The Ferrari logo will return to the main battle at the 2023 Le Mans 24 Hour race for the first time … [+]
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After 40 years away, Italian sportscar icon Ferrari will return to the outright battle for the 100th anniversary of the Le Mans 24 Hour race in 2023.
Ferrari announced today that it would join the top level of the World Endurance Championship (WEC) with a new hypercar, marking its first outright Le Mans 24 Hour contender since the 312PB in 1973.
The last time Ferrari was seen competing for outright victories at the Le Mans 24 Hour race was when … [+]
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The conquered nemesis in both the Ford v Ferrari and Steve McQueen’s Le Mans movies, Ferrari has nine outright wins at the Le Mans 24 Hour race, behind only Porsche (19) and Audi (13).
While it did not add any detail of its 2023 hypercar project, Ferrari will join the WEC under the new LMH regulations.
Ferrari admitted it had began developing its hypercar “in recent weeks” and was already advanced in both the “design and simulation phases”.
Ferrari President John Elkann is taking the brand back to Le Mans to compete against Porsche, … [+]
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“In over 70 years of racing, on tracks all over the world, we led our closed-wheel cars to victory by exploring cutting-edge technological solutions: innovations that arise from the track and make every road car produced in Maranello extraordinary,” Ferrari President John Elkann said.
“With the new Le Mans Hypercar program, Ferrari once again asserts its sporting commitment and determination to be a protagonist in the major global motorsport events.”
Ferrari will join what is beginning to look like a banner year for the Le Mans road race, with triple champions Toyota and Peugeot joining Porsche and Audi, with independent custom American hypercar maker Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus confirming as well.
Even Honda-owned Acura is developing an LMDh racer (which allows the cheaper entry via fitting a company’s powertrain to one of four approved chassis), though it hasn’t committed to Le Mans.
Ferrari Formula One driver Carlos Sainz Jr tests this year’s SF71H at the Scuderia’s Fiorano test … [+]
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The move back to sportscar racing looks like a simple reallocation of resources for Ferrari, which has been forced to meet a Formula One budget cap for the first time. The Le Mans program allows Ferrari to retain more of its engineering and development staff than first expected.
Its involvement isn’t random, though. Ferrari was one of the interested companies involved in the 2018 discussions that gave birth to the new Hypercar rules at Le Mans.
It was also one of the three automakers that demanded that the governing bodies change their original rules, insisting they made the racing cars too expensive.
Ferrari has kept its hand in at Le Mans via its 488 GTE racer. Photo: LOIC VENANCE/AFP via Getty … [+]
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While Ferrari has maintained a presence at Le Mans via its AF Corsa team, winning the GT trophy for road-based cars with ex-Formula One driver Giancarlo Fisichella at the wheel, it has stayed away from the outright category.
Some say it was chased away, with Ford breaking its six-year winning streak in 1966 (as depicted in the Ford v Ferrari movie), then Porsche destroying the Prancing Horse myth in 1970 and 1971.
Ferrari withdrew from Le Mans to concentrate on Formula One, collecting a further 14 Constructors’ titles (it has 16 overall), plus five Drivers’ championships for Michael Schumacher, two for Niki Lauda and one each for Jody Scheckter and Kimi Raikkonen.
It hasn’t won either title since 2008, though, with first Red Bull, then Mercedes-AMG dominating.
The new Le Mans racer will be Ferrari’s first official prototype racer since the 333SP customer machine, though that open-wheel racer was developed for the US IMSA sports car circuits rather than Le Mans.
It won’t be the first to run its LMD hypercar at Le Mans, though, with Toyota committed to debut its racer this year and Peugeot in 2022.
