Ferrari will try to win the famous Le Mans 24-Hour race this coming weekend. The last time a factory-backed Ferrari lined up at the front of the grid at La Sarthe was 50 years ago. This is one of the most significant moments in racing history. “We feel the weight of history,” says John Elkann, the chairman of Ferrari. His grandpa, Gianni Agnelli, helped Fiat buy 90% of Ferrari after Enzo Ferrari died in 1988. Even if a comeback is risky, it can be good for Ferrari. During the six-hour test at Le Mans last weekend, team driver Antonio Giovinazzi got the best time in the brand-new Ferrari 499P Le Mans Hypercar. This happened after the 499P qualified first for the 1000 Miles of Sebring in March and won the 6 Hours of Portimao in Portugal in April. The 499P is a Ferrari. For this year’s FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC), the Ferrari 499P has been created and built to meet the Le Mans Hypercar (LMH) sports racing prototype rules. Le Mans Hybrid (LMH) cars and Le Mans Daytona Hybrid (LMDh) cars are both champions of the World Endurance Championship (WEC). This year, the LHM cars from Peugeot and Toyota, the LMDh cars from Cadillac and Porsche, and the LHM cars from Glickenhaus Racing and the Floyd Vanwall Racing Team are all in the same group. LMH vehicles are made to order, but LMDh vehicles have a predetermined hybrid engine design and are built on chassis from one of four predetermined suppliers. The two types of vehicles share the rear axle and hybrid transmission system. The FIA uses a speed balance formula to make sure that the lap times of the LMH and LMDh cars are the same. Notably, the LHM rules allow hybrid powertrains to drive all four wheels. (Because the Glickenhaus and Vanwall LMH are not hybrids, they only come with rear-wheel drive.) Total system power is limited to 671 horsepower, but the hybrid powertrain’s electric motors can send up to 268 horsepower to the front wheels. The outputs of the ICE and e-motor are balanced by complex algorithms, which ensure that no more than 671 hp hits the track surface. The main benefit of a hybrid system is that the energy collected when you brake and saved in the battery can be used by the e-motors to reduce the power demand on the ICE, which means you use less gas. At low speeds, the e-motor can’t be turned on. This is so that all-wheel drive cars don’t have an advantage when getting out of tight turns. Mauro Barbieri, in charge of performance, modelling, and rules for Ferrari’s endurance race cars, says hybrid vehicles could be lighter in race trim than vehicles with only internal combustion engines (ICE). The 499P is named after the size of its single cylinder, which is a long-standing Ferrari heritage. The 120-degree, 2.9-liter V-6 engine that powers the plug-in hybrid 296GTB and 296GTS is at the heart of the 499P’s motor. On the other hand, the block has been made more robust because the engine is a stressed part of the vehicle’s frame. A sequential-shift transmission with seven gears sends power from the engine to the back wheels. The 900V electrical design of the hybrid system was built on what was learned from Ferrari’s Formula One car. The open-top 312PB was the second-to-last factory Ferrari sports prototype to race at Le Mans. In 1973, one of these cars came in second overall. Since then, Ferrari’s top-level racing work has focused on Formula 1. So, why are we going back to driving sports cars for money? “Why at this time?” “The regulatory framework and the certainty of the rules in the coming years gave us the courage,” says John Elkann, referring to the fact that the LMH rules set the main features of the cars in this group for the next five years. “The rules have been thought about carefully.” Elkann also says that Ferrari thinks the LMH category allows the company to move important technology from its Formula 1 program to its production cars. Elkann says, “We’ve been cautious about how we use the technology we’ve learned from motor racing.” We want the 499P to be a place to try out new ideas and a way to get those ideas into our road-going sports cars. Elkann says that the fact that this year is the 100th anniversary of the Le Mans 24 Hour made Ferrari decide to go back to La Sarthe. “We thought we had done everything we needed to do to be able to come in, and the setting was right.” However, he is well aware of what might happen if Ferrari joined what is, without a doubt, the most complex and most challenging race in the world. Elkann thinks it takes a lot of courage to start a new adventure 50 years after we leave. Elkann says that racing is at the heart of the Ferrari brand. “Ferrari got its start in racing and has changed because of it,” he says. “What we do and how we work are similar to racing.” Also, one of the most exciting things about racing is that new tasks, categories, and changes are constantly added. Ferrari’s Formula E Since Ferrari will release its first all-electric car in 2025, it’s a given that the company will think about putting together a Formula E team. “Electrification is a great way to push the limits of what’s possible, and thinking about fully electric sports cars has been a lot of fun,” says Elkann. He says that Ferrari has more than a decade of experience with electrification thanks to the high-tech hybrid powertrains in its Formula One car, which have been around for over a decade. “I’m not sure if we think skill would be a differentiator, but it looks like the key to success in Formula E is managing the batteries.” Even so, Elkann is careful not to say Ferrari won’t join Formula E in the future. “Formula E is a category that is changing, and I think it is important to know how it is changing.” Even though Ferrari turned 75 last year, Elkann says that the company is still young and works in a market that has been around for a long time. Ferrari has stayed flexible regarding its primary goal, which is to make the best sports cars possible, and it has kept its freedom. We were born into racing and grew up in sports cars, so returning to Le Mans with the 499P is a big deal for us.
