Ferrari to return to 24 Hours Of Le Mans this month

MANILA: Ferrari will return to the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans a year after achieving its tenth overall victory during the 2023 edition of what is dubbed the world’s oldest endurance race. 

According to the Maranello-based company, its continued participation in the race at La Sarthe Circuit in France is akin to tradition. As such, it will join the 2024 Le Mans grid on June 15, 2024. 

Italy’s Prancing Horse will fight for victory at the upcoming Endurance racing event with two 499P units. Of note, the Ferrari 499P is the marque’s entry to the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC) 2024, which the Le Mans event is a part of. 

Moreover, the 24 Hours of Le Mans is worth a considerable 50 points for the FIA WEC. On that note, the supercar maker says the red-liveried 499P hypercars will challenge the France-based race to show the world the Italian brand’s potency in motorsports. 

The official Ferrari team competing at the FIA WEC is AF Corse. Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina, and Nicklas Nielsen are piloting the team’s number 50 car at the 13-kilometer-long French race track in the French province of Maine. 

On the other hand, 2023 24 Hours of Le Mans winners Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, and Antonio Giovinazzi will be driving the team’s number 51 499P race car. 

For the 2024 edition of the FIA-sanctioned endurance race in France, AF Corse will also field a third car, which will race under the number 83. It will be crewed by the Italian supercar manufacturer’s official drivers, Yifei Ye, Robert Schwartman, and Robert Kubica. 

At the moment, Ferrari is 34 points behind the leader of the 2024 WEC standings for the manufacturer’s championships. Fuoco, Molina, and Nielsen currently hold 40 points for individual driver standings and are in fifth place. The three racers achieved the latter after a podium finish at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium and a pole position at Imola in Italy this season. 

AF Corse is likewise in second place in the standings for the independent FIA World Cup for Hypercar teams. The Italy-based team is a mere 11 points off the top thanks to its win, as mentioned above, at Imola and two podium finishes in Qatar and Belgium.

Of note, fans of the Italian luxury sports car brand can join in on the racing action at Le Mans as Ferrari’s official YouTube channel will stream in-cockpit views of its 499P cars during the race. The Ferrari Museum in the brand’s hometown of Maranello will also hold special events, which will be live-streamed from June 14 to June 15. 

Photos from Ferrari

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