1999 - Le Mans - Aftermath of Mark Webber's warm-up accident

During Thursday's qualifying session, Mark Webber's #4 Mercedes-Benz CLR went off in a big way and flipped at high speed at the fast approach towards Indianapolis and the driver was taken away by ambulance. But later on he was fine to carry on with his weekend at Le Mans.
Well the good news is that the #4 Mercedes has been rebuilt over night, so has Mark Webber and they were reunited in time for the morning warm up.
Now the bad news...the #4 Mercedes is back on its roof ! Yes,it is true believe it or not.It looks as if precisely the same thing happened as last time, same car. same driver, and much the same circumstances. Mark Webber must have wished he stayed in bed this morning or maybe let Jean-Mar Gounon or Marcel Tiemann take the car out. Mercedes will have a spot of bother convincing us media lot that the car didnt wind up on its roof this time! This was on Webbers out lap. We wonder what the team are thinking at the moment but both other cars are still out there and the other team drivers must be just a mite apprehensive dont you think ?
Not wishing to be too tabloid about this bit of local difficulty but Mercedes did have another spot of bother here in 1955. So is it just the #4 car that is spooked or quite incredibly unlucky?
Eventually at 11.30am on race-day, Mark Webber went home - he's had enough. Webber went airborne again with the car this time flipping end over end after cresting the Mulsanne 'bosse' (again the wake of other cars), landed on its roof, and slid all the way to the Mulsanne corner escape road. Again the 21-year old driver escaped with bruising from his harness.

[@sdewey4152]

He should have a pilots license after all the flips he's had, poor guy it must be heart wrenching when you go over.

[@Thibouu]

Ironicly he does have a flying licence

[@Shootout_23]

Fr

[@GT_Nikita]

Hahah yes

[@KamilPietrasik-bw9jx]

Hello man life 9yrs was just it

[@stoll1st4]

He said he was higher than the trees. He saw the top of the trees under him 😮

[@BMK500]

Some say his favorite airline pilot is Mark Webber

[@thunderheads4103]

lolol, i can't believe no one commented yet. lolol some say thar he has no understanding of clouds and is puzzled by stairs.

[@brandonwalker4502]

"And his name is the STIG!!!!!!" Clarkson, Jeremy Clarkson

[@grantkelly1356]

Because your a dipshit

[@elifkara2168]

1999 Le Mans race. 1999 pole position. 2010 Racing in Valencia.

[@TestECull]

I see Mark has gotten plenty of practice flying around. No wonder he landed his Red Bull car safely in Valencia.

[@allamericandude15]

2:13 You can see the marshals reacting to the crash before the TV crew caught on.

[@vezonn8010]

This Mark Webber guy seems really good, I believe he could be in Formula 1 some day

[@BillehBobJoe]

god that GT-One is so beautiful

[@Dannyboyyoung]

Totally agree

[@sdewey4152]

It is truly a thing of beauty, I like the livery on Gran Turismo 2 slightly more but the car itself is just wow.

[@sunjidasultana4648]

and lost just for technical issues. 1000% wpildve won it

[@TheTripol]

This guy has had countless wrecks during hes time in racing career and F1, and been unharmed like every time. Then someone like Allan Simonsen crashes quite, well does not look too bad and dies.. quite weird.

[@Trust-me-I-am-a-dentist]

Its called bad luck.

[@jesperk.n.e758]

allans crash did look minor on TV . but the speed tricks you on the screen (looks slower) and the fact he hit a tree spot on... what is the worst part of it i think is those trees still stand there. WHY ?!?! nobody knows

[@RorysIrishTour]

trees are made to last

[@84viper]

the following year they put more safety barriers in that part of the track. you can no longer run off the track like simonsen did, and hit a tree, all you will hit is a safety barrier which is made to absorb impacts

[@Minx5892]

Jesper K.N.E He hit a tree? How did he lie back on track?

[@Hachiae]

i heard keiichi tsuchiya then the memories of this race came flooding back.

[@clawsss]

i was so surprised when i heard his name

[@rogue5360]

True

[@nabzduterrier2736]

Mark Webber, the best airplane pilot we've ever seen in Le Mans !

[@lewismachin20]

He did a backflip in formula 1 aswell 😂

[@therandompersonn]

Le Mans. 1955.

[@PAINTA1022]

them australians....love being upside down, i guess.

[@NeatoUnused]

That pun

[@nfdids]

James Motacki That's a good one :D

[@because1375]

James Motacki OMG Thats amazing😂😂😂

[@narelleanderson1351]

James Motacki we do

[@DeanandLisa1803]

G’day mate 🙃🙃🙃🙃

[@EnsarZyberajAlbanian]

Bro took "i believe i can fly" to a next level 💀💀

[@shongo9804]

Engineers: trying to improve the cars aerodynamics and make it as grippy as possible Mark webber somehow:

[@carlitoxb110]

I watched the toyota gt1 and started crying, I loved that car I loved to drive it in gran turismo 2,

[@chrischarizard4067]

I'll say, that was my second le mans car in Gran Turismo. My first was the Mazda 787B. Both cars were fast and hard to drive with me still being a newer player at the time

[@carlitoxb110]

That was a great one too, what about the nissan R390 gt1, do you remember it? Man I loved that car

[@chrischarizard4067]

That was a fun car. Although my favorite car was the Toyota 7

[@weesky2000]

Sad but no r390 in 1999. I hope there can be GTOne, R390, CLK GTRLM, V12LMR, 911GT1, Mclaren in that race.

[@mrgrassux]

Carlitox b

[@jackylaxx]

Mark Webber was 2nd in the f1 race yesterday ! hes awesome

[@rvven3608]

Know retired

[@leafster8244]

@@rvven3608 yeah he retired a long time ago my friend

[@marksapollo]

It's called aero dynamics Mercedes, look into it... thank God they worked that out before they entered F1.

[@rogmackay]

Just won the Monacco Grand Prix ... now that is something special. Top bloke. Well done lad!!

[@rattusnorvegicus4380]

He flies through the air with the greatest of ease....

[@chubbz5150ify]

That was the moment Mercedes should have stopped racing and withdrew from Le Mans 99. They choose to continue and almost had a fatality thanks to a design default that meant they couldn't follow other cars over crests of the hills at Le Mans that year. Not Mercedes finest hour that day.

[@ubbgn]

And they have history of aerodynamics failures!

[@Mazotheman]

When?

[@divdex2]

*cough* germany's revenge *cough*

[@ernestogasulla7763]

All GT-one fake road legal cars went airborne at some point (not at Le Mans). Even the BMW LMR V12 did.

[@lucastekkan]

@@ernestogasulla7763 Mercedes Shill

[@needsmoreboosters4264]

I wasn't expecting that mention of Tsuchiya! The drift king himself.

[@claudedotS]

0:41 Tshuchiya aka Drift King was there!!!

[@007KIMITANO]

Easter eggs.

[@nismoog9251]

@@007KIMITANO Not easter eggs, *great drivers*

[@007KIMITANO]

@@nismoog9251 definitely 💯

[@dlanistheman]

He and co-pilots were 2nd overall, 1st in class as well

[@ChristopherWoods]

The legendary Keiichi Tsuchiya was in this race, dang I forgot this!

[@thaihoangcfc]

lol "it's Mark Webber again" this guy loves hard crash, upside down doesn't he?

[@leftboot83]

@@ЕгорЦыба no he didn't flip a car the year before. It was just a few days before, in qualifying

[@captainjamestkirk5350]

He’s from Australia he feels more at home

[@484berkshire]

Strange how this backflip-for-no-reason issue was only a problem for German prototypes from the late '90s (3 from Mercedes at Le Mans in 1999, then 1 from the Porsche 911 GT1 at Petit Le Mans in 1998, and 1 from the BMW V12 LMR in the same race in 2000).

[@magicalcernat7633]

Thats beacause they are so aero advanced.however they only calculate aero in normal condition in aero tunel wich doesnt simulate bumps,crests etc, fatal mistake when designed these cars but they made mea-culpa and retire the cars

[@wingracer1614]

I know this is an ancient comment but it wasn't just the Germans. Plenty of cars have had blowovers. A Nissan GTP at Limerock for instance. Heck, that Nissan GTR at Nurburgring a couple years ago. An old Shadow canam car blew over in a vintage race not long ago.

[@bowelrupture]

@@keiththestones7951 3 mercedes cars. One in qualification, one in the warm up and one during the race. Two times Webber, one time Dumbreck.

[@Squashed8Ball]

Clearly they were trying to minimise down force for maximum top speeds around the fast Le Mans circuit and they just didn’t leave enough margin for safety.

[@Yukanhayt-Mhenow]

Trying to balance the front and rear down force can be tricky at differing speeds, they were playing around with flat floors too at the time!

[@nidaimenoR31]

young Mark

[@Iunio92]

that toyota is just stunningly beautiful

[@PassiveSmoking]

Grosjean's fault

[@samuelthornton9179]

Ur 4 years too early for the meme

[@amllsoup9732]

This joke was ahead of its time

[@leewat9068]

Ericsson's fault😂

[@godsmackssa]

I'd say grosjean's ghost would haunt you...but then he escaped from hell. #denied

[@lanceclement4087]

This aged.... strangely?

[@malikdigger4544]

Mark Webber still racing in the LeMans Series since that crash in 99

[@Startrooper5555]

Mark Webber is such a good driver he can flip 3 cars.

[@mohammednadasen-karim2055]

Red Bull does give you wings

[@apexkilla]

There will never be footage of this accident or even part of it thanks to one cameraman who had his head up his ass.

[@BestfriendsthatcapturesTrains]

On June 11, 1955, the world's most famous auto race descended into tragedy. The driver of one of the leading cars in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, racing at 240 km/h, braked too late to avoid a competitor. His car flew into the air and disintegrated in the grandstands. The accident left 82 people dead, and over 120 injured

[@C.Fecteau-AU-MJ13]

"If you're gonna race cars, you're gonna crash cars" Mark Webber. I loved when Clarkson asked him in that interview, "would you be pressing the brake pedal?" And Mark replies "oh the brake lights would probably still be on." 😂😂😂 Man's a class act.

[@craazyonyou]

Does anyone know if there's footage of Mark's car flipping, either of the times? I've seen the other car go over, not Webbers.

[@mclarenf1gtr99]

He is Australian, he deals with death threatening events every day. A little flip is nothing to him. Mercedes hired the perfect person for the job.

[@Zoomer30]

You could see the stewards running before they showed the wreck.

[@hawkmotorsport69-v8l]

And that's how he got Red Bull seat in F1

[@mattg432]

Saturday morning warmup started with "Surprise! Mercedes sur le toit!" over the PA system at Le Mans. No TV video from that flip, so spectators at the track did not know what happened until that local newspaper came out with the photos.

[@Martinec1998]

I hope this wont happen him next year in Porsche 919

[@BishopCR7]

That Viper in 2nd is an amazing car, I remember when I used to see that at Silverstone

[@acidangelster]

God bless u.....Its a pain goin thru a long video waiting for what the video s actually all about.

[@marcoriva2710]

​ no wonder he's always upside down, webber is australian

[@dautolover]

"It's the Mark Webber car, again." Mercedes has felt so cursed that it has never returned to Le Mans since.

[@longslongprong]

and Mercedes refused ti believe the car flipped both times, laying blame on Webber himself until the 3rd time was caught on camera. By then, the relationship was already damaged.

[@BoleDaPole]

I was heart broken when this happened, bad times

[@tiki2188]

Yea, I like Webber. I think if he could've gotten a good ride he'd win in F1

[@AmazingFlyingSquid]

12 years later, was close to winning the title in 2010 and has multiple victories and podiums.

[@94kenDOLL]

2:30

[@srdr89]

6:30 norbert haug with his mustache :)

[@Themayseffect]

This is going to haunt him this coming season in the Porsche! lmao

[@TheDanzomanzo]

Nah. If he can survive the trauma of being Red Bull's lab rat in favour of a spoiled kid, this will be smooth sailing.

[@DobermannPharaoh]

this will never happen again, noticed the holes above the tires in all the LMPGT cars??? that is to prevent this from happening...

[@manohanged]

This video was uploaded one month before I was born

[@lemanslegend]

@Zeggawong There are no footage of the flips at all, this video angle missed it and there wasn't nothing during practice (although I am certained it would have been filmed) I know Christophe Bouchet's Mercedes got an onboard camera but I don't know about Mark Webber's car.

[@jamespsomiadis1952]

It's unusual, slipstreaming usually blocks out turbulent air.

[@Exevium]

Uuh.. Aren't you right in the turbulent air when you're slipstreaming? Isn't that what slipstreaming means?

[@jamespsomiadis1952]

No, slipstreaming means less air is hitting your car because there's one in front of you that's blocking it out

[@ronaldderooij1774]

James Psomiadis That is correct, but it also means lots and lots of turbulence as the air tries to fill in the low pressure gap behind the first car immediately. It is not a vacuum behind the first car of course!

[@MrBusunglueck]

James Psomiadis no slipstreaming does block laminar air but does provide turbulent air.

[@jamespsomiadis1952]

Must've had incorrect use of the word. But still, it's peculiar for this to have happened three times on the same car. It has something to do with the extensive redesign; it is much lower than the previous model

[@Novafro]

Correction, GT-2. . . though Oreca did run GT-1 for a year or two and met with little success.

[@A7V2]

I hope to see Webber back at Le Mans in 2014. Hopefully the Porsche doesn't flip like the CLR.

[@SirOliverNorwell]

In Assetto Corsa this car drives just fine. Never had any problems. And I drive the classic 60's Le Mans circuit. 😁

[@Zoomer30]

Hard to believe that the Web was only 6 years old.

[@SiMKWii]

Webber, flip master !

[@don312000]

Is that the same crest that that Mercedes went flying over a few years later?

[@Iunio92]

THIS is the year the mercedes' flew over the fence

[@ssss66312]

Don Rudolph same day and yes

[@chrisnewcastle61]

Don Rudolph ... it happened 3 times, once in quali, once in the warm up before the race and then again in the race itself. First two incidents happened to Mark Webber, one in the race was Peter Dumbreck.

[@KlausWx]

That doesn't make sense. You agree that F1 is half team half driver, but yet you say a world champion can't be compared with other drivers ? You need a good car to have the opportunity to become world champ in the first place. And comparing drivers is generally rather difficult anyway.

[@lkyksb3]

2:10 Have you noticed that some of the corner marshalls are running over to help Mark Webber?

[@DAH210774]

Webber = Winner at last!!! Never knew about this, great upload. Thanks ;-)

[@SiVlog1989]

Not at Le Mans mind you, best he could manage was P2 in 2015

[@chandikaliyanawaduge]

Mark Webber is the #1 driver in the world now....no doubt about it.....he even lapped Schumi in Hungary....

[@Ragsc]

It happens right at 2:13 - You car hear a car but it doesn't enter the cameras view. You can also see all the marshalls running over to the right side.

[@lksellin]

I wish there was footage of the crash

[@joebromberg]

so poor picture quality 😮, year 1999 you sayin…?

[@sultanabran1]

@TheAirsoftmadman They can if they are set up for it. None of the current F1 tracks allow for the car to be set up to go that fast in a straight line however. I believe if you look up Honda F1 and Bonneville, they did max out an F1 car, but that was set up for straight line speed only. It had no rear wing and a lot of other mods were done.

[@minardips05]

What the hell are you talking about? Webber never drove for Mercedes F1, if you talking about the Le Mans team, how come Webbers 'own bad driving' lead to the same thing happening to Christophe Bouchet Mercedes CLS as well?

[@yop911]

is that a toyota GT-one at the start?

[@Randolph_]

around 4:24 - nice big set of Canon EF L-series lenses!

[@matekanizsai1203]

He is australian. They are upside down. He just wanted to feel like at home

[@vesnabernjak-ord8674]

If you look at a globe you will see Australia is more sideways.

[@SparksX18]

absolutely shocking

[@OarfWasHere]

At 2:15 some of the marshalls start running because the CLR is flipping at this moment

[@sherrysetliff2502]

Love those panoz cars.

[@oiytff]

Imagine a CLR without roof...

[@eduardovaldez3390]

favourite flip racer

[@diaboles]

@DINOSFM1994 not to mention the same thing happend to Peter Dumbreck later on [same car design] the car itself was to airo

[@chandikaliyanawaduge]

@TheRandomVids101 Well Webber thinks so....because the moment he lapped Schumi he said to the radio 'That felt good!'

[@se1un_sky]

Wait, Keichi Tsuchia was in this race?

[@arebrec]

I come from a land down under....

[@eduds6]

He Flipped again In 2010,Valencia,What a Poor luck...

[@YodaOnDMT]

Here's a question. Did that crash constitute oversteer or understeer? Maybe uppy-overy-steer.

[@Evokyr]

Hate how people see this as the CLK GTR, that was a great car! and this not so...

[@scuffediceposeidon9178]

It wasn't Mark webber. Driver was Elon Musk on the way to Mars

[@ab8jeh]

If this had already happened twice, why the hell didnt Mercedes pull their cars before Dumbreck's shunt. Terrible management.

[@walover165]

Because they thought Mark was lying to cover his own mistake. They didn't believe him when he told them what happened, and there was no footage to back him up.

[@ab8jeh]

@@walover165 wow, didn't believe the driver. Definitely not any justification! Didn't know about that.

[@DxsPro]

U get luck early like alonso, then u get respect, u get better drives, u have less pressure because u have proven urself etc.. Webber hasnt had such luck by going into a good team.. to me webber and alonso are the same.. just alonso's luck by going to renault has shaped him differently

[@samuelthornton9179]

This has not aged well...

[@scfog90]

Deja Vu for Mark. He must have wings :D

[@alexander1485]

@MrFerrari4ever1 well, its not his fault the CLR-LM went up in the air...

[@chunzprocessor]

Completely different layout!

[@blainy-o93]

@Zeggawong No but there's one of Peter Dumbreck's crash which is pretty much the same, just at a different part of the track.

[@pollemar]

Young Mark in a flying Merc

[@muhammadbayuajimunggaran]

He was born to fly

[@mkaczynski4]

Is this the same place where Davidson crashes this year?

[@chorltzLol]

im english, webber is one of the most talented drivers on the grid, unlike other drivers he admits when he rarely makes a mistake

[@omkar8692]

Webber's qualifying flip....The team didn't believe him that the car flipped....bcoz it wasn't recorded

[@walover165]

They did not believe him about this crash, either. Only when Dumbreck's was caught on camera.

[@googlewontletmeuseacopypas5291]

Keiichi tshuchiya drove in le mans??? *gasp*

[@lominero5]

I was shocked too. but i think i saw a documentary on it. He did well too and his co driver messed it up

[@Pulsonar]

He drove to 8th place @Le Man in a Honda NSX in 1995, outstanding achievement in the famous 80s supercar!

[@GardEngebretsen]

if in doubt drift it out 6 times.

[@RotorRian]

if in doubt drift it out You can view the car at Toyota Mega Web in a the cafe in Odaiba, Tokyo

[@SkylineGTRB26]

+if in doubt drift it out He drove for the Toyota factory team. They would have won Le Mans if not for a tire blowout

[@khaleefa69]

You know it's time to move to F1 when your le mans car flips not once, but twice!

[@leafster8244]

..and his car also flipped 4 years before this comment in f1

[@paulbaldwin5886]

I am just wondering if he got a lotto ticket after both and won

[@colincampbell3837]

Man was made for that seat at redbull

[@jamescook9661]

What we need is a few more Marshalls on track doing nothing

[@Zeggawong]

Are any of webbers flips at Le Mans actually on film? I can't find them.

[@highwireman2012]

No. There's photos but oddly he managed it in areas of the track not shown by cameras, both times, weirdly enough.

[@ChevyisBetter]

2:59 so it had already flipped over twice and you still decide to race it with peter dumbreck

[@davemonday5381]

Is that Bruse Lee’s enter the dragon karate school sorting mark webers car out. Who would have thought.