499P – Syndication Server

Jokers, extensions, and the United States – what’s next for Ferrari’s hypercar?

The Ferrari 499P is set to benefit from its first set of performance (‘Joker’) and reliability-focused upgrades according to Ferdinando Cannizzo, Ferrari’s head of endurance race cars. The Italian marque is close to signing off the changes to the …

Speaking with RACER in Maranello last week, Cannizzo wouldn’t be drawn into specifics on the changes. He felt it wouldn’t be wise to reveal the exact nature of the upgrades at this stage, to prevent “the competition from getting an advantage”.

However, when pressed by RACER for additional information, he was able to reveal that the changes to the car, which in its current form is identical (bar a change to the endurance lights for this year) to the model it debuted at Sebring last March, would not affect its looks.

“We need to explore the real potential of the car,” he explained. “There are weak points that we need to take care of and improve. We have started work on some evolutions for the car, and we will probably arrive with some form of ‘Joker’ modification before the end of the season.

“We cannot say when exactly, but we are working and the process in some areas is already progressing. We started testing some modifications that have proven to be effective on track and we are close to signing it off.

“These changes are not related to aero, for example, it’s more within the ‘dress’ of the car. We are trying to offset some areas in which we identified a lack of performance. There are a lot of things we can improve in the car, which require ‘Joker’ updates, and we are prepared to do it.

“We will see if (the first set of updates) this arrives by the end of the season. Then we have something else that will follow this in the future, but we don’t know if it will be for next year or two years time.”

The general target from Ferrari with this ‘Joker’ upgrade – the first of five permitted over the course of the car’s homologation – is not to improve the car’s speed over a single lap. Instead, the hope is that these changes will improve the 499P’s ability to sustain front-running pace over the course of multiple stints during races.

Maintaining solid race pace is a key aim of Ferrari’s upcoming upgrades. Jakob Ebrey/Motorsport Images

“We want to express our performance in a better way,” he said. “It’s more to strengthen the car, not in a single lap time but more in robustness. So to be close to the margin every lap. We will not improve the peak performance, but probably we will improve the car’s consistency at some specific circuits where we needed to be more conservative in operating the car.”

Cannizzo also clarified that these updates are not aimed at tire life, an area that many teams in the Hypercar class have struggled with, particularly in the absence of tire warmers.

“No,” he responded when asked if Ferrari was specifically targeting the 499P’s ability to look after its tires. “For tire life, we have improved because it’s more related to the fact that we needed to work on understanding the car and define a proper set-up at certain circuits, in specific conditions. We are able to approach tyre management during a stint and during the race.”

As for the reliability upgrades that Ferrari has been working on alongside the performance ‘Joker’, Cannizzo said these would be ready to debut at the same time.

“The whole team is never satisfied with the car’s reliability,” he said. “We do believe that the reliability of the car is still our big concern, it’s something we need to take care of every day. Small details can destroy an entire race. So we need to pay attention to the detail.

“The work is very hard, we are working a lot. The difficulty of having homologated cars is that you can change things for reliability, but you have to show you have a problem, and that’s not easy.”

Looking further ahead, welcome news for both the management team behind FIA WEC and the championship’s fanbase is that Ferrari’s commitment to Hypercar is effectively open-ended.

Cannizzo says the Italian marque is pleased with the current ruleset and expects to compete in the WEC’s top class for the foreseeable future.

Currently, the factory Hypercar program is signed off for five years, meaning Ferrari expects to continue racing in the top class through to the end of the 2027 season in the WEC.

When asked about the future of the current Hypercar ruleset, Cannizzo explained that an extension – which is now widely expected by senior personalities in the paddock – is something Ferrari would welcome.

An extension of Ferrari’s Hypercar program is likely. Jakob Ebrey/Motorsport Images

What this looks like though, is clearly up for debate. Leaving the future regulations that will permit hydrogen-powered cars to race to one side, there appears to be a debate surrounding the future of LMH-LMDh ‘convergence’ too.

“I am happy with the technical regulations,” Cannizzo said. “The philosophy of having a performance cap on the regulations is the right way. Because inevitably you can guarantee the fact that as long as you achieve the performance you don’t need to make a lot of developments to make yourself competitive.

“We can argue at some point about BoP, but if I look at the way we are running now we are close in weight and power. The regulations are the right one and for the future, we will have to see what will happen to Hypercar.

“I am in favour of extending the regulations. What I will work on in the future with the other manufacturers and the FIA and ACO is probably to have one single platform in the long term, instead of two different ones racing together. This is one of the targets that we should achieve.

“It could be a regulation that is a combination of the two (LMH and LMDh). We have proven the cars, whichever platform, are performing well. So I think we can go with one clear decision, but this is a personal view. And that would help a lot to strengthen the championship.

“At the moment we approved the programme for five years but we are still working on what will come after. Of course, in a company, everything needs to be approved at some point, but I don’t think that Ferrari is going to stop this commitment to endurance.”

What about the 499P racing in IMSA? This is something that Ferrari is known to have evaluated before prioritising its WEC effort at this early stage of its long-term commitment to the platform.

Thus, nothing is currently planned in the short term. The size of the program and the level of resource available is a barrier to growing the commitment, and Cannizzo rightly points out that running an IMSA campaign is no simple task due to the number of races.

So what are the chances of a factory effort from the ‘Prancing Horse’ stateside? It’s hard to say. While there is no firm plan to race in the USA with the 499P as a factory this side of 2026, Cannizzo provided an interesting insight into how likely a GTP program for the car is.

Crucially, he did not rule it out.

499Ps have already run on-track in America, but not yet in IMSA. Ferrari Media Center

“The only thing stopping us is resources,” he explained. “We are a small team, and it’s not easy even to manage three cars. We would like to do better in the World Endurance Championship first, and then at some point when we are ready, we will see what our commitment will be in the USA.

“It is clear this car deserves a factory team to race it because it’s so complex, that has to be taken into consideration. But apart from that it’s too early to say at the moment what will be the future plans on top of the WEC.

“The wish is there (to race in IMSA), but we need to be aware that we need to be well prepared. If we make a commitment to have a second championship to race in, you need to prepare properly because the number of races are quite a lot. This is what we need to be sure of. We push in the right way, and now we need to have the same approach and step in when we are really ready.”

Ultimately, whether Ferrari opts to compete in IMSA or not, the 499P will still be seen on track in the USA this year, and likely, for years to come.

The three full-season 499Ps will all race in the United States as part of the WEC’s Lone Star Le Mans event at COTA in September. And the 499P will also be on track as part of the Corse Clienti events that Ferrari operates around the world, including the USA.

No fewer than four 499P Modificatas (Ferrari’s track-only, unrestricted, customer Hypercars) have already run this year at Laguna Seca (pictured above) and Sonoma.

Ferrari Bahrain struggles another chapter in the up-and-down Hypercar season

Ferrari AF Corse driver James Calado says the team’s struggles for outright performance in Bahrain haven’t come as a surprise. In the three practice sessions, Ferrari’s 499Ps didn’t come close to setting the best lap time, and wound up with the No. …

Ferrari AF Corse driver James Calado says the team’s struggles for outright performance in Bahrain haven’t come as a surprise.

In the three practice sessions, Ferrari’s 499Ps didn’t come close to setting the best lap time, and wound up with the No. 50 qualifying ahead of the No. 51 in fifth and sixth respectively, both cars over a second off the pole time. With the drivers’ title on the line, things will need to turn around rapidly if Ferrari’s drivers are to challenge Toyota’s crews in the finale.

The Bahrain circuit is notoriously tough on tires, though. This is due to its abrasive tarmac, which has never been resurfaced since the circuit opened, and the nature of the layout, which features a lot of heavy braking and hard acceleration. Couple that with the fact that over a stint, the 499P has often struggled to look after its tires during the season.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1416]

From the start of practice in Fuji the 499Ps have not shown the same level of outright performance as they did in the run from Sebring to Le Mans, which was of course highlighted by the historic victory at La Sarthe in June. Calado, though, says this is in line with the team’s expectations, due to the nature of the circuits since Le Mans and the steps made by its Hypercar competitors.

“We knew this track would hurt us a lot in terms of performance but the gap has been big so far and we are scratching our heads,” he told RACER. “There is no doubt we are struggling and trying to improve.”

Part of that effort is focused on maximizing the car’s performance over a stint.

“We’ve written off one-lap performance — we don’t think we can beat Toyota on one lap,” Calado continued. “In the past, we could compete and get poles, but we’ve changed the car a bit to improve tire degradation and long runs.

“With the weather and red flags so far this week, though, it’s disrupted our plans. Before the final practice we weren’t able to complete long runs so we didn’t know where we are. When you look at numbers, it’s no surprise for me. We are doing the best we can with what we’ve got.”

It’s a similar story for the drivers in the sister No. 50 Ferrari, who are still mathematically in the hunt for the drivers’ title but 36 points adrift from the No. 8 Toyota drivers in the standings with just 39 points available. Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Antonio Giovanazzi are 31 points back in the No. 51. Thus, Nicklas Nielsen says he and his teammates are forced to take a wait and see approach to the race.

“I think under the circumstances here it’s quite difficult for us, like it was in Japan,” he told RACER. “We have to push a lot to keep up with the others now, which is making it harder for us on the tires.

“In terms of lap time, there isn’t a big difference between the two compounds available (from Michelin). In the race, I think we will see teams change between them. We saw yesterday that some used hards, some mediums, some mixed. For most of the race, though, I think we will see most cars use the hard tires.

“It’s going to be difficult for either car to do anything in terms of the championship,” he admitted when asked about the No. 50’s chances of fighting for the title. “Especially for us, the chances of winning are very slim. We will have to see where we are after a couple of hours. If the other car is far ahead, that’s how it will end, but if there is a chance for us we will go for it.”

Ferrari will sell you its Le Mans-winning Hypercar… sort of

Nowadays, pretty much every supercar manufacturer will sell you a track-only toy that provides a realistic experience of life as a professional racing driver, provided your pockets are deep enough. Whether it’s McLaren with the P1 GTR or Senna GTR, …

Nowadays, pretty much every supercar manufacturer will sell you a track-only toy that provides a realistic experience of life as a professional racing driver, provided your pockets are deep enough.

Whether it’s McLaren with the P1 GTR or Senna GTR, Lamborghini with the Essenza SCV12, Bugatti with the Bolide, Pagani with the Huayra R, or Porsche with the recently unveiled 911 GT3 R Rennsport, there’s no shortage of options if you want to play racing driver on your days off.

But one brand has been in the track special game longer than the rest, and its latest offering will take customers even closer to getting the racing driver experience than ever before.

The new 499P Modificata is the latest addition to Ferrari’s Corse Clienti customer driver program stable, but unlike the FXX, 599XX, FXX-K (and their Evo variants), its origins aren’t found in a road-legal model, nor is it explicitly a laboratory on wheels to test future technologies. On the outside it looks identical to the car that won this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans – and that’s because it is, albeit with the chains and shackles of the World Endurance Championship’s rules and regulations thrown out the window.

So under the skin you’ll find the same 3 liter V6 engine coupled to an electric motor spinning the front wheels, but power from the combustion element is upped to 697 bhp (increased from a regulated 670 bhp in the race car) with new mapping delivering more torque lower in the rev range as well, while the motor on the front axle increases that further to 858 bhp – and unlike in race conditions, that doesn’t need to be activated above 118 mph.

Ferrari explains that by derestricting the front axle hybrid boost, it “offers advantages in terms of performance and driveability, making it possible to exploit the additional grip offered by the front wheels, and to optimize the distribution of torque between the axles.

“The result is a car that feels even more responsive and precise coming out of turns, making it easier for drivers to find the best racing lines, and inspiring confidence in driving to the limit in a car that is capable of extraordinary performance,” Ferrari explained in a release announcing the car.

The full complement of power comes via a push-to-pass system which opens up the taps for seven seconds at a time, with Ferrari likening the system “to that introduced in Formula 1 in 2009 with the KERS system”.

The pushrod suspension has been recalibrated too, but the most noticeable change is the tires, which aren’t the same Michelins used in WEC. Instead, they’re boots from Pirellis, which also supplies of Ferrari’s XX track programs as well as its F1 Clienti scheme for the customer running of old F1 cars.

The Italian tires are designed to be more user-friendly by offering “predictable handling” and “maximizing feedback in non-competitive driving, making them quick to warm up and promoting consistent grip levels for multiple laps over sheer peak performance.”

The price for this racing car that you can’t race hasn’t been officially confirmed, nor have production numbers, but is expected to be north of $5 million. For that you get full factory support from Ferrari via its new Sport Prototipi Clienti program, with the manufacturer maintaining and housing the cars in Maranello as it already does for the XX and F1 Clienti schemes. For a bit of perspective, Porsche will sell you a race-legal 963 for $2.9 million, and they’ll let you keep it.

If that’s too steep, Ferrari has also unveiled the latest offering for its one-make Challenge race series, based on the 296 GTB road car and inspired by its GT3 variant.

The 296 Challenge (pictured above) is the ninth car in the Ferrari Challenge’s 32-year history and replaces the aging 488 Challenge. Like the 499P Modificata, power comes from a turbocharged V6 engine (the first Ferrari Challenge car to do so), but there’s no hybrid element to cut down on weight and complexity. Power output sits at 690 bhp racer, while weight clocks in at 1330 kg thanks to the electrification diet.

Pricing is much more modest, too, coming in at a touch under $340,000, before taxes. And for that, they’ll even let you race it.