the lead. The Jaguar and the Mercedes had lapped the field and were swapping leads staying feet apart as they consistently broke the lap record. This tight race supposedly caused Hawthorn in the Jaguar to either miss or ignore calls to do a pit stop as he looked to stay in front. Finally at 6:26pm at the end of lap 35, it was time for Hawthorn to enter the pit, which sets off events leading to the devastating crash. This is where we’ll look at the images, some of which are gruesome, so if that’s not something you want to see, feel free to end the video.

Mike Hawthorn, the leader in the Jaguar is getting close to the pit area as he approaches driver Lance Macklin, who he will lap. Macklin moves over to the right to let him pass but after Hawthorn makes the pass, he suddenly decides to cut to the right and breaks very hard to enter his pit. Macklin is startled and not having the same advanced disc breaks as the Jaguar, leads him to veer towards the center of the track.

As devastating as the crash ends up being , only 2 cars are involved. As Macklin cut towards the middle of the track, Pierre Levegh, another Mercedes-Benz driver, was approaching at 150 mph. Macklin’s car acted as a ramp for Levegh, which catapulted the Mercedes towards spectators, rolling end over end for over 85 yards. Levegh was thrown free of the car and his skull was fatally crushed when he hit the ground. The heaviest components of the car, the engine, radiator and front suspension, acted as cannon balls and were hurled into the crowd for over 100 yards, crushing all in their path. The hood of the car also came detached, decapitating tightly jammed spectators.

The car itself finally slammed into a concrete structure and disintegrated, at which point the fuel tank exploded. Mercedes was built was magnesium metal and the difference in temperature caused the metal to burst into white hot flames, showering the track and crowd with magnesium embers. On top of that, rescue workers were unfamiliar with magnesium fires and poured water, greatly intensifying the fire. The result was the car burning on the side of the track for several hours.

Hawthorn left the pit, did one more lap and returned with tears streaming down his face, at which point his co-driver took over the wheel. News of the accident was slow to get around and race authorities decided to keep the race going with no announcement of accident ever made. This sounds unbelievable but their justification does make sense arguing they didn’t want to call the race causing 300,000 people to panic and flood the streets, which would have blocked emergency crews from reaching victims.

Eventually news of the accident reached the press, 58 men, 15 women and 6 children were reported dead, that number would grow to 84 casualties, most of whom were french with 170 more sustaining injuries. Although Mercedes’ driver, Pierre Levegh was dead, they reluctantly stayed in the race. Levegh’s co-driver was American John Fitch, who was at the pits waiting to take over, standing with Levegh’s wife. They saw the entire catastrophe unfold, with Levegh’s lifeless body in full view on the pavement, causing his wife to be inconsolable.

Fitch urged Mercedes-Benz, who was leading comfortably, to withdraw from the race. Mercedes fnally did so after considering the public relations disaster. They didn’t want the optics of a German victory over an English rival, Jaguar, on French soil, only 10 years removed from the WW2, decided to withdraw. At 1:45am, with many spectators gone, Mercedes quietly called in their cars, packed up and were gone by morning. Mercedes would finish out the year but then withdrew from motorsport for XXX years.

That next morning, with news of the tragedy spreading through newpapers, the feeli, mass at Le Mans the scheduled mass went from a celebration to a mass funeral.

Back on the track, Jaguar, had decided not to withdraw and with all true competition out of the race, Mike Hawthorn would go on to win by an easy margin of 5 laps. There were still 50,000 spectators, almost none cheered. The ensuing celebration by Hawthorn made it seem as if he didn’t know an accident had occurred. Jaguar and Hawthorn received a lot of pushback for the reactions after the race, one French magazine sarcastically printed this image with the caption A Votre sante Ä VOTRE SANTÉ “Cheers, Monsieur hawthorn”

After the race, there was a lot of finger pointing as to who had been responsible for the wreck. Some drivers blamed Hawthorn for his late and aggressive attempt to enter the pits. Hawthorn wrote an autobiography 3 years later taking no accountability for the wreck and seemingly blaming the lack of skill of drivers behind him for the crash.

Blame was also thrown at mfg , with the violence of the fire creating media speculate that Mercedes had tampered with the fuel with an explosive additive, but Mercedes pushed back.

Eventually an 18 month inquiry exonerated all drivers of any error, ruling it a terrible racing tragedy. The Le Mans course would undergo extensive track improvements, and infrastructure changes, designed to improve driver and spectator safety.

John Fitch, the co-driver of Pierre Levegh who passed away at Le Mans, became a major safety advocate and begin developing safer cars and tracks, eventually designed what are known as Fitch barrels, which have saved thousuands of lives on highways. Because of this tragedy, racing would be forever changed for the better, but that certainly doesn’t mean it’s become safe. Mercedes eventually returned to Le Mans in 1999, but this wouldn’t be the end of crashes for the team…