Anthony Davidson says he thought he was “going to die” in his frightening, race-ending crash at the 2012 Le Mans 24 Hours.
Davidson was running third overall in the #8 Toyota when he collided with the #81 AF Corse Ferrari driven by Piergiuseppe Perazzini, as he attempted to lap it in the right-hand kink leading to Mulsanne corner. The TS030 Hybrid somersaulted and violently hit the tyre barrier in the run-off.
Davidson recalled the incident in the latest Autosport Retro episode, as he and Autosport chief editor Kevin Turner watched the 1987 running of the French classic, where Win Percy also suffered a high-speed shunt on the chicane-less Mulsanne straight.
“I’ve been there myself without a left wheel on the Toyota at the end of that straight,” Davidson recounted. “To go up in the air like that in a car of that speed, at 180mph, you just don’t know where you are in rotation and where it’s going to land and at what point it’s going to land and hit you from that massive G-force that you know is coming from somewhere.”
Asked if he was already thinking about how to get out, Davidson replied: “Oh no, I wasn’t thinking about how to get out, I was thinking, ‘I know I’m going to die here’. Not life flashes before your eyes, but it’s weird. I’m sure everyone has their own experiences, I don’t know what [Percy] felt, but I did think of things quite quickly – nothing to do with racing.
“I did think of family, but just like a snapshot. The overriding feeling was that I wasn’t going to make it out alive. But, and the really, almost comforting thing to know, is that I was totally okay with it. And the body must produce some kind of chemical where it’s like you’re on drugs.
Davidson tested the Peugeot WEC simulator in 2023
Photo by: Florent Gooden – DPPI
“I felt completely calm and relaxed and accepting of the fact that that’s how it is. That’s how it was going to be. I was just completely at peace with it. Then I just closed my eyes; like I say, you don’t know where the impact’s going to come from, and I just braced myself and just waited for the bang – and it was just more like an implosion.
“It’s how you’d imagine being in an explosion to be. Just a force hitting you from all angles and just something I’ve never felt before. Just let out this massive scream that I’ve never made before, or since.”
Davidson broke two of his vertebrae in the accident, with two substantial hits as the car landed back on the ground and hit the tyre barrier.
“It was at that moment,” he continued, “when it went into the barrier and everything stopped, and all the noise stopped, it’s that moment where I thought, ‘I’m still alive, can’t believe it!’”
Having competed in Le Mans with Toyota as a one-off in 2012, former Formula 1 driver Davidson went on to enjoy a respectable career with the Japanese manufacturer, winning the 2014 World Endurance Championship alongside team-mate Sebastien Buemi.
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– The Autosport.com Team
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