Calado: Fifth Place Finish for Ferrari “Like Winning the Lottery”

James Calado says that finishing fifth in this weekend’s 24 Hours of Le Mans would be “like winning the lottery” for Ferrari as it battles a lack of pace.

The Italian manufacturer has won each of the previous three editions of the race but the best of its trio of Ferrari 499Ps will line up in eighth place this year with Calado bemoaning a lack of straight-line speed.

He therefore believes the chances of Ferrari becoming just the second brand to have won four consecutive races in two separate spells at the Circuit de la Sarthe are slim.

“I think it’s going to be a matter of having a fresh car towards the end, no damage, no mistakes and aiming for a top-five,” said Calado.

“We’re missing a bit on the straights in the acceleration zones, that’s one thing we’re trying to improve, and a little bit of downforce.”

With Le Mans regulations forcing crews to field a different driver in each segment of the three-stage qualifying format, Calado made a rare Hyperpole appearance, but was left on the back foot having not completed a qualifying simulation during free practice.

He was therefore only able to post a 3:25.081 that was 2.5 seconds adrift of WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 pilot Dries Vanthoor’s ultimate pace and Calado reckoned he could have improved by a couple of places with another run.

“I was basically thrown in with no reference of what to do,” he said when asked by Sportscar365 about his qualifying performance.

“First time on new tires, first time on Softs, first time on low fuel and to be honest I didn’t want to crash, keep the car for the race, because I knew I didn’t have a chance.

“Another set of tires and it wouldn’t have been tenths, it would’ve been seconds [he would’ve improved by]. Not good enough for pole, but maybe good enough for P5 or P6.

“But quali doesn’t make a big difference in a 24-hour race, especially Le Mans, where you can overtake a bit easier than other tracks.”

However, Calado’s co-driver Antonio Giovinazzi reckoned the lack of speed could limit Ferrari’s chances of making much progress.

He said that Ferrari does benefit from the knowledge of what it takes to win at Le Mans, adding: “In the position we’re in now, we have less pressure than the others.

“We start P8, 12th and 16th so I think the pressure is more on the cars in front. BMW, Cadillac are for sure faster than us so on our side we just need to do our race.

“It will be difficult to overtake because in the straight line we’re not the fastest car so we need to just hope degradation on our side is better, in the night we can turn on the tires better than the others and if we have these things we can try to gain time and gain positions.”

Giovinazzi did concede that Ferrari would need to execute a “perfect” race in order to be in contention at the front, in terms of strategy, avoiding mistakes and not picking up any penalties.

Fellow Ferrari pilot Alessandro Pier Guidi reckoned it was important that none of the drivers push too hard in a bid to overcome the 499P’s limitations.

“Back in the day, I’ve already experienced some Le Mans with no pace and, from experience, when you try to compensate the lack of pace with being more aggressive, using more curb and like this, it’s not going to end well,” he said.

“In the end, you need to stay calm, do the job as you always do and take what you can. If you try to compensate what you don’t have, it doesn’t go well.”