Louis Christen: “My proposal could be implemented quickly and cost-effectively”

Louis Christen is a gifted sidecar designer. Since the late 1970s, riders on his LCR sidecars have dominated the World Championship in a way that had never been seen before. The Swiss genius has more than 30 world championship titles to his name.

Following the serious accident involving Ryan and Callum Crowe, which led to the cancellation of the sidecar races at this year’s Tourist Trophy, he came up with a quick solution, but the organisers had their own ideas, which, once announced, were met with incomprehension amongst the competitors. Some teams have already confirmed they will not be taking part in the TT.

“It is very regrettable that, even at this stage, so many questions regarding the future of sidecars at the TT races remain unanswered,” says Christen, expressing his surprise. “Of course, the situation is extremely complex and the organisers have to take numerous factors into account. Nevertheless, I find it hard to understand why a more pragmatic approach isn’t being taken to resolve these issues.”

Measures could be implemented with manageable financial and technical effort

“The fundamental problem is that the accident which led to the race being abandoned was caused by unfortunate aerodynamic effects. This problem could be resolved relatively quickly through changes to the fairing and a reduction in engine power. Both measures could be implemented on all existing cars at a manageable financial and technical cost.”

“For this reason, I began drawing up a proposal to improve aerodynamics immediately after the incident. In doing so, I sought advice from professional aerodynamicists – friends of mine who hold senior positions in Formula 1. I submitted this proposal to the relevant TT organisers before the end of June 2026.”

“The key point of my proposal is that it builds on existing bodywork designs – such as those from LCR or other manufacturers – and thus enables a comparatively quick and cost-effective implementation.”

So sieht der Vorschlag von Louis Christen aus

Foto: Louis Christen

“As far as engine power is concerned, the solution is simple – provided there is the will to implement it: power can be reduced by using air restrictors. This is a simple, irrefutable fact of physics: the less oxygen that enters the combustion chamber, the lower the power output. This measure, too, could be implemented at a reasonable cost.”

“The most important thing, however, is that all these measures could be implemented in the short term across all existing vehicles, and compliance would also be easy to monitor. Following a reasonable transition period, a new, up-to-date engine regulation could then be introduced.”

“It really is a great pity that so much time has now passed. Because, quite apart from the discussions surrounding the engines, the aerodynamic problems could have been resolved months ago,’ points out the ingenious Swiss engineer, noting that the teams have only a few weeks left to meet the technical requirements for taking part in the Tourist Trophy.