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[racechick]

Theres been a documentary on tv about this ( in fact its on again on channel 4 now). 1955 race. Mike Hawthorn and Fangio going at it like its a sprint race. A backmarker (French man Pierre levegh)gets involved and his car is launched in the air (a mercedes). the engine of the car came out and momentum took it ploughing through the crowd,they were going at 150mils an hour at that point . 80-100 or even more people killed, many decapitated. Dreadful disaster, but the documentary is good and gives lots of insight into what happend and contributary factors. has anyone else seen this?

[Jabberwocky]

from memory, isn't that why Mercedes retired from motor racing for a long time

[texasmr2]

from memory, isn't that why Mercedes retired from motor racing for a long time

Twas a dreadly horrific crash .

[Fred_C_Dobbs]

from memory, isn't that why Mercedes retired from motor racing for a long time

Quite. The French even banned all motor racing until measures were taken to make spectating safer. The Swiss also banned all motor racing in response, which stood until 2007.

That crash prompted Mercedes to concentrate on the safety features of their road cars, which is one reason theirs are among the safest built, and why they don't patent safety innovations.

It was the 1980s before Mercedes resumed any participation with motorsports.

[darwin dali]

from memory, isn't that why Mercedes retired from motor racing for a long time

Quite. The French even banned all motor racing until measures were taken to make spectating safer. The Swiss also banned all motor racing in response, which stood until 2007.

That crash prompted Mercedes to concentrate on the safety features of their road cars, which is one reason theirs are among the safest built, and why they don't patent safety innovations.

It was the 1980s before Mercedes resumed any participation with motorsports.

However, the legislation was subsequently not ratified by the Swiss Council of States (the Senate) and the ban is now highly unlikely to actually be lifted.

[darwin dali]

from memory, isn't that why Mercedes retired from motor racing for a long time

You just aged yourself

[LifeW12]

There isn't a lot of places to hold circuit racing in Switzerland as its mostly hills anyway but still

[Jabberwocky]

from memory, isn't that why Mercedes retired from motor racing for a long time

You just aged yourself

lol, I think it was something that was mensioned when Mercedes returned to F1 and it struck me as a strange thing to do.

[Gaz]

yeh i saw that documentary i was aware of it before hand though.

It was the pit layout that was the cause rather than it being seperated it was actually on the circuit.

No ones fault really just a accident waiting to happen because of the safty of the circuit.

[racechick]

yeh i saw that documentary i was aware of it before hand though.

It was the pit layout that was the cause rather than it being seperated it was actually on the circuit.

No ones fault really just a accident waiting to happen because of the safty of the circuit.

Yes I agree with that. Silly to try and aportion blame to the drivers, it was a ridiculous layout for cars travelling that fast. It was the driver jinking out round the slowing Hawthorn(for pits) that launched the mercedes. Some say the mercedes driver was too old (50's), to react quick enough, but you cant really say that. It was the layout. All three drivers have been blamed by someone. The thing I found really poignant was when that camera panned slowly across the trajectory of the engine and in its wake the peple watching were no more.

[Gaz]

yeh i saw that documentary i was aware of it before hand though.

It was the pit layout that was the cause rather than it being seperated it was actually on the circuit.

No ones fault really just a accident waiting to happen because of the safty of the circuit.

Yes I agree with that. Silly to try and aportion blame to the drivers, it was a ridiculous layout for cars travelling that fast. It was the driver jinking out round the slowing Hawthorn(for pits) that launched the mercedes. Some say the mercedes driver was too old (50's), to react quick enough, but you cant really say that. It was the layout. All three drivers have been blamed by someone. The thing I found really poignant was when that camera panned slowly across the trajectory of the engine and in its wake the peple watching were no more.

Yeh that was a very sad scene.

Don't think even a 20odd year old could react to that guy swerving out like that.

Also Fangio was in his mid 40s at that time anyway. and he still won 3 world titles after that event.

[suitcase]

Deja vu... my dad was watching the Indianapolis 500 and he was talking about the fence in front of the stands. Then he told me to look up the crash. We watched it on YouTube and he said, "That's why there's a fence." It was horrific to watch the people discover the bodies of their loved ones amidst the chaos. It was supposed to be a fun day for all of the spectators
I watched this. Not sure if it's the documentary you've seen.