At Ferrari, every day is a good day to work hard on the 499P and the 2024 season of the FIA World Endurance Championship represents a good test after the excellent debut of last season.
The enthusiasts, the Maranello fans and also the entire Prancing Horse team, know this well, from which ambitious words have been coming since the winter without hiding the desire for the World title, after the great triumph at the 24h of Le Mans, third place in the championship and the first podiums achieved, without forgetting the two poles achieved on debut.
But the entire year of the top endurance series offers obstacles and opportunities to reflect, understand and grow, something that you never stop doing throughout your life, let alone when dealing with a hybrid prototype as sophisticated as a Hypercar.
Motorsport.com and other journalists spoke about this and more in Imola with Engineer Giuliano Salvi, who reiterated his intention to aim high, but also the need not to leave every single aspect of such a huge commitment to chance .
#50 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina, Nicklas Nielsen leads
Photo by: Paolo Belletti
“The objective is to win the championship, but each track has its own characteristics and it doesn't necessarily mean that they go well with the DNA of the car, so it becomes important to be consistent and take points everywhere, the maximum possible of course. You have to maximize every outing “, underlines the Manager of the Ferrari GT and SportsCars programs.
“In my opinion, in Qatar we didn't work well as a team and I believe we need to do better, analyzing the car well. Sometimes it happens that you win as an underdog and in other times you lose despite having the potential to do well. In Lusail I am convinced that a better job could have been done, from all points of view.”
“In terms of organisation, the WEC is growing and improving more and more and you can see it from the rivals we are on track against, the best manufacturers in the world. But we have to focus on our own and do what we are supposed to do well.”
One of the Achilles' heels of the 499P at its debut was the excessive wear of the tyres, which during the year was also accentuated at times by the parameters imposed by the Balance of Performance.
Many had highlighted that tire wear was slowing down the Reds, but Salvi explained that the problem is now a thing of the past and that this year the suffering suffered at Lusail was due to something else.
“I don't totally agree with this discussion about the tyres. At the start of the 2023 season we were rookies and clearly we had to learn, but over the course of the season we grew a lot. At Fuji there was suffering, of course, but not in Bahrain and in the first race in Qatar there were no problems. We took the right direction and if the results didn't arrive it was because there were other negative factors.”
“In Qatar we made mistakes that brought us penalties, so maximizing the result means avoiding these things in the future, but the 499P was fine. These are team operations in general, we are Ferrari we must always aim for the maximum, we don't we can be satisfied with having a good average.”
#51 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
And speaking of BoP, for 2024 the data collection system has been implemented and revised, trying to find the right balance between the many manufacturers present in Hypercar, with also new tracks that will have to be discovered by the majority of the protagonists.
“We always collaborate with the FIA, who asked us to carry out some tests in this sense which we have completed. The data was provided, but we had no further answers. In any case, there are many things we need to do on our car and we can't waste too much time on things that aren't in our hands. We'll see what happens in the future.”
For the future, at Ferrari there has often been talk of waiting to introduce updates to the 499P by spending tokens, because a prototype as complicated as an LMH requires time to be fully discovered, in order to bring out its maximum potential.
“Last year we had the opportunity to see the car in the round on various types of different circuits, which was very interesting, also to understand its behavior on tracks with fast corners or slow variants.”
“Currently we have a pretty clear idea of what our strengths and weaknesses are, we need to continue the analyzes and work to improve what isn't working. We hope to see the results from here on out, there is still something to understand and I think that for the moment we have reached 80% of the knowledge of the machine.”
“For example, Imola is a very particular track that was not on the calendar last year, so the data collected will then be reviewed and analyzed in the following weeks, with the hope of being able to fill that 20% of knowledge that we are missing.”
“Sometimes this percentage includes procedures that we can carry out better, furthermore continuing to ride on new tracks, like Imola itself for example, allows us to collect data that we have never been able to have even from the past. When you are new, the road It's always uphill at first and there's a lot to do.”
“We have never been to Austin and Sao Paulo either, we hope to be able to find a stability that will allow us to work with more tools. At COTA we will find many bumps that will affect the performance of the car, in Brazil there is a particular altitude and we know how cars and engines will react.”
“In Austin we will probably organize a test before the race so we can get an idea of what we will find in the race, while in Interlagos we won't be able to go before, and there it will become another challenge to prepare the event on the simulator because some things they cannot be replicated perfectly.”
“The F1 department has the design of the track, which is the same as ours, but it is clearly a different approach, so it will be a simulation to be built on the 499P”.
#50 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina, Nicklas Nielsen
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
In addition to knowledge of the car, Ferrari AF Corse has worked hard to have stability and an organization that allows the same approach from all those involved in the project, with the mentality that requires a commitment like that of the WEC.
“It's a very long process, in the winter we continued to work to improve and grow, also from the point of view of communications between us, understanding the roles that could be covered based on one's abilities and preferences. Personally, I am very happy with the team, of a high level and professional, but at Ferrari the approach must always be to aim high.”
“The mentality hasn't actually changed, but what is different is the greater and better knowledge of the car. When we did the tests there was confidence, but in the race the aspects linked to reliability changed, which obviously made us a little I was worried not having many km behind me.”
“Now we know what to do even in a 24 Hours and we are more confident in general, so I would say that the approach will not change, but there is always something to improve and we are aware of this.”
After the success of 2023, it is clear that the wait for the next 24 Hours of Le Mans is becoming increasingly frantic among fans and enthusiasts. And also in Ferrari, which is obviously burdened with the burden of having to defend the sensational and historic triumph of last year.
“This year there are more rivals, but we must not forget that in 2023 Porsche and Cadillac were also very fast and could compete for success in addition to us and Toyota. Peugeot was also in the lead during the night, so it is true that we are in many now, but we have already seen that anyone could fight.”
“I'm really curious to go to Le Mans and see what will happen, in 2023 we won as rookies, despite the usual pressure that Ferrari brings with it, now I want to see how we will work given that some procedures have now been learned”.
“And then there won't be systems to pre-heat the tyres, another rather complicated aspect to manage, even if I think everyone has learned how to do it by now. I hope there aren't any problems because it's never nice to see a car end up off the track in conditions we saw last year.”
#83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Robert Kubica, Robert Shwartzman, Yifei Ye
Photo by: Paolo Belletti
Finally Salvi also underlined the importance of having a third car on the grid, which although managed privately by AF Corse guarantees a new introduction of impressions from the three drivers (Yifei Ye/Robert Kubica/Robert Shwartzman), as well as valuable data.
“It is a separate organisation, but with maximum support from Maranello. Obviously we know the car well and we provide the data to AF Corse to manage it as best as possible, without forgetting that two official Ferrari drivers like Yifei and 'Shwartzy' drive it , so we want to see how they approach this adventure.”
“Ye had already raced in the WEC and knows some things well, Shwartzman doesn't and so it becomes very interesting and nice to see them in action. The approach is different and so is their riding style. And then there's Kubica who I've known for 20 years, for me he is much more than a driver and if we think about his history, with everything he has won and done even after F1, we just have to take our hats off.”
To conclude, there is also the very 'romantic' and parochial aspect of seeing both Imola and Monza on the same WEC calendar, as happens in F1; a fact that is unlikely to be possible, at least in the immediate future, but which costs nothing to dream about.
“Certainly racing in Monza and Imola has a special flavour, Mugello would be equally beautiful, but I think the championship is excellent. When you go on the grid with so many important brands it makes you understand that we are in a new golden era of endurance racing , from an enthusiast's point of view it is wonderful”, concludes Salvi.
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