“La ligne droite des Hunaudières” is the correct way to describe a piece of the 24 hours Le Mans track. This mythic long piece if asphalt is also know as the “Mulsanne straight”. In 1988 the ACO ordered a resurfacing of the straight making it a real billiard table, allowing to reach crazy speeds.In order to continue to race according to FISA rules it was cut into three pieces in 1990 with the installation of two chicanes.
The Hunaudières is in fact the public road D338 from Le Mans to Tours when there is no race. Porsche engineer Norbert Singer, who led the design of some Le Mans winning Porsches said: “” Le Mans meant the long straight in 1970 and still now, when you go to Le Mans you think immediately , Mulsanne”. Before 1990, it was the place where all racing cars got up to maximum speed and it was one of the key components to a quick lap. In June 1988, Roger Dorcy and the WM with a Peugeot V6 Turbo engine and 600 bhp got up to 405 km/h. Drivers never realised during the race how fast they really go and always had a high faith in the aerodynamics.
In 1990, the two chicanes were there to lower these maximum speeds.
The Hunaudières starts after the fast right hand corner of Tertre Rouge. From there onwards it was full throttle. After two thirds of the distance there was a small and fast bend to the right but 200 meters before this bend there was a small “kink”, a bump in the road. have to relay on the road signs to know where it was. That gave some trouble during the night. After the curve there is again a higher bump, known as “the kink”. The drivers now have trouble to see clearly the next corner. The cars have to break to get into the Mulsanne corner, a double right. Let’s drive with Gerard Larrousse, who raced with a Porsche 917 in 1970 and 1971. “At the exit of the Virage de Tertre Rouge, we climb all the gears up to fifth. The false curve at the start poses no problem, we take it fully in full acceleration. I pass fifth at the Hunaudières restaurant. The speed stabilizes at 370 km/h only in the last kilometre before the famous curve on the right. A very slight bump hides the curve. The Hunaudières curve is taken at full speed. After aiming for the tangent to the right, you should not do not let yourself slide completely to the left because there may be gravel on the outside. During its weighting, the car braked slightly on its own. A bump follows the curve, we approach it fully and when the suspension slackens, we relieve the accelerator to spare the transmission. When the car comes back down and begins to stabilize, we are at approximately 350 km/h. It is then time to brake for the Virage de Mulsane". Likewise, 1989 winner Stanley Dickens (Mercedes) retains fond memories of the old-style track. "To be able to take the kink at the end of the straight at full speed was, I think, the ultimate challenge as a racing driver.
After 1990 chicane installation the racing cars get up to maximum speed in the 1.2 miles ahead of the first chicane witch is a right/left combination. Again on the throttle to the second chicane, a left/right and then again left under the pine trees of the ‘Auberge de Mulsanne’. The famous “la bosse” (the kink) is still there and then on the brakes for Mulsanne. The record speed in the last part of the Hunaudières was 226.9 km/h, done by Mark Blundell in the Nissan R90C with overboosted engine in practice. The two chicanes may have brought the speed down, but it created great opportunities to overtake a slower car. But that does not always goes according to plan.
The Mulsanne straight is still dangerous and when it goes wrong, it goes wrong big time. Especially when there is rain, there is an increased risk of a crash. Despite the five layers of protective barrier, there is no room for mistakes. In 2022, Francois Perrodo in his Prema Oreca misjudged his overtaking of the Corvette just after the second chicane. He came to fast to the left and pushed the Corvette into the barriers. In the same race, Brian Iribe crashed the Project1 Porsche in the barriers at full speed before the first chicane.
There were a few famous crashes in the past. Not only the drivers can get hurt, but crashes also costed the lives of the marshals. In 1981,Thierry Boutsen suffered a massive accident just after the Hunaudières kink,when his WM P81-Peugeot was traveling at some 350 km/h. A suspension piece had failed and the car hit the guard-rail losing the entire rear end. Boutsen was untouched, but the debris field of hurled parts and bodywork was spread over 150 meters.
Three marshals were struck by the debris with one death and the other seriously hurt. One of them, Thierry Mabillat was killed, struck in the chest by a detached piece of the guard rail. One hour later, Jean-Louis Lafosse’s Rondeau M379C-Ford #25 crashed near the café on Les Hunaudières. He lost his life. Jo Gartner lost his life when he crashed the Porsche Kremer 962 in 1986. The car became airborne, demolished a section of the guard rail, hit a telegraph pole and was thrown back on the road. Win Percy had an enormous accident after a tyre failure with the Jaguar XJR 8 at high speed in 1996, but was fortunous. Mercedes withdrew both its cars after an unexplained tyre failure for Klaus Niedzwiedz in 1988
Mark Webber and Peter Dumbreck 1999. Mark Webber went airborne with his Mercedes CLR just after the kink; the car went into flipping end over end and landed on his roof. During qualifying, the other Mercedes of Peter Dumbreck was following a Toyota. The front end of the car lifted; he went airborne and landed on 4 wheels at the side of the track. He was bruised, but unharmed. At the end of the Hunaudieres, going into Mulsanne, Anthony Davidson got a huge crash with Ferrari n°81 of Perazzini. At the high speed, the Ferrari driver had not seen the Toyota approaching.
And even now, this straight remains mythical. Probably a Hypercar category will get to nearly 340 km/h between two guardrails separated by six or seven meters tarmac. Suffice to say that the manoeuvre can quickly become perilous. "In the Hunaudières, the asphalt is not smooth", describes Louis Deletraz. “The car is pulled from right to left. Wind speed also affects its behavior. Details that we do not see on television but that we must take into account.”
Available only to the eyes of drivers and marshals, the Hunaudières straight is a place that is both mysterious and fascinating for spectators. Patrick Pilet, driver of the #48 Oreca for Idec Sport explains that this is an “exciting section on which you can make the difference by negotiating the chicanes well”. Novice pilots who take the Hunaudières for the first time keep this moment in mind all their lives. “My first time was in 2019 with the Rebellion R13-Gibson from Rebellion Racing and I quickly reached 350 km/h. I wondered what I was doing there.”admits Louis Deletraz. For Patrick Pilet “it seemed to me narrower than on television (laughs). I felt like I was in a tunnel."
"SOMETIMES ON THE STRAIGHT THERE ARE OVERTAKINGS THERE, THAT ARE DONE TO THE MILLIMETER"
Publication: 04/06/2023Back to overview
