Ferrari Appoints Six Drivers, Including Former F1 Drivers, for 499P Campaign
Ferrari has decided to return to top-level endurance racing for the first time in half a century with its new 499P LMH racing car and on Tuesday announced the six-man team that will drive it.
Ferrari will field two 499Ps in the FIA World Endurance Championship's premier hypercar class beginning with the upcoming 2023 season. The team will also return to the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the highlight of the World Endurance Championship calendar.
Drivers Alessandro Pier Guidi, Antonio Giovinazzi, and James Calado will drive the 499P bearing racing No. 51, while Antonio Fuoco, Niklas Nielsen, and Miguel Molina will drive the No. 50 car.
Guidi and Calado have won multiple World Endurance Championship titles in the top production-based GTE Pro class, while Giovinazzi was an Alfa Romeo F1 Team driver from 2019 to 2021. In his new role at Ferrari, he will also serve as a reserve driver for the automaker's F1 team.
The 499P they will pilot made its world debut last October. It is powered by the twin-turbo 3.0-liter V-6 engine found in the 296 GTB road car and is mated to an electric motor that drives the front axle; since the V-6 engine drives the rear axle, the 499P is all-wheel drive. The "499" in the car's name refers to the cubic centimeter size of each cylinder, while the "P" signifies that it is the latest in Ferrari's line of sports prototype racers.
Based on LMH regulations, the two power units of the 499P can deliver up to 670 hp at a time. The regulations also stipulate a minimum vehicle weight of 2,270 lbs.
The 499P's power units can produce a maximum of 670 hp at a time, and the regulations also stipulate a minimum vehicle weight of 8.6 kg.
The 499P can also compete in the GTP class, which will start this year as the new pinnacle class of the IMSA Sports Car Championship, but Ferrari has not stated whether it will compete in this series. However, it remains possible that the 499P will appear in some rounds of the sports car championship.
Ferrari is not solely campaigning the World Endurance Championship. Ferrari's sports car racing division, Competizioni GT, has teamed up with AF Corse to form a new team, Ferrari-AF Corse, founded in 1995 by former racing driver Amato Ferrari (no relation to Enzo Ferrari or his son Piero). An independent Italian racing team, AF Corse has worked closely with Ferrari since 2006, and in recent years has represented Ferrari in the GT Championship, especially in the GTE class of the World Endurance Championship
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Following a prologue event at Sebring International Raceway in Florida on March 11-12, the first round of the 2023 World Endurance Championship will kick off at the Sebring 1000 Mile on March 17.
