WEC | Pole Ferrari, but realism prevails: “It will be a tough race”

In case anyone hadn’t noticed yet, Antonio Fuoco confirmed himself as the spearhead of this Ferrari from Qualifying, taking the second consecutive Hyperpole in this 2024 season of the FIA ​​World Endurance Championship, as well as the fourth in the history of the 499P.

During the fight for the starting pole of the 6h of Spa-Francorchamps, the Calabrian literally took flight with the Red #50 prepared by the men from Maranello and AF Corse, setting a great time in 2’02″600 making the most of the soft compound Michelin tires which gave him the right momentum to lead his rivals by more than half a second.

“Since Qualifying we have all been very close and for the Hyperpole we tried to fit the Soft tyres; we knew that the preparation lap would be the key and I think everything was done very well, considering that we had never tried them”, he said. Fuoco explained after finishing the session in Belgium.

“This gave us a margin over the others, but in general the lap was excellent and I am very happy with myself and the team’s work, as well as the car, which prepared well during Free Practice.”

The right joy for another good result, however, leaves more room for the awareness that Sunday’s race will not be as easy, especially from the point of view of tire wear and with rivals such as Porsche, Cadillac and Toyota ready to ambush the Red on which we will also see Nicklas Nielsen and Miguel Molina.

“We know that tomorrow will be very difficult, we saw in Free Practice that the Porsche is really strong in terms of race pace, so we have to be realistic”, admits the Prancing Horse standard bearer.

“From our point of view we have to do our best in managing the tyre, starting in front can be a small advantage, even if in reality overtaking is easy on this track. Let’s see how it goes, honestly we haven’t encountered any particular degradation problems, but I also see Toyota as strong in this respect.”

“I think we will only use the Mediums, we also saw in Hyperpole that the degradation is high, so it remains to understand how to exploit them over the 6 Hours. Even if the stints are now shorter, we cannot afford to push too much, also because as soon as degradation occurs it becomes very difficult to get it back to working as before”.

“The track is still a bit dirty and there are some depressions, especially the one at turn 15, but I don’t think it will be a problem for us, perhaps it will be more so for the GT3s. But compared to last year we are far away, furthermore the conditions are different because the temperatures are higher.”

#51 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi

Photo by: Marco Losi / KAPPAEMEDIA

A sore point in today’s Qualifying came from James Calado’s Ferrari #51, eliminated in Q1 and forced to start from 11th place on the grid, as well as face an even more uphill race.

“Unfortunately I made a mistake on the first lap, just when there was the most grip, I went too far at ‘Les Combes’, jumping over the curb and losing a lot of time. On the next lap I made an attempt, but the temperature of the tires had risen and I made a mistake setting up turn 12 again”, admits the Briton, who will share the wheel with Antonio Giovinazzi and Alessandro Pier Guidi.

“It was my fault, that’s why I lost the chance to access the Hyperpole. I’m really pissed off also because I was the fastest in the last sector, while in the first I was in line with the best”.

“The difference in driving between the car in race trim and the Qualifying one is quite high, personally I’m not even too used to taking part in the assault on Pole. It was the third time I’d tried since we started in Hypercar and I think that from the next outings it will be better to put the lighter driver in the car because it is a nice advantage”.

“From my point of view I will have to try to quickly forget this moment and think that we are in a good position as a crew; the track is different from Imola, we can overtake and recover by managing tire degradation and strategy well, perhaps trying something different, I am confident”.

#51 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi

Photo by: Emanuele Clivati ​​| AG Photo

Antonello Coletta, Head of Endurance and Customer Racing at Ferrari, adds: “We are very happy with this pole position, it is the reaction we expected from the whole team after the Imola race. Today we demonstrated, contrary to what we have often heard in recent months, how much we are able to manage the tires with our 499Ps, having been the only ones to have set up the qualification with two introductory laps and one in which to seek the best time on the track. tour”.

“I can therefore only be satisfied with both the performance of the car and the work of the team and the strategy we have set. The only regret is that we were not at the start with all the 499Ps among the top ten Hypercars on the grid, but the qualifying was very close and access to the Hyperpole was fought out on the edge of thousandths of a second. However, in view of tomorrow’s race we are also optimistic for the 499P number 51 which showed excellent race pace in free practice.”

Ferdinando Cannizzo, Head of the Prancing Horse’s Endurance cars: “We are definitely satisfied with the pole position achieved by the 499P number 50. The result obtained by Antonio Fuoco is the result of the great team work done in understanding the Soft compound. The choice to carry out two preparation laps and aim to do the flying lap on the third lap definitely paid off because it allowed us to make the most of the ‘peak’ of the tyre”.

“On the other hand, it’s a bit disappointing for the other two cars: for number 51, which by a few hundredths failed to reach the Hyperpole, finishing in eleventh place, and for number 83 which, after a splendid performance in qualifying, in Hyperpole was unable to set a useful time for the top positions. Now we have to concentrate on preparing for tomorrow’s race which, given the values ​​on the field, will undoubtedly be very close.”