Ferrari: No Qualms at No. 83 Car Beating Works Entries

Ferrari says it has no qualms about its factory cars being beaten to 24 Hours of Le Mans victory by its satellite No. 83 AF Corse entry at the end of a race in which both of the works 499Ps faded late on due to engine problems.

The Italian manufacturer’s global head of endurance Antonello Coletta described the victory scored by Robert Kubica, Yifei Ye and Phil Hanson as a “fantastic result” even as the chance of a Ferrari podium lockout was thwarted by reliability concerns.

Ferrari looked to be in an unassailable position with all three of its cars in the morning hours, but the drivers of both the No. 50 and No. 51 cars were instructed to protect their engines in the final stages of the race, denying them a chance at victory.

Those problems helped the No. 6 Porsche driven by Kevin Estre, Laurens Vanthoor and Matt Campbell emerge as the nearest rival to the winning No. 83 car, which is not eligible to score FIA World Endurance Championship manufacturers’ points.

Expressing his delight at seeing a third different Ferrari crew win Le Mans in as many years, Coletta said that the No. 83 car was to thank for ensuring the brand’s perfect record of wins in the Hypercar era at La Sarthe stayed in tact.

“This victory is very important, because it’s a demonstration that all Ferraris are exactly the same,” Coletta told the assembled media post-race. “This is a quality of our cars in LMH, in GT3 and all racing cars that Ferrari makes.

“Our history includes many victories from some Scuderia [private teams]. In the U.S., Scuderia NART was one of the most important Scuderia.

“AF Corse is the first partner of Ferrari, and helps us to manage the official car on one side of the box, and a privateer car on the other side.

“But in the end, we are one Ferrari. The most important thing is that a Ferrari won.

“If we had taken more manufacturers’ points with the red cars, we would have been super-happy. But without the yellow car, it would have been impossible to win because we had some problems with the red cars and Porsche was in second position.

“Without the yellow car, today, Porsche was winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans.”

In one memorable mid-race interview, Kubica dropped a heavy hint at being unhappy at having to follow instructions to protect the No. 51 Ferrari that led at the time.

But Coletta said that any team orders that were issued were done with the best interests of the brand in mind, considering the reliability fears it had, including a problem with downshifting that was afflicting the No. 83 machine.

“We managed the situation in a way that was best for Ferrari, and for the final result,” said Coletta. “It was clear when we had some problems from the first hour of the morning and until 3 o’clock or 3:30, we had to manage this situation.

“We asked all our drivers to make the best choice for us. It’s clear that when you ask the drivers, the answer is first narcissism, and then [they say] ‘ok’. But this is motorsport.

“In the end, all our drivers were ‘Casa Ferrari’, we all stayed together to celebrate another amazing victory, and for me, this is the best.”

Coletta acknowledged that the frenetic pace of the race, which broke the Hypercar distance record owing to only a single safety car period and a further handful of short-lived full-course yellows, served to expose fresh reliability weaknesses on the 499P.

“The rhythm of the race was very high, and because of this, probably our car, but not only our car because I saw other cars have problems, needs to improve the reliability,” he admitted. “Probably all the cars need to improve their quality.

“We had just one safety car, so it was a completely different Le Mans. Last year, we had a safety car for four-and-a-half hours in the night.

“With a safety car, you have chance to take some time [to look after] the engine parts and the mechanical parts generally. With full-course yellows that last one minute, or a minute-and-a-half, you have no chance. The mechanical parts were very stressed.”