The Grand Tour

Richard Hammond’s Rimac Concept One crash in detail

I can’t recall a time where I felt so anxious to be watching an episode of The Grand Tour, or even Top Gear, as I was when I watched the opening episode of The Grand Tour Series 2. My heart was truly in my mouth as I watched Richard Hammond thundering up the hill in the all-electric Rimac, carrying the weight of Croatia’s pride on his shoulders.

The accident was every bit as shocking as we expected it to be, but unfortunately there were no cameras present at the crash location to cover the incident and some questions have been left unanswered. What caused the crash exactly? And was Hammond or the Rimac at fault?

Back in July, Hammond sat down with Rimac CEO Mate Rimac to discuss the incident on DRIVETRIBE. But, unfortunately again, the video came across as being mostly an advertisement for Rimac – perhaps something the manufacturer was owed following the incineration of one of their US$980,000 Concept One supercar.

Speaking of the accident, Hammond said: “The last run of the day, at the top just over the finishing line… [the back end] got away from me and I went over the edge. There’s a slight right and a left, and as I went ’round the left the back end stepped away.”

But what caused the back end to step out as Hammond went around the left-hand turn? And didn’t this happen quite some distance after the finish line? To investigate this further, we first need to look at the course map of the Bergrennen Hemberg hill climb itself.

The Bergrennen Hemberg hill climb course

From the start location at the bottom of the valley, the 1,758-metre course winds its way up the hill to the finish line located a few hundred metres from the town itself. It is important to note that the finish line has been positioned along a relatively straight piece of road, providing plenty of space for racers to slow down upon completing the course.

A closer view of the finish line area and where the accident happened

Despite this, Hammond’s Rimac managed to leave the road approximately 200 metres after the finish line, immediately following the right and left turns which you can see on the map above. The vehicle left the road sideways, travelling at approximately 130 km/h (80 mph).

Mr Rimac suggested to Hammond: “You were running out of road, you were going too fast, so you wanted to get through the corner anyway.”

“What happened there in my opinion.. you have two inputs – the steering and the brake and the throttle pedal,” Rimac added. “This is what you [use] to tell the car this is where I want to go and this is what I want to do. So when you do this [turn the steering wheel left] it says ‘okay, you want me to go there’, but there is not enough road and it will rotate the car more than the tyres can handle.”

Here’s what we see: After crossing the finish line, Hammond’s Rimac appears to continue accelerating (or at the very least does not slow down dramatically) until it reaches the right turn. As it enters the right turn, the rear end steps out and the car begins to over-steer / slide to the right. Hammond most likely counter-steered into the slide, but as the car regained grip, it snapped violently to the left and left the road sideways.

Hammond never mentioned the rear end stepping out as he entered this first right turn, yet the tyre marks left on the road clearly show this is the case. So what caused this to happen?

How the Rimac looked before it left the road

For one reason or another, whether it be brain fade or poor judgement, Hammond appears to continue at race-pace after crossing the finish line and didn’t lift off the accelerator until he reached the entry to the right-hand turn (‘A). As he entered the right turn, he suddenly realised his predicament and lifted off the accelerator before applying the brakes – unsettling the car and unwittingly creating a state of lift-off over-steer due to the forward weight transfer (‘B’).

Hammond would have panicked at this point (perhaps when he is heard saying “CRAP!” in the episode audio) and attempted to steer left – counter-steering into the slide – in an effort to stay on the road. But the Rimac was still travelling too quickly at this point, and as the car stopped over-steering and regained grip, it snapped violently across to the left and exited the track sideways (‘C’).

Had he succeeded, Hammond would have unwittingly achieved a move which would have been remarkably similar to a ‘Scandinavian flick’ or an ‘Inertia drift’ – but he entered the turn far too quickly, and as a result, maintaining control from that point onward was pretty much impossible. It was the forward weight transfer that unsettled the rear end, and caused an otherwise under-steery car like the Rimac to bite and bite hard.

Despite all of this visual evidence, at no point has Hammond ever admitted to going too fast, or forgetting to slow down after crossing the finish line – but James May alluded to this in the second episode of The Grand Tour series 2. May pointed out that they missed a train in the New York to Niagra Falls challenge because Hammond “doesn’t know how to slow down when it says ‘finish’ across the road”. Yikes.

The evidence against Hammond is even more damning when you consider the Rimac requires just 31.5 metres of braking distance to come to a complete stop from 100 km/h. So how fast would it need to be going to require more than 200 metres to stop, or at least slow down enough to take those turns safely?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

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9 comments

J diddy October 22, 2023 at 9:24 pm

I believe that there was issue with the car dynamics there had to be but under contractual agreement he could not say anything about the crash that could paint the Rimac in a negative light

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Cameron October 13, 2021 at 5:28 am

I just hope he was all rite.

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Tony December 21, 2019 at 3:11 am

The little idiot is still accelerating after the finish line. He should pay for the car out of his own pocket the bloody goose.

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Cat Smithers August 13, 2018 at 5:07 pm

What was Hammond’s time compared to the other two cars of his compatriots when they did the hill climb?

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Vancouver bill June 8, 2018 at 3:08 am

ok off the top I am of the opinion that Richard overcooked it … how ever Mario’s thoughts struck a note with me.
would this ” torque vectoring be a similar system to the one used by say Subaru for instance? the reason I ask is that on an Alberta back road here in Canada the late May /June rains made for an unusual driving experience for me. at 90 mph I could definitely feel the various wheels exchange the power around. the road has a 2 inch layer of dry gravel with a thick mud base and when you break through the top layer you hit this slick mud. the little sub was really wagging its tail and not at all happy. faster would have meant a spin at some point. [note : the prairies are very flat ; all this happened in a [fairly] straight line…]
is it possible that Richard got a little help from a ‘confused torque vectoring system’ ?

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Mario December 23, 2017 at 10:37 pm

Vectoring system gone haywire, Hammond ask why Rimak’s car was all day understeer and on that moment oversteer” and Rimak repeatedly ignored to answer …
similar problem like when Koenigsegg One:1 crash at Nurburgring record attempt, small companies don’t have experience or funds to make a lot of testing miles so they fail at simpliest problems like 15U$ chinese ABS sensor on One:1 or probably also some prosaic problem on Rimak vectoring system …

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Sean McKellar January 6, 2018 at 5:17 pm

Hard to believe though – torque vectoring is all about the distribution of power to each of the four wheels. If you’re not on the power it has nothing to do.

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Martyn Cooper. December 22, 2017 at 11:48 pm

the speed of the Remic at 130 kms phr has a stoping point with its brakes of 180 metres, kindly regards Martyn.

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Sean McKellar January 6, 2018 at 5:15 pm

We’re having a hard time believing that – a regular hatchback performs better than that. Happy to eat my words if you can provide evidence though.

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