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[drionita]

I really don't know if something inherent 1999 can be discussed in this Nostalgia section, however here it is.
Mercedes entered 1998 Le Mans with the CLK-LM, which was a development of the GT WC winning car in the previous year (don't mean to discuss if that was really a GT car or a prototype).
The following year the CLR was entered in the 24h but we all know the heights it was able to reach, and the Three-pointed Star vanished from Le Mans.
My question is: was the CLR-project meant to last for a three-years program (I noticed that's the minimum car-manufacturers use to do at Le Mans). If yes, why Mercedes deleted so suddenly the program, without even try to develop the car? Were the close-top GTP so penalized by the following year rules? Or was it so bad basically? The last point doesn't sound so right to me, even the 1998 LM winner Porsche GT1 made a similar flipping performance, at Road Atlanta AFAIK.
Is it possible that MB renounced to challenge an international race like Le Mans to concetrate its efforts in a more national series like the DTM series which was about to start again in 2000? (in this case, however there's the 91-92 winter episode, when MB withdrew from Group C - leaving the C292 in a museum- only to enter the DTM, but at that point they were planning to enter F1.)
I searched for more info but I couldn't find more news than those that I already knew. Does someone know more about it?
Sorry for my poor english, thank you all for your attention.

Matt
Southern Italy