Nicklas Nielsen insists Ferrari will “give it everything” as it chases a narrow window to leapfrog Porsche in the battle for the Hypercar world title in this weekend’s FIA World Endurance Championship finale in Bahrain.
Nielsen and co-drivers Miguel Molina and Antonio Fuoco still hold an outside chance of beating Porsche trio Laurens Vanthoor, Kevin Estre and Andre Lotterer to the drivers’ title, trailing them by 35 points with 39 still on offer.
This puts the No. 50 Ferrari crew in a situation where they need a race win to have any hope of a championship upset, and even then the No. 6 Porsche 963 would have to suffer a significant setback to make that scenario possible.
Ferrari faces a similarly uphill battle against Porsche and Toyota in the manufacturer’s championship battle in a year where the Prancing Horse took a second consecutive overall victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
While briefly reflecting on the double Le Mans victory, Nielsen was quick to shift the focus to the world championship battle, maintaining that Ferrari will ‘give it everything’ despite its unfavorable odds in the points table.
“To do it two years in a row is obviously something we wanted, but now if you ask me, we want to win the championship as well,” Nielsen said.
“You always set yourself a goal and when you achieve that, there’s always something new after that.
“We all know to do both in one year is always difficult and also the chances are quite small, but like I said, we go to Bahrain and we want to give it everything and want to give it a try for the championship.”
Nielsen believes that points lost at early-season races in Imola and Spa-Francorchamps have been costly for the No. 50 crew, describing those two rounds as “quite tough on us.”
“I think if we had the points from [Imola] and from Spa it would have been a different story,” Nielsen said.
“But we can’t change what happened, so we just have to focus on Bahrain and see what we can do.”
Ferrari recorded a best finish of third in Bahrain twelve months ago, a race that notably featured a contact-heavy inter-team battle that saw the two 499Ps run each other off the track.
While the Prancing Horse was unable to challenge Toyota last year, finishing over a minute and a half off the lead, Nielsen believes that the gains found during the past year will put the team in a better position for its return to the Gulf state.
“It’s not a secret that last year we suffered quite a lot on tire degradation and that’s where we’ve been improving,” said Nielsen.
“So we expect to be stronger in Bahrain, but then again the competition is more tight this year and the other teams are obviously also improving.
“It’s difficult to say where we will be, but I’m pretty confident that we will be okay.”
Ferrari’s prospects in Bahrain should be boosted by the Evo joker package introduced in July, which featured enhanced brake cooling.
Bahrain is famously tough on brakes due to the high ambient temperatures and a number of high-speed braking zones spread around the circuit.
“I think for most of the cars, Bahrain is always tough,” said Nielsen.
“Especially during the beginning of the race, when it’s really hot. So I think it’s more about managing the tires than actual upgrades.
“So that’s what we have to focus on there and then usually our car is always fast when the temperature goes down.
“So hopefully before the end of the race we’ll be strong.
“We improved, definitely, but there is still stuff to be improved but that’s to be expected.
“It’s not very often you do an upgrade and then everything just seems a lot better. I’m quite confident that the upgrade was good.
“I know Fuji wasn’t the result we really wanted or expected, but compared to where we were in Fuji last year, we were much more competitive.
“Also this year the field was much closer so the package didn’t really look as strong as it probably was.”