Ferrari Insists “Game is Not Over” For Title Defense

Ferrari insists “the game is not over” in terms of successfully defending its FIA World Endurance Championship Hypercar titles this season and enters this weekend’s Lone Star Le Mans contest with “high expectations.”

The Italian manufacturer was all-conquering in the WEC in 2025 as it secured both the drivers’ and manufacturers’ titles, but this season has proven to be a trickier task for the Ferrari 499P, which is yet to win a race this year.

Ferrari currently sits third in the Hypercar manufacturers’ table — 44 points behind Toyota — while the No. 51 crew of Antonio Giovinazzi, James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi are fourth in the drivers’ standings, 18 points off the summit having taken two second-place finishes.

Despite the deficit and all of the remaining races being over six hours rather than the originally planned extra points on offer in Qatar and Bahrain, Ferrari’s chief designer and governance’s relations manager Mauro Barbieri is still optimistic of fighting for the titles after its key rivals had tough races in Brazil last time out.

“The gap is big but already in Sao Paulo we gained quite a good chunk of points on the leaders so it’s just about continuing to do like that and scoring good points and ending up in front of the cars that are in front of us in the standings,” he said.

Barbieri feels Circuit of The Americas suits the characteristics of the 499P, which won in Austin in the dry in 2024 and was runner-up in the wet last year.

This has been reflected in the practice results so far with Giovinazzi heading a Ferrari 1-2 in the opening session before the No. 83 Ferrari of Robert Kubica was then fifth quickest in FP2.

“There are high hopes and expectations because it’s a track where our car has always worked well,” Barbieri added. “It’s up to us to do the proper job and fulfill these expectations.”

Barbieri’s optimistic assessment was echoed by Calado, who reiterated that Ferrari is still very much part of the title equation.

“We start the second half of the season with positivity,” he said. “We feel upbeat and we’re going to try to push these guys all the way to try and get the maximum result at the end.”

Barbieri added that the hot temperatures expected this weekend are likely to play into Ferrari’s hands.

“I think one of the steps we made as a team during all of these years is learning how to manage the tires to limit the degradation,” he said.

“I would say this can be one of the strong points of our package, so maybe hotter temperatures can be a help on our side and can be more of a challenge for some of our competitors.”

He explained that this could open up more strategy options for Ferrari and enable it to use the softer of the two tire compounds available, while Calado cautioned that a reduction in the energy permitted for each stint could make the race “spicy” and not “straightforward.”

Looking ahead to the remaining rounds, while Fuji has not always been Ferrari’s happiest hunting ground, Barbieri said he’s feeling positive about the addition of Barcelona and Monza to the schedule.

“In Monza we hope we will have an extra push coming from the stands, coming from the tifosi,” he said.

“Barcelona we were testing a few times so it’s a track we know — we’re not too disappointed with the remaining tracks but to say we expect to win there would be too arrogant.”

Despite the No. 50 crew of Antonio Fuoco, Miguel Molina and Nicklas Nielsen languishing 11th in the drivers’ standings, 46 points adrift of the lead, Barbieri insisted it was too early for Ferrari to start favoring one car.

“I think we can still reach the manufacturers’ championship and to start already considering one of the two cars as a helper and not a competitor is not the right mindset,” he said.

“Both crews deserve their chance to fight for it until the end and we will see at the next events if the situation is getting much more clear or much more defined.”