The 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship with see the arrival in the Hypercar class of Ferrari, and last week, the Italian marque unveiled the 499P that will look to fight for overall honours in the championship as well as the fabled 24 Hours of Le Mans.
It is now fifty years since Ferrari were involved in endurance racing’s premier class, with their attention, at least during the current era of the World Endurance Championship, being in the GTE class where they’ve been a fighting force ever since the inception of the series in 2012.
Their partnership with AF Corse, which has covered their time in the GTE Pro class, will continue into the Hypercar class, with some of the drivers involved in the GTE class being linked to a move to the top class for 2023.
But now they have launched the 499P, which is Ferrari’s version of the Hypercar, which will go up against the likes of Toyota, Peugeot, Porsche and Cadillac for race wins, including at the Circuit de la Sarthe next June.
“The 499 P sees us return to compete for outright victory in the WEC series,” said John Elkann, the Executive Chairman at Ferrari.
“When we decided to commit to this project, we embarked on a path of innovation and development, faithful to our tradition that sees the track as the ideal terrain to push the boundaries of cutting-edge technological solutions, solutions that in time will be transferred to our road cars.
“We enter this challenge with humility, but conscious of a history that has taken us to over 20 world endurance titles and 9 overall victories at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.”
Credit: Scuderia Ferrari
“For the whole team and myself, this is a really thrilling moment” – Ferdinando Cannizzo
Ferdinando Cannizzo, the Head of Ferrari GT Track Car Development, has spoken of his pride of the 499P following its launch, and although it is early days, he is hopeful that the intense testing programme will enable them to start their 2023 campaign on the front foot at Sebring in March.
“For the whole team and myself, this is a really thrilling moment,” said Cannizzo. “We know that we have a huge responsibility. We have designed and engineered a car that is brand new and particularly complex in every aspect.
“This unprecedented challenge motivated everyone into all-encompassing, all-sharing collaboration involving every department of our company and our technical partners. Starting from a blank sheet of paper was a source of unique and continuous motivation in order to find effective solutions to guarantee the 499P’s performance and reliability.
“From the very first shakedown to the first race, we have planned a very intense development programme, both on the test bench and on the track, which has given us some interesting feedback. The work of synthesis that awaits us over the coming weeks, and which will see us involved in further track testing, is the most important for fine-tuning and the final integration of all the systems.
“We still have a lot of kilometres to go, but the team is aware of the importance of the project and will continue to show commitment, passion, maturity and great professionalism.”
The decision of who will drive for Ferrari next year has yet to be announced.
Credit: Scuderia Ferrari