Prologue Felt Like “First Day at School” for Ferrari AF Corse

Last weekend’s FIA World Endurance Championship Prologue felt like the “first day at school” for Hypercar debutant Ferrari AF Corse, according to the manufacturer’s GT and sports cars race and testing manager.

The Italian LMH manufacturer completed its first official WEC track outing with its new hybrid-powered prototype, which has been testing privately since last summer.

Giuliano Salvi told reporters that the factory AF Corse squad was generally satisfied with its Prologue showing despite there being “a lot of details” to go through on the car.

He also addressed the accident for James Calado in the No. 51 Ferrari on Sunday morning, attributing the Englishman’s off at Turn 1 to the WEC’s new ban on tire warmers.

“It’s a first day at school for us,” said Salvi.

“We started [testing] on the 6th of July, so you can understand that for such a complicated car like an LMH with the front electrical engine… this amount of time has required a huge effort from all the guys.

“We are very proud of what we have done, but obviously there are a lot of details and gremlins that we still need to fix.

“We were really pleased with the first two days if we just remove the small accident that we had. It was the first running in the morning and the track was very cold. For the drivers, it’s something new.

“It’s better it’s happened now than in five or six days. It was not a huge one, on an out-lap with cold tires. Nothing serious, luckily for the driver and the car. We are doing all the checks because it’s very scarred.”

Ferrari chose to do a thorough investigation of the No. 51 car rather than repairing it to be ready for the final test session on Sunday session.

The crew stripped the car down to its chassis but did not introduce a replacement tub.

“It’s a consequence of the fact that, [on Saturday] on that car, we had an extremely smooth day,” Salvi explained.

“It was even too good to be true. We ran so much mileage, even too much. I usually have a statistic of what we need to do for the life of the parts. At a certain point, I had to say to the guys, come down a bit and let’s check the setup.

“We were not in a really extreme need of a full day because we would have gone completely out of phase with our race preparation. If a car becomes old before the first event, it’s not great.

“So there was not a big need or a big push to go [in the afternoon].”

The No. 50 Ferrari of Antonio Fuoco, Nicklas Nielsen and Miguel Molina did the final session as the team worked through different setups, with Salvi describing that car’s test as “really smooth”.

Ferrari Feels in “Ballpark” Against Competitors

The best Ferrari 499P lap time was a 1:49.300 set by Nielsen in the closing stages of the Prologue, which Salvi attributed to a low fuel run for the Danish driver.

That put Ferrari a shade over a second off the overall pace set by Toyota Gazoo Racing.

Salvi acknowledged that it’s difficult for Ferrari to assess where it truly sits in relation to its Hypercar rivals, but feels that the team is “in the ballpark”.

“We are Ferrari, so we have big ambition,” he said. “But we have a huge respect [for] all the other competitors. We eat humble pie every day.

“We have Toyota, Porsche… people that are running Daytona and for two years in Hypercar.

“It looks like we are in the ballpark. We are happy about our performance. Our final target is always to lead, but I think we need to do this step-by-step.

“The first step will be to see the checkered flag. If we see that at the first event, it would be something unbelievable with the compressed development program.

“And if we can have one car on the podium, it would really be a dream.”