Ferrari is planning a radical overhaul of its triple Le Mans 24 Hour-winning 499P Le Mans Hypercar for subsequent yr’s World Endurance Championship.
The Italian producer may invoke three or all 4 of the remaining evo joker efficiency upgrades allowed earlier than the top of 2027 in time for the brand new season.
Ferdinando Cannizzo, technical boss of Ferrari’s endurance racing programmes, defined that the plan is to make use of “three or 4” jokers on the automobile launched in 2023 throughout the marque’s first press name of Le Mans week on Wednesday.
“I assume round three,” he stated when requested to make clear the quantity by Motorsport.com. “But it surely may very well be 4 relying on the interpretation.”
A number of updates coated by one chapter of the technical rules in principle depend solely as a single joker. A producer competing within the Hypercar division of the WEC wants the permission of the dual governing our bodies of the sequence, the FIA and the Car Membership de l’Ouest, to introduce jokers.
Cannizzo confirmed that discussions concerning the future developments of the 499P had been already underway with the sequence governance and that he was assured they may get the sign-off for 2027.
He wouldn’t reveal which areas of the automobile the jokers will concentrate on: “We are going to resolve to deal with totally different areas of the automobile in an built-in means, which is similar as once we conceived the automobile.”
Ferdinando Cannizzo, Ferrari Head of Endurance Race Vehicles
Picture by: Davide Cavazza
Taking all, or the bulk, of the jokers for subsequent yr is sensible for Ferrari, as a result of in any other case it will lose them. Every LMH and LMDh is allowed 5 evo jokers over its preliminary lifespan after which an extra pair over the course of the two-year extension to the present rulesets via to the top of the 2029 season.
The one joker utilized by Ferrari to date was launched for the Interlagos spherical of the WEC in July 2024 and focussed on brake cooling.
Ferrari has all the time insisted that it selected to not introduce any jokers for 2026 slightly than was prevented from doing so by the rule makers. That got here after its domination of the opening races of final yr’s marketing campaign, which culminated in it successful each the drivers’ and producers’ titles.
Cannizzo stated that quite a lot of what he described as “variables” this yr resulted on this choice. These included the brand new vary of Michelin slick tyres, incorporating 50% sustainable supplies, that got here on stream at the beginning of the yr.
However he defined that the features to be made with the automobile because it stands had been turning into ever smaller: “In some unspecified time in the future when you find yourself engaged on extracting extra efficiency, you attain a restrict and you have to make adjustments.”
Cannizzo confused that the developments for 2029 can be primarily based on the present homologation and that Ferrari just isn’t planning an all-new automobile.
That is an alternative choice open to producers: a second homologation is allowed over the lifecycle of the foundations. Minor aero adjustments have been made to the 499P for 2026 because of the rehomologation of your entire Hypercar grid.
All vehicles had been examined within the Windshear windtunnel within the USA and needed to match right into a subtly refined aerodynamic efficiency window laid down within the rules.
Learn Additionally:
We would like your opinion!
What would you prefer to see on Motorsport.com?
– The Motorsport.com Group
