Ferrari: WEC Hypercar World Championship Was “Final Target”

Photo: Julien Delfosse/DPPI

Winning the Hypercar world drivers and manufacturers’ championships was the “final target” for Ferrari according to its head of track operations Giuliano Salvi, who hailed Saturday’s triumph as “something incredible.”

The Prancing Horse claimed its first top-level title in world championship sports car racing since 1972, and ended the FIA World Endurance Championship season with a sweep of the top three positions in the drivers’ world championship standings after a strategic run in the season-ending 8 Hours of Bahrain.

While the No. 50 Ferrari 499P of Antonio Fucoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen crossed the line third, after a late-race exchange between the two works cars, it was the fourth-placed No. 51 crew of James Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Antonio Giovinazzi that were crowned drivers’ world champions.

It came in a season that saw Ferrari claim four wins in the eight-race campaign, including its third consecutive overall victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

“I’ve never seen this kind of championship,” said Salvi, who was born in 1972. “I’ve been with Ferrari for 25 years. Being in F1, we had an incredible joys but we were missing this great result.

“We built up a multi-year project. But honestly it was incredible how we stepped up every season, always [upping] our target more and more.

“It was great from the first Le Mans in 2023, and then repeating every year. Then there was this final target.

“For sure, for everybody that spend all their life inside the factory, all the personnel, it’s something incredible.

“We are really extremely proud to have achieved that.”

Calado, who along with long-time co-driver Pier Guidi, earned their fourth WEC world championship, after three previous titles in GTE-Pro competition, the top-class triumph came as a career-defining achievement.

“Since we started in Sebring in ’23 to now, you can’t imagine the improvements and the effort that has been put into this whole program to get us to where we are today,” said Calado.

“To become manufacturer’s champions and drivers champions… just shows our strength.

“We never gave up. It was definitely a tricky second half of the season but today we executed perfectly as a team.”

The Briton, who recently signed a long-term contract extension with Ferrari, admitted they focused on bringing home both titles in the race, which was won by Toyota in a 1-2 result.

“You have a different mindset when you have everything to lose,” said Calado. “You start to think of things which you shouldn’t. You start to hear funny noises and vibrations.

“After the years of experience, I expected that going into this weekend.

“I think we all kept really calm. We kept out of trouble. That was the key: no mistakes, perfect pit stops and no penalties.

“The reward was there for that. It was a tricky race; we weren’t necessarily the quickest but we were there.”

Giovinazzi, who earned his first world championship, added: “The hardest part of the race was the first part. At the start I didn’t want to take any risks. I didn’t gain so much; I think I stayed in the same position.

“I just was patient with the tires. My pace was better at the end of the stint when I gained a position.

“It was a good first few stints but all together we did a fantastic job with the strategy as well.

“Our priority was to stay in front of our main competitors, which was Porsche and Cadillac. We had our eyes on the 83 [Ferrari] as well.

“Everything was perfect today with no mistakes at all.”

Pier Guidi, meanwhile, admitted being an top-class world champion is “quite different” to his and Calado’s previous WEC class titles in the production-based ranks.

“We worked really hard to be here,” he said. “We worked very hard to improve everything and that’s why we’re here.

“It’s something amazing. Being a Hypercar world champion is something that I couldn’t believe yet. It will take a little bit of time, maybe I will go to sleep and wake up understanding that it will be real.

“To be manufacturer’s world champion is something great. It’s been a long time Ferrari achieved this result; actually because we were not participating [at this level].

“I want to underline a big thank you to the red guys.”

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John