Many of us associate Ferrari with great-handling and great-sounding road cars, but remember that Enzo Ferrari couldn’t care less about this side of the business. Il Commendatore started making road cars to support his company’s motorsport division, which is hungrier than ever for victory.
The Prancing Horse of Maranello has 16 constructors’ championships to its name in Formula 1, the last one dating back to 2008 when Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa were driving for Scuderia Ferrari. The drought is even worse in terms of endurance racing. The 1965 edition would become Scuderia Ferrari’s last victory at the grueling 24 Hours of Le Mans, right before the Ford Motor Company went all out with their GT40 program.
Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz are doing a fine job in Formula 1 for the Italian team, and the F1-75 is up there with the Red Bulls in many aspects. Had the strategy engineers made fewer mistakes and had Sainz been more consistent, Ferrari would’ve been #1 in the constructors’ championship right now. Given time, it’s likely for the Scuderia to clean up its act.
As for endurance racing, the Italians are taking their 2023 entry into the LMH category as seriously as it gets. As opposed to LMDh prototypes, which are capped at €1,000,000 without the internal combustion engine, there is no budget limit to LMH prototypes. Be that as it may, there will be a Balance of Performance that’s designed to level out the playing field.
Spied by carparazzo Varryx at Fiorano, the yet-unnamed Le Mans Hypercar sounds as well as it looks. A downforce monster that corners like it’s on rails, the prototype will make its competitive debut in March 2023.
Ferrari still is coy on the finest of details, but we do know that it’s an all-wheel-drive hybrid. It’s also worth mentioning that Ferrari has designed its own powerplant, transmission, chassis, suspension, and electronics.
“This is a very exciting moment,” declared Antonello Coletta, the head honcho of Ferrari Attivita Sportive GT. “We are proud of what we have achieved, and although the LMH’s masking during testing hides the car’s volumes and styling, I think it is undeniably recognizable as a Ferrari.”
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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