Ferrari will enter a car in the LMH (Le Mans Hypercar) class in 2023, marking Maranello’s triumphant return to the pinnacle of prototype racing, exactly 50 years after it last competed in the top rung of competition at Le Mans. This time, it will make use of a brand-new hybrid hypercar prototype that was just teased on Ferrari’s Instagram in a mysterious photo. Top Gear got the chance to speak with Antonello Coletta, Ferrari’s head of Competizioni GT, about the company’s impending Le Mans hypercar before to this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Ferrari is joining the LMH class at Le Mans instead of the LMDh class as many new manufacturers do, like Cadillac, BMW, and Acura, purely so that it may design and build the complete car itself.
“Ferrari needed to build the entire car before a race, so we made the decision to return to LMH. We chose the category because it allows us to manufacture the chassis, combustion engine, electric power, transmission, and everything else, “To Top Gear, Coletta said.
Manufacturers of vehicles in the LMDh class are required to employ a hybrid setup and chassis from one of four suppliers: Dallara (BMW and Cadillac), Oreca, Ligier, or Multimatic. However, Ferrari isn’t interested in any of that; the company is confident in its in-house hypercar and wants the vehicle to be wholly Ferrari.
“The Hypercar will be extremely powerful, we are sure of it. Our goal is to triumph. It would be foolish to put the car on the circuit if the goal is not to win “Coletta declared.
Ferrari’s Hypercar won’t be hitting the asphalt in the World Endurance Championship for very long. March 2023 may seem far off, but when you’re building a race car, it’s only a blink. That’s when the first WEC race will take place. The highly successful 488 GT3 will be replaced by the new 296 GT3 car for Le Mans in January 2023, and the Ferrari team is currently hard at work developing it.
In the latest teaser picture, not much of the future Ferrari LMH-Class Hypercar is visible. The only visible parts of the vehicle are its razor-thin headlights, a Ferrari logo on its red nose, and a front splitter so low it could serve as a lawnmower. It’s still unknown when Ferrari will completely introduce its in-house hypercar racer, but when it does, it’ll face competition from Toyota Gazoo Racing, which is currently in the lead, and its GR010 LMH car, which just finished first and second overall in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
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Ferrari Will Re-Enter the 40-Year-Old Outright Le Mans Sportscar Battle
After a 40-year absence, the legendary Italian sportscar manufacturer Ferrari will compete in the Le Mans 24 Hour event in 2023, which will celebrate its 100th anniversary.
For the first time since the 312PB in 1973, Ferrari confirmed today that it would enter the World Endurance Championship’s (WEC) premier division with a new hypercar.
Ferrari has nine outright victories in the Le Mans 24 Hour race, placing third after Porsche (19) and Audi. Ferrari played the defeated antagonist in both the Ford v Ferrari and Steve McQueen’s Le Mans movies.
Although it provided no additional information regarding its 2023 hypercar project, Ferrari will compete in the WEC under the new LMH rules.
Ferrari acknowledged that it had just recently started working on the hypercar and that it was very far along in the “design and simulation phases.”
Ferrari teases its 50-year-long absence at Le Mans. Just 27 Years Have Passed Since Its Last Visit to Le Mans
For the first time in fifty years, Ferrari has unveiled its top-tier Le Mans prototype. The sole issue? Its 1990s-era Le Mans prototype was driven.
Ferrari will finally compete in the race that first gained its name in 2023. The organization claims it will be the first 24 Hours of Le Mans with a Ferrari in the premier class since 1973 in a teaser providing the first glimpse at the car that will participate under its banner that year. Since a Ferrari had just been entered in the premier class at Le Mans in 1999, that is a strange remark.
Ferrari is making reference to its most recent factory effort, a trio of 312PBs that lost to Matra-Simca. Despite being unmistakably a Ferrari, that vehicle ranks among the least noteworthy in the brand’s history at the Circuit de la Sarthe due to its relative lack of success or a legendary rivalry at Le Mans. (Matra has a smaller marketing budget than, say, Ford or Porsche, so we hear less about those early ’70s years.) The 333 SP has a more complicated past than the vehicle Ferrari is ignoring.
That vehicle was created in collaboration with the local Dallara motorsports expert exclusively for consumers, but it did include a Ferrari badge and an F1-derived engine. Also, this was a long-running show. In customer hands, it competed in numerous Le Mans races between 1995 and 1999 and won the 1998 24 Hours of Daytona. The decision to leave the 333 SP out of the launch of the company’s most recent hypercar appears to be a sign that, unlike the 312PB, it may not always have a warm place in the Ferrari canon.
There won’t be any debate about the newest Ferrari’s place in the company’s history, unlike the 333 SP. Even though there have been no specifics revealed about the new vehicle, we do know that AF Corse will campaign it for the entire 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship season and that it will be built to the Le Mans Hypercar criteria. Although the new teaser image released today seems to suggest that it will resemble a road car more than other prototypes, it is challenging to draw any firm conclusions from just looking at the front tenth of a vehicle.
What is certain is that a victory would mark Ferrari’s first in almost 60 years and a comeback for a team that was once the most successful in the course’s history.
Official: Ferrari will compete at Le Mans with a hypercar!
Ferrari today announced that it will compete in the new endurance racing “Hypercar” class.
You’ll agree that this is somewhat seismic news because it means that Ferrari will, for the first time since 1973, be vying for outright victory in both the WEC and, of course, Le Mans.
Oh, it’s on now. With a totally new hypercar that will, let’s face it, be extremely bloody remarkable, Ferrari plans to join the series in 2023. It has reportedly begun the design and simulation phases of this new LMH car’s development phase, with information regarding the “track testing program, the name of the car, and the drivers that will make up the official crews” to be released in due course.
It indicates that another significant, illustrious manufacturer is preparing to engage in combat with vehicles that need to resemble road-going machinery. It’s building up to be a really thrilling racing series with manufacturers like Toyota, Peugeot, Porsche, Audi, and even Glickenhaus all confirming an entry.
First look at Ferrari’s Le Mans Hypercar race car
Ferrari has released the first teaser image of its upcoming race car, which is being created to comply with the LMH (Le Mans Hypercar) regulations, making it eligible for both the GTP (Grand Touring Prototype) class of the IMSA SportsCar Championship and the Hypercar class of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
Ferrari has only officially committed to the World Endurance Championship (WEC), whose marquee event is the 24 Hours of Le Mans, while the LMH might still participate in a few SportsCar Championship races, such the 24 Hours of Daytona.
Initial LMH testing has already begun. Ferrari is creating the vehicle in preparation for the 2023 racing season, which will be the first time LMH cars will face off against vehicles made to comply with the distinct LMDh (Le Mans Daytona hybrid) regulations. A level playing field will be maintained using the balance of performance.
While ByKolles, Glickenhaus, Peugeot, Toyota, and Ferrari are all dedicated to LMH, Acura, Alpine, Audi (maybe), BMW, Cadillac, and Porsche are all committed to LMDh. Additionally, Lamborghini declared in May that it would merge with LMDh in 2024.
Ferrari’s LMH will race at the highest level in the French endurance classic for the first time in 50 years when it takes the track at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2023.
However, Ferrari is not acting independently this time. For the LMH campaign, it will collaborate with AF Corse; the new team will be known as Ferrari – AF Corse. AF Corse currently races Ferrari GT race cars in the WEC’s GT classes.
Ferrari’s LMH has a bizarre design with three fins supporting a sizable rear wing. Additionally, there are some narrow light strips up front that probably make up the headlights. Ferrari’s limited-edition Daytona SP3 Icona Series supercar, which will be introduced in 2021, will have a similar appearance.
The design pattern might potentially be seen on a road vehicle based on Ferrari’s LMH racer, which is anticipated to be the replacement for the LaFerrari. Remember that Ferrari releases a model from its so-called Special Series, such as the LaFerrari or the previous Enzo, once every ten years. The LaFerrari will be ten years old next year. Remain tuned.
With its own hypercar starting in 2023, Ferrari has said it would rejoin the elite of endurance competition, including the Le Mans 24 Hours.
With an in-house chassis, the Italian manufacturer will compete in the FIA World Endurance Championship against Toyota, Peugeot, Glickenhaus, and ByKolles hypercars, while Audi, Porsche, and Acura are developing new LMDh prototypes that will also be qualified to compete in a single Le Mans Hypercar class.
According to Ferrari President John Elkann, in more than 70 years of competition on circuits around the globe, “we guided our closed-wheel vehicles to triumph by investigating cutting-edge technological solutions: ideas that originate from the track and make every road car manufactured in Maranello unique.”
Ferrari “once again asserts its sports commitment and determination to be a protagonist in the main worldwide motorsport events” with the launch of the Le Mans Hypercar program.
The track testing schedule, the name of the car, and the drivers that will make up the official crews will all be disclosed in upcoming releases, according to a brief statement.
The announcement that Ferrari will enter a Le Mans Hypercar in the FIA World Endurance Championship starting in 2023 is excellent news for the FIA, the ACO, and the greater motorsport community, said Jean Todt, president of the FIA.
“I support the idea of road-relevant Hypercars racing in the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the FIA World Endurance Championship. I’m eager to see this storied company take on such a challenging endeavor.
In 2023, Motorsport Games (NASDAQ:MSGM) will release a brand-new video game including the 24 Hours of Le Mans that will allow players to pilot the Ferrari Hypercar and all of the other participants.
Ferrari’s last outright victory at Le Mans came in 1965, its ninth overall triumph, before turning its attention to class victories at the French endurance race.
Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, and Daniel Serra drove a Ferrari 488 GTE to the Scuderia’s 27th class victory in GTE Pro in 2019.
Ferrari has recently concentrated its Maranello operations on its Formula 1 team, but due to the impending budget cap, the team has been looking to reduce its F1 workforce and redeploy personnel elsewhere. Prior to beginning a hypercar program, it was previously revealed that a number of team employees would transfer to customer team Haas in a Maranello-based hub.
Ferrari’s as-yet-unnamed hypercar will be the brand’s first sportscar prototype since the Ferrari 333 SP, which competed from 1994 to 2003 but failed to win at Le Mans.
Although the Italian team has a full roster of factory drivers, no drivers have yet been announced for the hypercar program. It also has drivers like Davide Rigon, Miguel Molina, Sam Bird, and Nicklas Nielsen on the books, in addition to Le Mans champions Pier Guidi, Calado, and Serra.
It might potentially turn to F1 veteran Kimi Raikkonen or even any of its Ferrari academy drivers, including FIA Formula 2 runner-up Callum Ilott. Antonio Giovinazzi, a Ferrari employee and Raikkonen’s colleague at Alfa Romeo, may also be available for a Le Mans run.