1955 жылғы Ле-Ман трагедиясы

Motor racing crash

The 1955 Le Mans disaster was a major crash that occurred on 11 June 1955 during the 24 Hours of Le Mans motor race at Circuit de la Sarthe in Le Mans, Sarthe, France. Large pieces of debris flew into the crowd, killing 83 spectators and French driver Pierre Levegh, and injuring around 120 more. It was the most catastrophic crash in motorsport history, prompting Switzerland to institute a nation wide ban on motorsports altogether that lasted until 2022. The crash started when Jaguar driver Mike Hawthorn pulled to the right side of the track in front of Austin Healey driver Lance Macklin and started braking for his pit stop. Macklin swerved out from behind the slowing Jaguar into the path of Levegh, who was passing on the left in his much faster Mercedes Benz 300 SLR. Levegh rear ended Macklin at high speed, overriding Macklin's car and launching his own car through the air. Levegh's car skipped over a protective earthen berm at 200 km/h (125 mph) and made at least two impacts within the spectator area, the last of which caused the car to disintegrate, throwing him onto the track where he was instantly killed. Large pieces of debris, including the Mercedes' engine block, radiator, front suspension, and bonnet (hood), were sent flying into the packed spectator area in front of the grandstand. The rear of Levegh's car landed on the berm and exploded into flames. There was much debate over blame for the disaster. The official inquiry held none of the drivers specifically responsible and criticised the layout of the 30 year old track, which had not been designed for cars as fast as those involved in the crash.

There was great anticipation for the 1955 24 Hours of Le Mans, as Ferrari, Jaguar, and Mercedes Benz had all won the race previously and all three automakers had arrived with new and improved cars. The Ferraris, current champions at the time, were very fast but fragile and prone to mechanical failure. Jaguar concentrated their racing almost exclusively on Le Mans and had a very experienced driver lineup including Formula 1 (F1) Ferrari driver Mike Hawthorn. After conquering F1, Mercedes Benz had debuted its new 300 SLR in that year's World Sportscar Championship, including a record setting win at the Mille Miglia for Stirling Moss. The 300 SLR featured a body made of an ultra lightweight magnesium alloy called Elektron. The car lacked the more effective state of the art disc brakes featured on the rival Jaguar D Type, instead incorporating inboard drum brakes and a large air brake behind the driver that could be raised to increase drag and slow the car. Mercedes team manager Alfred Neubauer assembled a multinational team for the race: pairing his two best drivers Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss in the lead car, 1952 race winner Karl Kling with Frenchman André Simon (both also in the current F1 team), and American John Fitch with one of the elder statesmen of French motor racing, Pierre Levegh. It had been Levegh's unprecedented solo drive in the 1952 race that failed in the last hour, which allowed Mercedes Benz their first Le Mans victory. Aside from two layout changes to make the circuit shorter, the Circuit de la Sarthe was largely unaltered since the inception of the race in 1923, when top speeds of cars were typically in the region of By 1955, top speeds for the leading cars were over That said, the circuit had been resurfaced and widened after the Second World War. The pits and grandstands had been reconstructed, but there were no barriers between the pit lane and the racing line, and only a 4 feet (1 m) earthen bank between the track and the spectators. The cars had no seat belts; the drivers reasoned that it was preferable to be thrown clear in a collision rather than be crushed or trapped in a burning car. The accident happened at 6:26 pm, at the end of lap 35, when the first pit stops for the leading cars were starting.

On lap 35, Hawthorn and Fangio were racing as hard as ever. In his biography, Hawthorn said he was "momentarily mesmerized by the legend of the Mercedes superiority  Then I came to my senses and thought 'Damn it, why should a German car beat a British car. The lap before, Hawthorn's pit crew had signalled for him to come in the next lap. He had just lapped Levegh (running sixth) after Arnage (one of the corners of the race track) and was determined to keep Fangio at bay for as long as he could. Coming out of the Maison Blanche portion of the course, he rapidly caught Lance Macklin in his Austin Healey 100S, who had seen him and moved over to the right to let him pass. Putting another lap on Macklin coming up to the main straight, Hawthorn then raised his hand to indicate he was pitting and pulled across to the right (from Hawthorn's testimony). What caught Macklin out though was that Hawthorn, using the Jaguar's advanced disc brakes, braked hard enough to slow his Jaguar from such a speed in time.

Hawthorn and the Jaguar team kept racing. With the Mercedes team withdrawn and the Ferraris all out of commission, Jaguar's main competition had gone. Hawthorn and Bueb won the race by a margin of five laps from Aston Martin. The weather had closed in on Sunday morning and there was no victory celebration. However, a press photograph showed Hawthorn smiling on the podium drinking from the victor's bottle of champagne. The French magazine L'Auto Journal published it with the sarcastic caption, "À votre santé, Monsieur Hawthorn!" (In English, "To your health ('Cheers'), Mr. Hawthorn!") Most countries lifted their racing bans within a year after the disaster. France in particular, as the host of Le Mans, lifted their complete ban on 14 September 1955. On that date, the Ministry of the Interior released new regulations for racing events and codified the approval process that future racing events would need to follow. In contrast, Switzerland's ban persisted for decades. This forced Swiss racing promoters to organize circuit events in foreign countries including France, Italy, and West Germany. In 2003, the Federal Assembly of Switzerland started a lengthy discussion about whether this ban should be lifted. The discussion focused on traffic policy and environmental questions rather than on safety. On 10 June 2009, the Ständerat (upper house of the Swiss parliament) defeated a proposal to lift the ban for the second time. In 2015, the ban was relaxed for electric vehicles only, such as cars involved in Formula E electric racing. The ban was lifted in May 2022. The next round of the World Sportscar Championship at the Nürburgring was cancelled, as was the non championship Carrera Panamericana. The rest of the 1955 World Sportscar Championship season was completed, with the remaining two races at the British RAC Tourist Trophy and the Italian Targa Florio, although they were not run until September and October, several months after the catastrophe. Mercedes Benz won both of these events, and was able to secure the constructors championship for the season. Having achieved that, Mercedes withdrew from motorsport. The horror of the crash caused some drivers present, including Americans Fitch (after completing the season with Mercedes), Phil Walters (who had been offered a drive with Ferrari for the rest of the season

The official government inquiry into the accident called officials, drivers, and team personnel to be questioned and give evidence. The wreckage was examined and tested and, finally, returned to Mercedes Benz nearly twelve months after the catastrophe. Track safety technology and practices evolved slowly until F1 driver Jackie Stewart organized a campaign to advocate for better safety measures ten years later. Stewart's campaign gained momentum after the deaths of Lorenzo Bandini and Jim Clark. Fitch became a major safety advocate and began active development of safer road cars and racing circuits. He invented traffic safety devices currently in use on highways, including the sand and air filled Fitch barrels. Macklin's Austin Healey 100 was sold to several private buyers before appearing on the public auction block. In 1969, it was bought for £155 (155.0 in 1969 is equivalent to about <calculated amount> in recent years). In December 2011, the car, estimated to raise £800,000 before the auction, The car retained the original engine SPL 261 BN, It was then restored to its original condition. After the accident, Mercedes Benz withdrew from motorsports until 1989. However, the withdrawal had already been decided before the race and therefore had not been caused by the accident.