Nielsen “Confident” Ferrari Updates Will Make Impact

Nicklas Nielsen says he is confident that the updates Ferrari has brought to its 499P Le Mans Hypercar for this weekend’s 6 Hours of Sao Paulo will help to address the Italian manufacturer’s weaknesses.

Ferrari revealed earlier this week plans to implement the first raft of upgrades since the 499P’s FIA World Endurance Championship debut last year, involving improvements to the brake cooling ducts and aerodynamic changes.

Speaking ahead of first practice at Interlagos, newly-minted 24 Hours of Le Mans winner Nielsen said some limited on-track running had been conducted with the updates, but expressed optimism that the changes will make a positive difference.

“It’s the first real test for us in terms of performance on track against the others,” he said. “It’s early to say but I am confident it will work well.

“Testing alone and then going with other cars is different. But I am not worried about the upgrade not being good. We have seen our cars perform well this year on all tracks so I am confident we will be good here.”

Asked how much mileage he had under his belt with the updates, Nielsen replied: “Not too much to be honest. We did some different programs with the two cars.

“It’s not night-and-day in terms of driving. It’s us achieving what we wanted to achieve with the upgrades. I am confident they will work out well.”

Antonio Giovinazzi said the majority of Ferrari’s preparation with the new updates was conducted virtually.

“Not much, to be honest,” said Giovinazzi when asked how much he had driven the upgraded 499P. “We worked a lot on the sim. But in the end, it’s only about the temperature for our brakes that we’ve struggled a little bit.

“We tried the car and everything was on target. But the main job was on the sim to try and see and also the test we did was to see that the package was working for the temperature.”

Nielsen went on to explain that Ferrari’s relatively poor performance last year at Fuji, where the AF Corse-run team suffered its worst performance of the season, was one of the driving forces behind the update being introduced.

“Hopefully with the upgrade we will improve at Fuji,” said the Danish driver. “We were not very happy with our performance there last year, to be honest.

“Our car is very good on high-speed corners, but we struggle a bit on the lower rotation parts. Sector three at Fuji is very narrow and that’s basically where we struggled.

“We will see, I’m pretty confident it will go in the right direction.”

Ferrari Drivers Turn Focus to Championship After Le Mans Success

Victory at Le Mans for the No. 50 car has significantly boosted Ferrari’s championship hopes, with Nielsen, Miguel Molina and Antonio Fuoco now only nine points behind the leading No. 6 Porsche Penske Motorsport crew.

Molina says that the focus for he and his co-drivers is now purely on chasing after the title after their Le Mans success.

“We knew from the beginning that Le Mans is a good benchmark for the season, where we start to think about the rest of the championship,” said Molina.

“For sure a good result [at Le Mans] helps to position yourself for the championship. Now we have a good chance to fight for the championship. We are fully focused on the championship from now.”

Giovinazzi and his teammates in the No. 51 car, James Calado and Alessandro Pier Guidi, are now 51 points away from the lead of the championship after finishing third at Le Mans.

But the ex-Formula 1 driver says he is not giving hope on closing the gap and is aiming to close the deficit this weekend in Brazil.

“I think we are still in the game,” said Giovinazzi. “We know how fast things can change. We need to be just there.

“To be honest, our car, we’ve been for three races the faster car but we didn’t get any wins or any result that we wanted.

“Ferrari, as a manufacturer, won Le Mans again and we showed we have a good car. But our car, we want to put it all together and try to win our first race of the season.”

John Dagys contributed to this report