Mercedes-Benz CLR

[BSchneiderFan]

I am, as some of you will well be aware, a great Mercedes-Benz fan (and yet I feel no warmth for McLaren - but then I'm contrary...), so my question is this: how good, potentially or actually, was the Mercedes-Benz CLR?

Yes, yes, yes, I know they flipped horribly and that Mark Webber and Peter Dumbreck had very lucky escapes. But bear in mind that, prior to the 1999 Le Mans, there was a worry among the other competitors that Mercedes would be very strong. One driver said he was sure that Mercedes was sandbagging, as the CLRs just blew by him on the straights. Remember, also, Bernd Schneider's fantastic and intense drive in the opening stages of the race - I've never seen a sportscar driven so determinedly, and you had to wonder if anyone had told Bernd it was a 24 hour race...

A final question: to what extent were the CLR's aerodynamic instabilities a result of the FIA cancelling the International Prototype Cup for 1999? The CLR, like the Porsche 917, was designed simply to win Le Mans. Would Mercedes-Benz have designed a different car if they had been intending to run a full series?