Ferrari Reveals Extent of 499P Aero Changes

Ferrari has revealed more details about the extent of the changes it has made to its 499P Hypercar as part of a revised aerodynamic package for the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship.

Unlike many of the manufacturers in the Hypercar class, Ferrari has not elected to make widespread alterations to its car for this year by deploying one of its Evo jokers.

However, there are still several tweaks to the 499P for its rehomologation over the winter after visiting the Windshear wind tunnel facility in North Carolina for the first time.

Sportscar365 understands the most obvious change will be the reduction in size of the main diveplanes on the front bumper, while other more subtle tweaks have been made towards the rear of the car.

Other manufacturers have made similar adjustments alongside the greater changes as part of their Evo upgrades, with Peugeot the only other Hypercar entrant not either using a joker or having previously visited the Windshear tunnel.

However, it is understood there have likely also been minor aero tweaks to Peugeot’s 9X8 Hypercar for this year as well.

Speaking to media at the launch of the 499P’s 2026 livery (pictured above on the 2025-spec car), Ferrari’s head of endurance race cars Ferdinando Cannizzo explained that the aerodynamic changes are a part of the rehomologation process and that it wanted to keep an ‘ace up our sleeve’ by not making more widespread alterations using a joker.

“Rehomologation involves three aspects mainly,” said Cannizzo. “The change of the wind tunnel, so from Switzerland to the United States, new data post-processing and new parameters in the tunnel, and a repositioning, a redefinition, of the performance window.

“This has meant for us the positioning of our car on a new working point. We only tweaked a few details.

“If we start from the front, and you will see this quite easily, we rechecked all the flicks on the bumpers [diveplanes, old style pictured below].

“We changed the way air flows on the upper body above the wheel by removing, following the request of the Federation, some gurneys and we replaced with true aerodynamic surfaces.

“On the front of the underfloor we tweaked the flow deviation mechanisms in order to adjust the balancing of the vehicle.

“At the back, we have redesigned the engine cover, removing a large gurney which we had on the trailing edge.

“We have a much bigger gurney on the rear-wing plates and we have redesigned the sidewall, behind the back wheels, in order to optimize aerodynamic flow.

“These are the intervention areas. They are minimal but they are effective and they allowed us, without touching the main surfaces of the vehicle, to reposition in this performance [window for the rehomologation].”

Ferrari’s global head of endurance Antonello Coletta described 2026 as “a really important season” and one with uncertainty surrounding where Ferrari will sit in the pecking order with the revised aerodynamic package combined with new Michelin tires.

“We didn’t want to change the project, we just had to reposition the car within the current regulations,” he added.

“It applies to everybody therefore we hope that this new mapping does not change our values because one thing is certain, the aerodynamic work which had been undertaken on 499P during the initial registration gave us enormous satisfaction, especially in very fast tracks and the witness of this is the three victories in Le Mans.

“Therefore we hope that we have the opportunity to improve things and to have that efficiency that we already had.”

In terms of the new Michelin tires being introduced, Ferrari has less experience of the new rubber than rivals that also compete in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship and therefore Coletta said it is vital the team quickly understands how best to manage them.

“We’ve seen in the last few years, one of the main differences has been exactly this, to be able to manage the tires well and to be able to manage them throughout various stints and to be able to pull out the maximum performance,” he added. “We will have to be good in understanding this quickly.”