Le Mans Prototype: Mission Impossible for Ferrari!

Following the agreement between the FIA and the FOTA last week, Le Mans fans will no longer have the opportunity to watch a Ferrari works prototype during next year's famous 24-hour endurance race. The idea was exaggerated to begin with, but might have been picked on by the Ferrari officials if the Formula One teams hadn't come to a conclusion with the ruling body.

Not far from a few weeks ago, Le Mans was considered a good place for Ferrari to take its business, if deciding to pull out of F1. Today, however, sustaining such a project in parallel with the Italian marque's Formula One operations would be close to impossible.

Luca di Montezemolo was the first to confirm it, although it was himself that promoted the idea that Ferrari might turn to Le Mans in future years. The company's CEO was official starter of this year's Le Mans 24 Hours race, while joined at the French event by F1's team principal Stefano Domenicali.

“To race at Le Mans you have to concentrate for many, many months to prepare, to test and develop a car, and I think this today is quite impossible to do at the same time as racing at the maximum level in F1,” revealed Di Montezemolo.

Ferrari's last win in the Le Mans 24 Hours race as a works team dates back to 1965, when Luigi Chinetti's North American Racing Team (NART) took the chequered flag in a Ferrari 250 LM. Four years later, Enzo Ferrari decided to withdraw his team from sports car racing and focus only on Formula One, with the Italian company continuing to provide cars for privateers in the following years.