Ferrari plans to release Le Mans Hypercar in June
Ferrari is planning to roll out it’s new Le Mans Hypercar at its private Fiorano test track in June, as well as carry out extensive testing ahead of the start of the 2023 World Endurance Championship, according to its sportscar racing chief Antonello Coletta.
Render: Sean Bull
Ferrari has previously dominated the top class of the Le Mans 24 Hours race, with its last and ninth triumph coming in 1965. However, this will be the first sportscar prototype by the manufacturer since the Ferrari 333 SP, which raced between 1994 and 2003 but didn't prove successful at Le Mans.
The development of the new hypercar is being run by AF Corse, and the new 296 GT3 is currently under construction at Oreca.
Coletta told Autosport, "We will start [testing] with the new hypercar I hope in June, or July, and the new GT3 car on more or less the first day of April, and these activities will be very important to make a base for the future. We will start in our track in Fiorano - because it's tradition and takes minimum effort to open the doors, start the engine and go - I can just open my office window and watch!"
He mentioned that the new LMH rules will produce “a great car”. Ferrari will return to the top class alongside Toyota and Peugeot, rather than the lower-cost LMDh course taken by Audi, BMW and Porsche based on the LMP2 chassis.
"When Ferrari chose to be involved in the top class, it just had to be in Le Mans Hypercar," Coletta says, "Ferrari has made all the cars in its history, so no choice really, this is our philosophy. I can say our project is going ahead very fast. It's very complicated, because the LMH is more complicated than the LMDh, but this is what we have chosen."
“When we compete in a category, it is normal that the car has to be all Ferrari, the entire project is under the control of our technical staff. It will be a good car, a fast car, a great car and – with all the cars involved in this category – I believe the styling will be very different between them.
"I think it's important for the fans to understand very easily what is a Ferrari, this is a Peugeot, this is a Toyota… In the past, it was difficult to understand the differences between such similar cars.
“For us, the most important anniversary for us is that 2023 is 50 years since we last raced in prototypes, the best and most important category.”
Unfortunately, no informations will be disclosed regarding the engine specification of the four-wheel drive Ferrari LMH, we’ll have to wait until the launching of the car later this year.
Back in February 2021, Ferrari announced its return to top-level prototype racing in 2023 with the prestigious FIA World Endurance Championship’s new Hypercar class. This is an opportunity for Ferrari to be back at the forefront of sportscars and increase its racing activities.