Ferrari Must “Take the Positive” Despite Missing Double Podium

Ferrari’s GT and sports cars race and testing manager assessed that the factory AF Corse team must “take the positive” from its second place at the 6 Hours of Portimao despite missing out on a potential double podium due to a braking issue on one car.

Miguel Molina, Nicklas Nielsen and Antonio Fuoco improved on their third position at the 1000 Miles of Sebring by finishing second in the 6 Hours of Portimao.

Ferrari AF Corse was poised to have both of its Ferrari 499Ps on the podium at the second round of the FIA World Endurance Championship season after the No. 7 Toyota GR010 Hybrid fell from second place due to a torque sensor-based driveshaft change.

However, the No. 51 car driven by Antonio Giovinazzi, James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi lost third when it encountered problems with its brake-by-wire system.

The issues, which started in the third hour and were managed until the end of the race, enabled Porsche Penske Motorsport to claim its first Hypercar podium.

“We were on a conservative approach to try to finish the race with both cars,” said Salvi.

“Then we would have been on the podium [twice] without this issue. It would have been second and third, which would have been an exceptional result.

“Unfortunately, we couldn’t do that, but we need to take the positive of the second position of car No. 50 and try to fix the reliability issue.”

Salvi explained that the No. 51 car experienced an unexpected rise in brake temperature prompted Ferrari to deactivate the brake-by-wire system.

“We made the hydraulic system work more to try to recover the part that the brake-by-wire was not doing,” he said.

“We were trying to work with what we had available in the car. Obviously the effort was moved to the brakes, and this was clearly seen in the pit stops [with visible brake dust].”

The issue caused Giovanizzi to lose pace, setting him into the clutches of Porsche driver Kevin Estre who overtook the Italian for third with two and a half hours to go.

Later in the race, Pier Guidi ran deep into the Turn 5 run-off after having trouble in the braking zone for the hairpin. The reigning GTE-Pro champion reached the checkered flag in sixth.

“Sebring was a clean race in terms of reliability, unfortunately we had a problem with the braking system on car No. 51,” said Salvi.

“That is why from the third stint we had to manage [it].

“Honestly, it was really tough. At the time, we were not sure if there was any chance to finish the race. But the team worked really well, because we used all the strategy and recovery systems. We worked really well as a group.

“At the end, Alessandro was really at the limit with the brakes and it was not his mistake.”

Ferrari Took “Opposite Approach” to Sebring

Hypercar newcomer Ferrari took a different approach to tire management during its second race appearance at Portimao after struggling in that department at Sebring.

Both cars completed the race only using Michelin’s hardest Hypercar compound, the medium, which was part of a target to have more consistent pace during stints.

“We tried not to have any kind of cliff or give up on the tires,” Salvi said.

“We tried to take a completely opposite approach to have no-deg. In hindsight, maybe we need to understand… we went on the other side.

“Every time we put the car on the ground, we learn something. In Sebring we were probably not nursing the tire enough. Here, we probably could have pushed more during the race.

“We were trying to cure the front-left corner which is quite critical.

“At the end of the day, we could have pushed a bit more. For sure there is quite a lot on the systems that we still need to improve.

Assessing Ferrari’s competitiveness, Salvi offered: “Second place is a great result. We are not at their [Toyota’s] level, but we know that we need to learn and improve the car.

“The car is really young. It’s another step closer compared to Sebring.”