Ferrari took wraps off its 2023 FIA World Endurance Championship competitor, the 499P Le Mans Hypercar, after months’ worth of teasing in testing and validation.
Drenched in the all-mighty Rosso Corsa Red with Giallo Modena yellow touches, the beautiful new 499P hypercar will mark the Scuderia’s return to the elite endurance racing class for the first time in 5 decades. The car is named in homage to the brand’s 312P race car, the last of the Prancing Horse’s appearance in endurance racing.
The hypercar, its running numbers #50 and #51, and its technical details have been made public, but the driver line-up is yet to be officially confirmed.
Powertrain of the Ferrari 499P:
The hybrid Ferrari 499P will be powered by a rear-mid-engined twin-turbo V6, similar to the 296 line-up but with output limited to a regulation-mandated 500kW (670hp), coupled to a seven-speed sequential gearbox. The hybrid system will also employ an electric motor on the front axle with a max power output of 200 kW (268hp). The front motor also gets a differential and is driven by a 900V electronics system with brake regen and an array of usual energy recovery shenanigans.
The other fundamentals, you wonder?
Chassis: All-new carbon-fibre monocoque, of course.
Suspension: a new double wishbone, push-rod-type suspension that Ferrari says gives them “outstanding qualities of damping stiffness”. The Scarlet Scuderia have gone for a carbon-fibre skin covering the various parts of the car, leaving the wheels and suspension completely visible.
Aerodynamics: The tail end of the 499P gets a distinctive double horizontal wing setup, with the lower wing also featuring a ‘light bar’ that, to put simply, just looks pretty darn cool! The body is also sculpted out of a flat surface as Ferrari says, with characteristic wheel arches to relieve static pressure from wheel-wells.
Team: The new Ferrari 499P will be run in collaboration with the very successful AF Corse team from the GT classes of endurance racing. The vast majority of GT successes in recent years have been the result of the partnership between Ferrari and AF Corse, including all those achieved in WEC since its inception in 2012.
The 2023 WEC season will surely be one to look forward to in ages, with the new hypercar class coming all the more alive with big names as Ferrari, Peugeot, and even Porsche joining the likes of titanic constructors such as Toyota and Glickenhaus.
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