The rear end comes off and Allan McNish is just a passenger: how the former Formula 1 driver experienced his serious accident in the 2002 Suzuka qualifying session
“He hits the curb, the rear end comes off. He corrects too much, the car swings.” This is how Marc Surer summarized in the live commentary on Premiere what had happened on October 12, 2002 in qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix in Suzuka: the serious accident of Toyota driver Allan McNish at the end of the fast 130R curve.
McNish had set out to beat his previous lap time, initially with success: “When I approached 130R, I was already seven-tenths of a second faster. And then I just kept going,” McNish explained over 20 years later in an interview with Formula1.com.
In the previous laps, he had taken the section “almost flat out” and therefore had the incentive to take a slightly bigger risk, according to McNish. “Unfortunately, the aerodynamics weren’t quite up to what I was asking of them. And that was that. There was a big crash.”
McNish’s car swerved off the track to the right, spun in the run-off area, crashed backwards into the guard rails and even broke through them. It only came to a halt beyond them.
TV pictures from that day show how McNish immediately pushed himself out of the cockpit and left the scene of the accident under his own steam. But he doesn’t remember the actual crash, only “up to the moment when I flew backwards,” says the Toyota driver. He then lost consciousness, albeit only briefly.
McNish can’t explain this
It was only when he was lying in the grass, surrounded by marshals not far from the scene of the accident, that his memory returned, says McNish. “That’s when I heard someone say, ‘Breathe!’ It turned out to be a cameraman I know well.”
Shortly afterwards, the Medical Car arrived at 130R with former Formula One doctor Sid Watkins. He took McNish to the track hospital for a check-up.
“I ran through a hole in the guard rail with Sid and thought to myself, ‘What a stupid place for a hole in the guard rail! I’ll have to discuss that with [race director] Charlie Whiting!’ It was the hole I had just made myself.”
It took a while for McNish to feel the effects of the accident. It was an “obviously quite painful” crash, he says today. “I had a large hematoma on my leg. From the sole of my foot to my hip, everything was black and blue. I also took a pretty good blow to the head.”
No permission to start for McNish
It was therefore quickly clear to the doctors treating him: McNish would not compete in the Japanese Grand Prix. Toyota only entered Mika Salo in the race at Suzuka.
In retrospect, McNish can only welcome this decision, because he was not clear for a long time after the accident, he emphasizes: “I only realized a few years ago that qualifying was delayed by about two hours [due to the accident].” Because before driving on, the officials had to repair the guard rails.
“In my mind,” says McNish, the interruption lasted ‘only five minutes.’ ‘I heard the cars drive back out on track, but I had no sense of time at all at the time. I was conscious, I was moving, but I don’t remember everything.’
McNish switches to endurance racing
McNish was not given another Formula One chance: the Japanese Grand Prix, the season finale of 2002, was his last appearance as a regular driver – and the last race with only six points places.
After only one year in each case, McNish and Salo lost their cockpits to Olivier Panis and Cristiano da Matta in 2003. McNish remained in Formula One as a Renault test driver in 2003, but then switched to endurance racing for good.
As an Audi works driver, McNish built on his 1998 Porsche victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the following years, achieving further overall victories in the endurance classic in France in 2008 and 2013, plus five further podium finishes. In 2005, McNish also competed in the DTM for one season and finished tenth overall with 13 points.
Now he is about to make his Formula One comeback: as the Audi Group’s motorsport coordinator, McNish is involved in a leading role in the German brand’s Grand Prix project.
