Le Mans Legends - 2019: 1999 Le Mans Turning Point

The 1999 24 hours of Le Mans has been regarded as a major turning point in the race’s history. It marked the end of many factory programs such as BMW, Mercedes, Nissan, and Toyota. However, 1999 was also the first appearance of Audi at the legendary circuit, kick starting their domination of the race throughout the 2000s and early 2010s.

Part I: The Prelude

Heading into the race week it was Toyota who looked to be the favorite, after topping the timetables at the May 2nd test day. Toyota elected to bring a revised version of their TS020 that had shown great promise the year before. This pace was reflected with Toyota’s #1 & 2 cars taking the front row of the grid. BMW’s newly revised V12 LMR, #17, took the 3rd spot of the grid next to Mercedes’ #6 CLR in 4th. Rounding out the top 5 was the brand new Panoz LMP-1. Both Audi and Nissan were more than 5 seconds behind the leading Toyota. The GT field was dominated by 911s and Vipers, with the #51 Oreca Viper taking pole in LMGTS and #81 Manthey 996 taking pole in LMGT.

Part II: The Incredible Mercedes Incidents

Perhaps what the 1999 race is most remembered for is the spectacular acrobatics by the Mercedes Benz CLRs. There were 3 incidents involving the CLR getting airborne throughout the race week. The was from the #4 car of Jean-Marc Gounon, Marcel Tiemann, and Mark Webber during the second qualifying session on Thursday night. There is no video of Webber’s incident during qualifying but here is a video of the aftermath. Mercedes was allowed to rebuild the #4 car and made tweaks to the suspension and added front dive planes in order to try and increase downforce. These changes, however, were not enough to keep the CLR grounded and another incident occurred during the Saturday warm-up. The #4 car, again with Webber behind the wheel, had another flip resulting in the #4 car being withdrawn from the race. The #5 & #6 cars were allowed to start the race even after the 2 huge incidents for their sister car. Mercedes were sure the same thing wouldn’t happen again. They were wrong. On lap 76 Peter Dumbreck’s #5 car was closely chasing the #2 TS020 of Thierry Boutsen when the CLR ran over the kerbing in the kink on the strait between Mulsanne corner and Indianapolis. Dumbreck’s car got airborne and somersaulted backwards, landing in the forest just outside the track. After this incident Mercedes finally withdrew the remaining #5 car.

Part III: The Race

At the start of the race both the #1 & #2 Toyotas got off to an extremely quick start, with the remaining 2 Mercedes CLRs and #17 BMW close behind. At the 5 hour mark the #17 BMW had the lead of the race. It was at this point that the #5 CLR would have its flip causing a long safety car period. During this period both the #1 Toyota would go behind the wall for several laps due to gearbox issues. Unfortunately for the #1 car Martin Brundle would have a puncture, while trying to make up lost time in the pits, before the first chicane on the Mulsanne and extensive damage. Brundle tried to nurse the car back to the pits but the car came to a stop just before Arnage. Once the race got back underway the race was between the #17 BMW and #2 Toyota with the #15 BMW and #3 Toyota both going about their race quietly. The BMW’s had superior fuel efficiency, but the Toyotas had superior speed per lap. The order would remain similar until the #2 Toyota would have a very big accident under the Dunlop bridge very early in the morning, again due to a puncture. After this incident the #17 BMW would be in 1st, the #15 BMW in 2nd, and the lone #3 Toyota in 3rd. This order would remain the same until 10 in the morning when an incident for the #17 BMW took that car out of contention. JJ Lehto had been leading the race by 4 laps, but his car suffered a stuck throttle and ended up in the wall at the Porsche curves. This set the stage for the final hours of the race. The #15 BMW was leading the #3 Toyota by 1 lap with the brand-new Audi R8Rs a few laps behind.

Part IV: The Finish

With the #17 out of contention the lone remaining Toyota of Ukyo Katayama put the pedal down and started catching up with the #15 BMW. Katayama set the fastest lap of the race with a 3:35 and continued to put in very quick times 23 hours in. The Toyota had a single stop left but the BMW had 2 more stops until the finish. Katayama kept pushing and pushing and eventually got the gap down to less than a minute then, disaster. With under an hour left in the race the TS020 of Katayama came up behind the BMW V12 LM, then in 5th overall, of Bill Auberlen. Auberlen made it very hard for Katayama to get by, almost crashing into Katayama at the first Mulsanne chicane. After going off the track due to Auberlen’s move Katayama’s tire blew out on the Indianapolis Straight. Katayama exhibited excellent car control and managed to keep the car out of the wall, but the race was lost. BMW’s #15 car won the race by a lap over Katayama’s TS020, which was followed up by Audi’s R8R of Biela, Theys, and Pirro. The GTS category was won by the pole sitting Oreca Viper #51 and the pole sitting 996 GT3-R won the GT class as well. It is unknown if Katayama would have caught the winning BMW but 1999 remains one of Le Man’s greatest what ifs.

Part V: The Legacy

BMW: Content with their Le Mans win they left the top category and haven’t returned. Most of BMW’s efforts after 1999 shifted to their Formula 1 program with Williams who served as their development partner for the V12 LM. BMW however did continue to complain the V12 LMR in the ALMS until the end of the 2000 season. BMW however has been featured in the GT ranks at Le Mans, but they have not seen much success.

Toyota: Toyota, like BMW, left Le Mans for Formula 1 after another 2nd place at Le Mans. It was not their first second place (1991 & 1994) nor was it their last (2013 & 2016) but Toyota finally got their Le Mans win last year after many attempts with arguably the best car several years in a row. The TS020 would make one more appearance at the 1999 Le Mans Fuji 1000km where they would lose by a lap to Nissan’s R391.

Audi: 1999 was the launch pad of Audi’s Le Mans domination over the next 15 races. Of those 15 races Audi won 13 of them, only conceding to their sister manufacturer Bentley and an extremely quick Peugeot team. Audi however pulled out after 2016 due to the VAG diesel scandal.

Nissan: After another disporting Le Mans Nissan ended its Le Mans program which only netted them a podium in 1998 with the R390. As mentioned above Nissan would manage to beat out Toyota at the 1999 Le Mans Fuji 1000km but Nissan still decided to end the program. Nissan would start providing engines to teams again in 2006 and continued to be involved in sports car racing until the disastrous result of their GT-R LM Nismo program.

Mercedes: After facing the embarrassment that they did at Le Mans Mercedes immediately halted the CLR program and have not returned to Le Mans. They are active in GT3 and GT4 racing around the world, but I have a feeling that Mercedes will still not be willing to return for years to come.