Ferrari Rules Out 499P Evo Joker For Start of 2026

Ferrari has ruled out making any major updates to its 499P for the start of the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship season, with the Prancing Horse stating that it “doesn’t see the need” to play one of its four remaining Evo jokers.

The Italian manufacturer has deployed just one of its five Evo jokers since the 499P’s 2023 debut, which came after last year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans in the form of changes to the braking ducts and other minor aerodynamic changes.

It has run in the same spec since, sweeping the first half of the current season with wins at Qatar, Spa, Imola and for a third time in a row at Le Mans.

Two of Ferrari’s Hypercar rivals, including BMW and Alpine, have revealed plans to use further Evo jokers next year, with Toyota also expected to do so, amid a ‘reset’ of the homologation parameters as all cars will be rehomologated in the Windshear wind tunnel used by the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship in North Carolina.

However, Ferrari’s performance and regulations manager Mauro Barbieri told reporters that the Maranello brand is content with its current situation.

“So far we are happy with the performance and we don’t see any need to introduce any jokers for the start of 2026,” said Barbieri.

“It’s an opportunity, as you are forced to go to another wind tunnel for a homologation session, you can bring some new stuff, and save yourself one trip to Windshear.

“But we spent our first joker about one year ago, we just did one full championship with it, and we are quite happy with where we are. There is no need for anything.”

Under current Hypercar rules, Evo jokers cannot be used in-season, meaning that if Ferrari goes into next year’s Qatar 1812km season opener without using one, the 499P would remain in the same spec for the entire 2026 season.

However, Barbieri revealed that a change of rules could be on the cards that allows for greater flexibility to deploy jokers in the second part of the season.

“I think that could still be under discussion, that after Le Mans you can spend a joker,” he said. “I think we have a meeting coming up where this should be clarified.

“At the moment I would say it’s not crystal clear on this specific point.”

Barbieri also disputed that Ferrari’s current level of competitiveness — with the brand firmly on course for both the drivers’ and manufacturers’ crowns this year — would mean that a request for an Evo joker would be turned down.

He cited the case of Porsche deploying multiple jokers for the 2025 season to upgrade its 963 even after it secured last year’s drivers’ title.

“Last year Porsche won the drivers’ championship and over the winter they spent two jokers, one on the aero, one on the mechanical parts,” he pointed out.

“You might have different reasons to spend jokers, like reliability, cooling, styling, that might not be completely related to performance, and it’s tricky to not allow [manufacturers] to make these changes.

“It’s not so easy to draw a line and say these cars are not allowed to spend jokers, while those cars are.”

Barbieri was also asked whether the possibility of fresh technical rules in the medium-term that would unify LMDh and LMH under a common top-class platform would have an impact on Ferrari’s longer-term plans to update the 499P.

“I would say we already have a kind of plan for 2026 and ‘27, with the target of being competitive until the end of homologation period [2029],” he responded.

“Longer term, there might be some update to the technical regulations, but the first discussions are starting now so it’s still early to say when and what should be changed.

“We are open and we are constructive in these discussions to create a good show in the coming years.”

Barbieri did however reiterate that Ferrari’s position is that it is “fundamental to design our own car, [both] chassis and power unit” whatever form the rules take in future.