Ferrari has ruled out expanding its 499P Le Mans Hypercar program to the IMSA SportsCar Championship next yr.
The Italian manufacturer has unveiled a plan for 2025 that doesn’t include the North American series, where the 499P could compete within the GTP class, and as a substitute focuses on the Endurance World Championship, also with three cars within the Hypercar class.
Ferrari's sportscar racing boss Antonello Coletta told Motorsport.com that the brand “prefers to consolidate [its] programme” somewhat than expanding it to a second front within the third season of competition for two-time Le Mans 24 Hours winners LMH.
“Next year we will only participate in the WEC, not in IMSA – now we are focusing on the WEC with three cars,” he said.
This implies that the 2 factory 499P cars will probably be fielded by AF Corse within the Hypercar class, while the brand new 2024 model, also fielded by AF, will compete within the FIA ​​Endurance Trophy for hypercar teams somewhat than manufacturer points.
Coletta said the attack within the yellow Ferrari, raced this yr by Robert Kubica and factory drivers Yifei Ye and Robert Shwartzman, would proceed “unless some surprises come up”.
#83 AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Robert Kubica, Robert Shwartzman, Yifei Ye
Photo: JEP / Motorsports images
Coletta has spoken openly about his desire to race the 499P within the US, a key marketplace for Ferrari.
Giuseppe Risi, a long-time American sports automobile racer whose namesake team currently races a Ferrari 296 GT3 within the IMSA GTD Pro enduro class, has made no secret of his desire to return to the prototype ranks with the brand he represented for greater than 1 / 4 of a century.
“We don’t have a plan to go to America right now, but it’s not impossible in the future,” Coletta continued. “We have to take the time to develop our business in any way we can.”
Ferrari most recently competed within the premier class of North American sports automobile racing with the 333SP, built to IMSA World Sports Car regulations.
The team competed from 1994 to 2003, taking one win on the 24 Hours of Daytona and three on the 12 Hours of Sebring.
