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Ferrari to Start Next Season With Current-Spec 499P

Ferrari management outlines further development timeline for 499P LMH car…

Photo: Julien Delfosse / DPPI

Ferrari is evaluating the introduction of further updates to its 499P LMH car, but will not deploy any new ‘Evo jokers’ before the start of the 2025 FIA World Endurance Championship season.

The Prancing Horse used its first joker with the rollout of a brake cooling duct redesign as well as an aerodynamic update ahead of July’s 6 Hours of Sao Paulo.

Management figures from the Italian manufacturers indicated to reporters gathered at its end-of-season Finali Mondiali event that further updates to the double 24 Hours of Le Mans-winning prototype are under evaluation, but are not set to take place prior to the start of next year’s WEC campaign in Qatar.

Ferrari’s Global Head of Endurance Antonello Coletta stated that the brand has “many ideas for the future,” but added that it needs to gain a greater level of understanding before committing to further updates.

“We need to know 100 percent before we change,” Coletta said.

“We have four tokens now, we need to use them wisely, test in a simulator and be careful with tweaks.

“I do not think we will intervene with new tweaks soon, but maybe during the season.”

For his part, Ferrari’s head of endurance race cars Ferdinando Cannizzo revealed that the Italian squad recently completed a multi-day test at the Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya as part of “continuous development” on the 499P.

Additionally, the test was also used to prepare for this weekend’s Bahrain season finale in which Ferrari still holds a narrow chance at both the drivers’ and manufacturers’ championship.

“Clearly we have continuous development ongoing, so time to time with bits that we are testing on the car,” Cannizzo said.

“And of course we did a lot of work on the setup side to prepare [for] Bahrain, to understand what we could have done better in Fuji or the other tracks.

“So it’s always a wide work that we arrange when we have the opportunity to test the car on track, try to carry on with the development and the other side to try to better understanding how we can exploit the current car.”

“I think we are looking at all the possible areas in the car, from suspensions, mechanics, engine, power unit if you like, aero, bodywork, so everything.

“But basically every action is made to reduce the gap or any gap that we see in our car or area that we would like to improve, that are clear that we can improve.

“So there are very specific interventions just to close or remove some of the weaknesses that we have found in our car.”

Cannizzo: Ferrari “Pretty Satisfied” With First Evo Joker Upgrade

Cannizzo spoke positively about the Evo joker upgrade that was introduced on the 499P in Brazil, noting that it achieved its “main target” of enhancing brake cooling after collecting three races’ worth of data.

“The main target was definitely achieved, and now we are pretty happy with the brake cooling,” he said.

“Now the cooling is well balanced and I think this is something that we will definitely enjoy in Bahrain because Bahrain will be very tough from that perspective.

“So this is achieved and now we are trying to understand better and better how to tune the setup because we were forced to change and rebalance the car a little bit around this brake duct modification we have made.

“So the aerodynamics of the car changed a little bit, not massively, but changed a little bit.

“So we are trying to understand how to better rearrange the car setup to suit most this upgrade, but generally we are pretty satisfied.”

Davey Euwema is Sportscar365's European Editor. Based in The Netherlands, Euwema covers the FIA World Endurance Championship, European Le Mans Series and Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS, among other series.

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