the mercedes clr incident at le mans is one of the only racing crashes i feel comfortable laughing at because a) nobody was seriously injured and b) it is a little funny that mercedes watched their car do That and were like "okay. uh. you know what we're just never doing le mans ever again"
mercedes watching their car do this: huh. maybe we're not good at endurance racing.
my tags were correct, it did in fact do it twice
for anyone wondering why this happened the short answer is that the driver was using a racing technique called drafting where you drive directly behind a car. the car pushes air around you and creates a slipstream enabling you to go faster. unfortunately this also gets rid of your front downforce which doesn't usually result in the car doing THAT, but the way the CLR's body was constructed, with its dramatic overhangs and short wheelbase, made it very unstable and extremely sensitive to aerodynamic changes
