Ferrari ‘Not Favorites’ to Win Despite Early Imola Pace

Ferrari’s drivers insist the Italian manufacturer is not the favorite for victory in the FIA World Endurance Championship season opener at Imola this weekend, despite locking out the top-three places on the timesheets in the Prologue and opening practice.

Antonio Fuoco set the Prologue pace on Tuesday at the wheel of the factory No. 50 Ferrari 499P with a 1:31.177, while it was Robert Kubica in the satellite No. 83 AF Corse machine that topped first practice with a 1:31.739.

Despite the encouraging start to its home round of the WEC, the Ferrari drivers are not confident of replicating those results in Sunday’s six-hour race.

“On the single lap, it was really good, but not everyone did the quali simulation,” said Alessandro Pier Guidi of Ferrari’s Prologue performance.

“In terms of race pace, many other competitors are much closer or are on a similar level to us, or might even be quicker.

“I think we will probably be able to fight for the victory, but I wouldn’t say we are the favorites.”

Pier Guidi cited a pre-event test at Imola in April – something that other squads such as Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA were unable to complete amid disruption caused by the conflict in the Middle East – as enabling Ferrari to get up to speed so quickly in the Prologue.

Nicklas Nielsen echoed Pier Guidi’s sentiment about not being the Imola favorite and instead picked out Toyota and its upgraded TR010 Hybrid as being a key rival.

“We know Toyota is strong, but we don’t know how strong,” Nielsen explained. “We expect them to be fast. We see sometimes they are not so strong in qualifying but then they come back in the races.

“And the BMW seems pretty good as well, I have to say. It seems close, and maybe there will be other cars that we didn’t see so much of during the test that will be quick as well. For sure it will be tight in qualifying.”

Asked for his thoughts on the marque’s strong start to the weekend, Ferrari head of endurance race cars Ferdinando Cannizzo said the picture was blurred by the fact the three 499Ps unusually performed qualifying simulations in FP1.

“We did qualifying simulations in both the Prologue and free practice,” clarified Cannizzo. “Not all the other competitors did the same. That’s the reason why you see Ferraris P1, P2, P3.

“As long as you look at the race pace of the other cars, you will realize Ferrari is not the fastest overall, or at least not the favorite. I think all the cars are close together and a lot depends on which tire [compound] you select and the strategy.

“In general I would say that all the cars are very close.”

On why Ferrari opted to simulate qualifying in FP1, when conditions will be different to qualifying proper on Saturday, Cannizzo added: “We wanted to gather experience, for the drivers and also the tires.

“We wanted to understand a bit more about the tires in different conditions, which could be useful for qualifying, and maybe in the race if there is changeable weather.

“These new tires have a different operating window compared to last year, and we would like to have proper information.”

Comparisons between cars have been made more complicated by the WEC deciding not to publish the Balance of Performance being used at Imola.

Unlike the majority of the Hypercar class, Ferrari has elected not to introduce a new car or deploy evo Jokers for this season.

Instead, the reigning champion has made slight aero tweaks as a result of the 499P being re-homologated following a first visit to the Windshear wind tunnel facility.

James Calado said he could “definitely feel” the difference with the aero adjustments compared to last year’s specification, adding: “It’s not night and day difference, it’s within the range of what we had last year.

“For sure it’s been a challenge to try to find the balance that we had in terms of car setup. It’s hard to say if it’s better until we’ve done a few races and see where we stand.”

Jamie Klein contributed to this report