Ferrari: Customer 499Ps ‘More Complex’ Than Expected

Ferrari has yet to make a decision on whether it will sell the 499P to customer teams, with the head of the company’s Competizione GT department stating that a customer program is ‘too complex’ for the near future.

Alessandra Todeschini stated at the car’s launch last October that Ferrari would take “one year to evaluate” the viability of supplying the 499P to customer outfits.

At the time, it was understood that there was significant interest in Ferrari’s first in-house top-class prototype in 50 years.

Longtime U.S. based Ferrari privateer Risi Competizione notably expressed interest, stating at last year’s Motul Petit Le Mans that his team was “exploring options” to run the 499P.

Team principal Giuseppe Risi was on-site at last weekend’s FIA World Endurance Championship round at Monza, where Todeschini explained that selling the 499P to customers has proven more complicated than initially expected.

“At this stage, I can tell you, we just realized that it’s so complex at the moment that there is not such a solution,” she said.

“It’s too complex to handle the whole thing. So we’d rather wait and see. It will certainly not [be] in the near future.

“It’s a consideration to take into account so many elements that we don’t want to sacrifice or lose the effort into many other fields and other teams.”

While admitting the extent of the challenges, Todeschini was careful not to explicitly rule out the prospect of a customer program at some stage.

“I’m not saying no,” she said. “I’m saying that as I was saying in October, that we should have seen how would have been the behavior, everything, the operation, the performance, everything.

“We could have taken a decision in the direction of selling the car. That decision for the moment is not taken because it’s too complex.

“We haven’t sorted out the complexity. It’s not so simple or simplified to the extent that we can go do and think, let’s do other chassis, let’s sell to other teams.”

Todeschini said the difficulty lies in both the production of additional chassis for customer use, as well as the particular complexities of the twin-turbo V6-powered hybrid Le Mans Hypercar itself.

The car is only in its debut season as part of Ferrari AF Corse’s factory Hypercar class program, which has been highlighted by victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

“I would say both,” said Todeschini. “We’re still in the process. This is why with the due respect and the humility, we don’t think we are already up to a complete standard.

“And not yet, that can become a no at the end of the day, but it’s not a no. But at this stage it’s not yet.”