“Le Mans 1955” is a beautiful and horrifying short animated film by Quentin Baillieux, depicting the worst disaster in motor sports history, Pierre Levegh’s crash during the 1955 24h du Mans. More than eighty people were killed and 180 were injured when Levegh’s car crashed into the grandstands. It has won several awards already and has been nominated for the 2020 Academy Awards.
The film is not 100% historically accurate, but mercifully, it barely touches on the crash itself. The dead are depicted with sheets over them, not the true horror of bodies torn apart and the horrific fire (see below the fold for newsreel footage). This is a human film about emotions and decency in the face of disaster. One important true point: it was John Fitch’s outrage that led Mercedes to withdraw from the race.
John Fitch’s story is a fascinating one. He was a World War II american bomber and fighter escort pilot, one of three americans to shoot down a Messerschmitt Me262 (the first jet airplane). He took up motorsports after the war and was fairly successful. But it was his post-racing career as an inventor that made the biggest impression, developing Fitch barriers (barrels of sand) and many other safety devices that have saved thousands of lives. He also found a way to improve fuel efficiency in gas-powered engines, reducing waste of gasoline and diesel.
After Le Mans 1955, several countries issued temporary bans on motorsports until safety standards were improved. Switzerland’s temporary ban has been permanent, no racing in the country in almost 65 years.
People who build race cars want them to be light, so they eschew steel for other materials. Aluminium isn’t as strong as magnesium, but the problem with magnesium is that it is prone to burning. The firefighters at Le Mans unwittingly made the fire worse by pouring water on Levegh’s car. Carbon fibre didn’t enter common use until the 1980s.
This is from British Pathé’s newsreel footage catalogue:
Normally comparing people’s misfortune is tasteless, but the second worst crash (the 1957 Mille Miglia, when nine people died) and third worst (1994 San Marino Grand Prix) were minor incidents compared to Le Mans. There has never been another incident like it, and never will be thanks to modern safety standards. The greatest threats to motorsports today are the environment, the economy (the 2008 depression/recession) and the threat of terrorism (the cancellations of the Dakar Rally in 2008 and Formula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix in 2011).
Erm… this might also be tasteless, but
A) The crash at Mille Miglia in 1957 killed *eleven* people, nine of which were spectators (plus another driver died in a separate incident), and
B) I’m not sure how you figure San Marino 1994 is the third-worst crash in motorsport history. Race weekend had four particularly bad crashes that I know of, and while Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna each died, they were the only ones affected by their respective crashes. The only crash that affected more than one person only lead to minor injuries. Meanwhile, the 1961 Italian Grand Prix had a crash that killed sixteen people and the 1953 Argentine Grand Prix had one that killed thirteen.
Yes, I made some factual errors. I was primarily going by news items I was reading (primarily motor sports publications), not doing in depth full searches.
But I expect you’ll agree on the main point: we are thankfully unlikely to ever see such a crash again because of stricter track design rules and safety devices for both drivers and spectators. Even the worst modern day incidents (Kyle Larson, Sophia Floersch, Alexander Peroni, Charles LeClerc) are nowhere near as horrific. A fatality like Anthoine Hubert is a freak accident every few years, no longer a regular event.
If we ever start taking the climate crisis seriously, this is a sport headed toward extinction. Our descendants, if we’re lucky enough to have any, will be amazed that automobile racing continued for decades after we knew what we were up against.
I don’t know about that, Bruce, we’ve already got a pretty successful all-electric series going in Formula E.
Seconded.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRNJpYUun0Q
One good thing about motorsports (& I must admit to having been absolutley hooked on it since 1985& thus biased) is that it does work whenit comes to developing new technologies and engineering and making such inventive things,well, fun. FWIW.
I still follow the technology, but I haven’t watched races in years. I would rather see racing circuits repurposed for cycling events, or smaller (under 400kg) electric power vehicles. Race circuits are as useless as football stadiums. They’re expensive to build and maintain, and aside from motorsports, they don’t have or get much use.
Thankyou. I han’t heard of this movie before and it does look awesome.
PS. Almost forgot to add there’s also solar car racing too :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_car_racing