AF Corse: Third 499P Effort ‘Separate Entity’ to Factory Cars

Ferrari’s third 499P Hypercar will be treated as a “separate entity” from the pair of factory entries in the FIA World Endurance Championship this season according to AF Corse team manager Batti Pregliasco.

The Prancing Horse is set to be represented by a third car in WEC’s top class, with AF Corse entering the No. 83 499P for Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye and Robert Shwartzman.

This means that the Amato Ferrari-led stable will be running three full season entries for the car’s second year, already joining the pair of factory cars that debuted last year and most notably beat Toyota to overall victory in the centenary edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

AF Corse team manager Pregliasco outlined to reporters during a pre-season media call how the No. 83 car will be separated from the Ferrari AF Corse works entries.

“First of all, it’s competing in another championship,” Pregliasco said.

“So, it’s the World Cup instead of the World Championship. So it’s competing against JOTA and Proton.

“Of course, the car will be the same and there will be the support of the factory for the power unit and the hybrid car, [the] hybrid systems.

“The rest will be managed by AF Corse with two factory drivers from Ferrari and one AF Corse driver that you will know, Robert Kubica.

“Yifei Ye and Schwartzman are the factory drivers that [were] chosen by Ferrari and given to us, to AF Corse, and Kubica is the AF Corse driver.”

Pregliasco’s opening remarks are in reference to article 3.2.3. of WEC’s sporting regulations, which states that “as soon as two cars from the same manufacturer are entered, then the additional cars must be entered in the Hypercar Team World Cup.”

This is in contrast to the two factory entries, which like all other works teams in the top class, compete in the Hypercar FIA World Endurance Championship.

Pregliasco further outlined that steps will be taken to ensure a certain degree of separation between the two factory entries and the customer operation, stressing that the two will be treated as “separate entities.”

“You say AF Corse, but one is a licensed Ferrari AF Corse and one is AF Corse,” he said.

“It’s two separate entities. Yes, for sure, one is Ferrari-backed completely, so there will be two different hotels. [There] is some things that will be managed completely differently.

“Some things in joint venture like for the engine, for the hybrid system, something that we can not managed like AF Corse alone. That’s something that we can do, as we did in the past for the GT, for the P2, for other cars.”

Ferrari Undecided on No. 51 Race Engineer After Taylor Departure

As AF Corse gears up for its second season in the Hypercar category, it still has some significant vacancies to fill on the pit wall, especially amidst the departure of one of the key architects behind its 2023 success.

Justin Taylor, who served as the race engineer on the Le Mans-winning No. 51 car piloted by Alessandro Pier Guidi, James Calado and Antonio Giovinazzi, departed Ferrari in favor of a new role with Chip Ganassi Racing and the Cadillac LMDh program.

The American engineer joined the Prancing Horse after working for AJ Foyt Racing in the NTT IndyCar Series and had extensive sports car racing experience prior to his Ferrari move from time spent with the Audi and Rebellion LMP1 programs as well as the Mazda DPi efforts.

Pregliasco admitted Ferrari now has two race engineer positions to fill as Taylor’s replacement, as well as the engineer for the customer Hypercar, remain yet to be decided. Damien Augier is continuing in his capacity as engineer for the No. 50 car.

“Honestly, we are still deciding,” Pregliasco said.

“The 50 will be the same as last year and the other two are still on hold. We are going to test the next days. And maybe the decision will be done during these days.”

CGR team manager Stephen Mitas shed some light on Taylor’s new role at CGR, indicating that his involvements in WEC operations is likely to be fairly minimal.

“The plan is that he will join the IMSA team at CGR and he will be taking the responsibility of race engineering,” Mitas said.

“Obviously, he’ll be collaborating with the WEC team and his input is highly welcome, but he’ll be primarily responsible for the IMSA race engineering.”