Le Mans: Ferrari admits it will be difficult to repeat success

A year ago, Ferrari AF Corse won the 24 Hours of Le Mans, beating the Toyota factory team, which had remained invincible for years. Now the Italian team will once again head to the start of the marathon at the Sarthe ring and in 2024 three 499P sports prototypes will compete for victory in the most prestigious Hypercar class.

Cars No. 50 and No. 51 are painted in the traditional red color and are Ferrari AF Corse hypercars, but the yellow car No. 83 AF Corse is also participating, which will be driven alternately by Robert Kubica, Robert Schwartzman and Yifei. Thou.

But Antonello Coletta, head of Ferrari’s factory endurance racing programme, admits repeating last year’s success will not be easy.

“Last year we did not even have time to study the characteristics of our car in depth and by working on the simulator we were never able to run a 24-hour race without problems,” he said in an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport. “Even during the race we had some problems, so in the second half of that season and at the beginning of this year we tried to get to know the 499P better.

In addition, the team was strengthened with a number of new specialists. But winning is always difficult and this season the level of our opponents has clearly increased. Porsche, for example, will enter six cars in the race. Other manufacturers have joined the Hypercar class, and some of them may surprise us this year, just like we surprised everyone in 2023.

The key to success is to properly handle the tires on the track, as the use of thermal covers is prohibited. We see that on the first lap you can lose 15 to 18 seconds when leaving the pits. Therefore, optimal tire heating becomes one of the most important factors influencing the result, as there will be approximately 25 pit stops and at least ten tire changes during the race.

It is important that the drivers act correctly at such times and we will try to set up the cars in such a way that the process of warming up the tires is improved.”

Colletta was also asked whether endurance racing can be considered a form of motorsport in which talented drivers who have not managed to get into Formula 1 can fully express themselves?

“It is becoming increasingly difficult to get into Formula 1 because there are only twenty places in this championship and drivers like Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton, who have long left their youth behind them, are still in excellent form,” replied the Italian manager. – WEC racing is also at a very high level, where we use the same technologies (hybrid power plants, etc.), and drivers really have fun behind the wheel of these cars, so WEC can be considered the best alternative to F1.

We already have such examples with Antonio Fuoco and Robert Schwartzman. But endurance racing also provides an excellent opportunity for engineers, mechanics and other team employees to prove themselves…”