Ferrari Are Testing the 499P Like Mad As They Chase A WEC Title(s)

The 2025 WEC season kicks off next week in the desert of Qatar and there are plenty of storylines for all teams, drivers and manufacturers that have visions of achieving glory in the new year in the form of world championships.

Ferrari, winners of the last two Le Mans, are fiending for more success as an operation, and normally posting back-to-back triumphs at arguably the most legendary race in the world would satisfy any program...but not the Italian Stallions.

In an article posted to dailysportscar.com, Ferdinando Cannizzo - the head of endurance racing at Ferrari - revealed that the team have put in HOOOOURRRSSSSSSSSS of testing, development and fine-tuning this offseason in order to bring the best possible version of the 499P to track in 2025. Cannizzo also confirmed that even with all of the tweaks and updates they've made to the car these last few months, Ferrari have not yet implemented a Joker EVO update. There are "several modifications under the skin," as Cannizzo puts it, that address reliability and performance areas such as aero, tyre wear and overall potential of the car. 

The article stats that in just over 16 days, AF Corse have logged over 9,000 miles on track testing the car and it's new reliability improvements as they've raced almost all day, day after day, from 8am to midnight, doing their best to perfect the 499P before things kick off next weekend.

Ferrari's triumphs at Le Mans are obviously great achievements, but the Prancing Horse People are intensely focused on challenging for both a Drivers' and Manufacturers' title moving forward and not *just* challenging for Le Mans each time out and being satisfied with it. Things were solid for the No. 50 and No. 51 last season but things things fell apart at the end - whether it was the No. 51 rounding their season out with back-to-back retirements at COTA and Fuji before struggling to come out with a shocking P14 in Bahrain, while the No. 50 was infamously booted to the back of the pack after a post-race technical failure wiped out their original P2 finish in the season finale. In reality their chances were dumped underneath a two-ton rock when they finished P9 in Fuji and the No. 6 Porsche Penske of Kevin Estre, Andre Lotterer and Laurens Vanthoor secured victory, setting up the need for something truly miraculous to go down in the desert for the Drivers' title to changes hands at the last minute. Alas, a final P10 finish by Porsche carried no consequence due to the fact that the No. 50 delivered a dud in the form of a P11 result. 

The No. 83 privateer effort was dealing at the business end of Le Mans before a brake system failure knocked them out of contention, and for those guys they finished in 3rd in the World Cup battle with other customer-backed teams, as both Hertz Team Jota Porsche's claimed P1 and P2 in the standings.

At the end of the day, a lot of what plagued Ferrari in 2024 can be chalked up to 'Well that's racing,' but they aren't taking anything lightly for 2025. They want to improve the 499P wherever they can find an inch in order to challenge for some of the serious hardware in the new year. You know Toyota aren't going anywhere with their amazing consistency and racing pedigree, and PPM will be back to defend their Drivers' title and fight for the Manufacturers' crown with a re-tooled driver lineup. If Ferrari are to return to the top of the mountain in either category it will not come easy and it will be absolutely fascinating to see how it all shakes down, and that is all without considering the 'mid-table' teams in BMW, Cadillac and Peugeot - can either of those guys string together consistent results and throw themselves into the mix? 

We can hardly wait for it all to happen.  

(photoa via TopGear.com)