Ferrari will continue with an unchanged Hypercar class driver line-up in next year’s World Endurance Championship.
Antonello Coletta, Ferrari’s head of sportscar racing, confirmed on Sunday that the #50 499P Le Mans Hypercar will be raced in 2025 by Antonio Fuoco, Nicklas Nielsen and Miguel Molina and #51 by James Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Antonio Giovinazzi for a third consecutive season.
The announcement made at the Ferrari World Finals for its one-make challenge series at Imola followed news announced on Saturday that Fuoco and Molina had renewed their factory contracts for next year.
Calado and Pier Guidi were granted contract extensions this time last year.
Coletta explained that there was no reason to make changes to the driver roster for the third campaign by the factory AF Corse team in the WEC.
“It is confirmed: #50 and #51 will not change – we will have the same drivers,” he said. “The #50 and #51 will be exactly the same.
#51 Ferrari AF Corse Ferrari 499P: Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado, Antonio Giovinazzi
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
“We are happy with the line-ups: we have won with both at the Le Mans 24 Hours [with #51 in 2023 and #50 in ’24].”
Coletta stressed the importance of “consistency and continuity” in terms of the drivers on its Hypercar squad.
“When we started with the 499P and chose our GT pilots some people were not happy,” he continued.
“But even the sceptics have had to change their minds. All six 499P drivers have won Le Mans, which I think validates our choices.”
There has been no confirmation of the drivers for the #83 satellite entry run by AF Corse on a customer basis and driven this year by Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye and Robert Shwartzman
Coletta outlined a hope to “announce it just before the Bahrain race” [this year’s WEC final on 2 November.
He ruled out Arthur Leclerc, brother of Ferrari F1 driver Charles, racing the car next year, even though he is scheduled to test one of the 499Ps in the WEC rookie test at Bahrain the day after the season finale.
Coletta explained that the younger of the Leclerc brothers, who is listed as a development driver for the F1 team, still needed to learn about sportscar racing.
He was placed by Ferrari for this year in the endurance segment of the Italian GT Championship, which he is contesting alongside his LMP2 commitments in the European Le Mans Series with Panis Racing.
“Our goal is for Arthur to keep learning about endurance and then there might be the chance for him to catch an opportunity in one of our prototypes in the future,” said Coletta.
Davide Rigon, Alessio Rovera, Daniel Serra and Lilou Wadoux, who are all part of the Ferrari factory roster of GT3 drivers, have also had their contracts extended into next year.
Source : Motorsport.com