Pierre Levegh

Pierre Levegh

Nation:	France
Automobile world championship
First start:	Belgian Grand Prix 1950
Last start:	1951 Italian Grand Prix
Constructors
1950-1951  Talbot
statistics
World Cup balance:	no World Cup placement
Starts Victories Poles SR 6th - - -
World Cup points :	-
Podiums :	-
Leadership laps :	-

Pierre Levegh (born December 22, 1905 in Paris as Pierre Eugène Alfred Bouillin , † June 11, 1955 in Le Mans ) was a French racing driver .

Pseudonym of a "gentleman driver"

Instead of his real surname Bouillin (sometimes incorrectly spelled Bouillon ), Pierre had given himself a pseudonym in order to pay a certain respect to his uncle Levegh , who had pioneered the legendary Mors in the early years of motorsport . The outspoken Mr. driver or gentleman driver was extremely athletic, was considered an excellent skater and could even on international assignments in hockey or in tennis refer.

Racing career

Levegh contested a total of six Formula 1 races in 1950 and 1951 with the 4.5-liter Talbot-Lago , the design of which dates back to the pre-war years. With the material inferior to the competition from Alfa Romeo , his best result was reaching seventh place in the Belgian Grand Prix , during which all the Talbot drivers, such as Raymond Sommer and Louis Rosier , showed off. In all three other starts, a technical defect usually prevented a better placement.

The solo drive at Le Mans in 1952

From the start Alberto Ascari took the lead and held it until the clutch was damaged after three hours of racing. To the astonishment of the spectators and the race management - who at first believed there was a mistake in the timesheets - the small 2.3-liter Gordini from Jean Behra and Robert Manzon then took the lead. Behra and Manzon were able to maintain the lead until just before half-time, then the duo stopped a brake defect. At this point, all of the factory Jaguars and two Cunninghams had failed due to technical defects. Of the Ferraris, only the Simon car was left in the race, and Mercedes had already lost a 300 SL after damage to the electrical system.

After Behra's failure, Pierre Levegh took first place in the overall standings. What followed went down in Le Mans history as one of the greatest driving achievements. At the time of the change in leadership, Levegh had already been in the vehicle for more than 12 hours and shouldn't have to vacate the cockpit until the failure. Why Levegh never let his partner Marchand behind the wheel has remained unclear to this day. At every pit stop he was ready to change drivers, but Levegh kept going. It is suspected that Levegh feared that the inexperienced Marchand might over-rev the already started engine.

Ultimately, however, an engine failure led to the retirement an hour and 10 minutes before the end of the race. When Levegh rolled out in the Mulsanne, horror broke out in the stands. The largely French spectators had firmly expected Levegh to win, who at the time of the retirement had an incredible seven laps ahead of the two remaining Mercedes-Benz. However, that Levegh had fallen asleep from tiredness quickly turned out to be a rumor. When the factory Mercedes was flagged as the winner after 24 hours, there was dead silence in the main stands. Seldom before and after was there so little acclamation from the audience for the winner. The Mercedes victory was also very unpopular in the press.

Graphic of the Le Mans accident of 1955

The Le Mans catastrophe in 1955

→ Main article : Accident at the 1955 Le Mans 24-hour race

His real domain was the use of sports cars and so Mercedes-Benz invited him to drive a 300 SLR in the Le Mans 24-hour race in 1955 as a guest driver and replacement for Hans Herrmann .

At the end of the 35th lap, around 6:20 pm, Mike Hawthorn ( Jaguar D-Type ) lapped Levegh and Lance Macklin ( Austin-Healey ) on the home straight in one go. Juan Manuel Fangio (Mercedes), with whom he had had a tough duel since the start, was literally on his neck. At the end of the overtaking maneuver, Hawthorn let himself be carried away to an unreasonable act and, braking in front of the two overtaken, shot across the track to reach the pits for refueling, which at that time were not yet structurally separated from the race track.

Despite a screeching halt , the Briton came only 80 meters behind his pit crew to a halt, which illustrated the folly of his act. But behind him he had triggered a drama: Macklin was able to evade him with an equally daring maneuver, but in doing so took Levegh's proverbial "space to survive".

After a slight collision with the rear of the Austin at 150 mph, Levegh's car crashed into the balustrade and exploded. In the worst accident in the history of motorsport, 83 spectators and the driver lost their lives. The Mercedes team management then withdrew their racing cars from the ongoing competition.

Incomprehensible today, the race management did not stop the race and declared Levegh - contrary to the opinion of the journalists, the specialist press and the public - to be a “scapegoat”, which was seen differently even by the English public. The real culprit, Mike Hawthorn, won the race. The drivers were not informed of the extent of the disaster by the race management until the end of the race.

statistics

Statistics in the automobile world championship

general overview

season	team	chassis	engine	run	Victories	Second	Third	Poles	nice Race laps	Points	WM-Pos.
1950	Automobiles Talbot-Darracq	Talbot-Lago T26C	Talbot 4.5 L6	2	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
	Pierre Levegh			1	-	-	-	-	-
1951	Automobiles Talbot-Darracq	Talbot-Lago T26C	Talbot 4.5 L6	3	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
total				6th	-	-	-	-	-	-

Single results

season	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th
1950
		DNA			7th	DNF	DNF
1951
			8th			9	DNF

Legend
colour	abbreviation	meaning
gold	-	victory
silver	-	2nd place
bronze	-	3rd place
green	-	Placement in the points
blue	-	Classified outside the point ranks
violet	DNF	Race not finished (did not finish)
	NC	not classified
red	DNQ	did not qualify
	DNPQ	failed in pre-qualification (did not pre-qualify)
black	DSQ	disqualified
White	DNS	not at the start (did not start)
	WD	withdrawn
Light Blue	PO	only participated in the training (practiced only)
	TD	Friday test driver
without	DNP	did not participate in the training (did not practice)
	INJ	injured or sick
	EX	excluded
	DNA	did not arrive
	C.	Race canceled
		no participation in the World Cup
other	P / bold	Pole position
	SR / italic	Fastest race lap
	*	not at the finish, but counted due to the distance covered
	()	Streak results
	underlined	Leader in the overall standings

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1938	Jean Trévoux	Talbot-Lago T150C	Jean Trévoux	failure	malfunction
1939	Luigi Chinetti	Talbot-Lago SS	René Le Bègue	failure	Ignition damage
1951	Pierre Levegh	Talbot-Lago Monoplace Decalee	René Marchand	Rank 4
1952	Pierre Levegh	Talbot-Lago T26GS Spider	René Marchand	failure	Engine failure
1953	Automobiles Talbot-Darraq	Talbot-Lago T26GS	Charles Pozzi	Rank 8
1954	Pierre Levegh	Talbot-Lago T26GS	Lino Fayen	failure	accident
1955	Daimler-Benz AG	Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR	John Fitch	failure	fatal accident at Levegh

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th
1953	Talbot	Talbot-Lago T26GS	SEB	MIM	LEM	SPA	ONLY	RTT	CAP
					8th
1954	Pierre Levegh	Talbot-Lago T26GS	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	CAP
						DNF
1955	Daimler-Benz AG	Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	TAR
						DNF

Web links

Commons : Pierre Levegh  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• 1955 Le Mans Disaster photo report from TIME from June 27, 1955
• Pierre Levegh at motorsportmemorial.org (English)

Single receipts

1. ↑ auto motor and sport . Issue 5, February 14, 2008, p. 157.