Rovera Feels Ready for Ferrari Hypercar Promotion

Factory Ferrari driver Alessio Rovera believes he is ready to step up to Hypercar machinery after establishing himself as one of the top competitors in the GT3 ranks.

The Italian has finished third and then second in the FIA World Endurance Championship’s LMGT3 drivers’ standings in the past two seasons at the wheel of an AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 and currently sits seventh in this year’s table, although that becomes fifth if you group the No. 33 TF Sport Chevrolet Corvette Z06 GT3.R drivers — who all have slightly different scores — together.

Alongside his WEC performances, Rovera has also starred in the GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS, winning the 2024 Endurance Cup title and he nearly triumphed in this year’s CrowdStrike 24 Hours of Spa alongside Nicklas Nielsen and Tommaso Mosca despite suffering a puncture while dominating the early stages.

Rovera completed his first official outing at the wheel of a Ferrari 499P Hypercar at the end of last year in the Bahrain rookie test and is now eyeing a graduation to race one of the cars.

When asked by Sportscar365 if he feels ready to join the 499P’s driver roster, Rovera replied: “I think so. In the end, now Hypercar is the top of endurance racing but in terms of driving it’s not so different compared to a GT3 car or LMP2 — actually it’s quite in the middle in terms of driving style because it’s quite heavy compared to the LMP2 but it’s more powerful.

“It’s a bigger GT with more downforce and the driving style is almost the same.

“I don’t have to change so much, but it’s [chance to race a 499P] not depending just by me.”

When asked if there is anything more he can do to prove he is deserving of a Hypercar race seat, Rovera added that he is constantly trying to improve: “If you sit and stay always in the same position, you don’t stay there, you go back with the performance because you’re sitting comfortable and it’s not good.

“I try to improve every time I go on track and look at my data and data of the other drivers and try to analyze everything, which I think is the right approach to improve.”

Ferrari has previously expressed a desire to enter this year’s Asian Le Mans Series in the category’s new Hypercar class with the 499P, but Rovera is unsure whether this would provide him with the opportunity to get race experience in the top tier of prototype competition.

“I really don’t know because we don’t know how many cars we can have,” he said.

“And also there’s GT cars and, of course, I’m actually a GT driver so I would probably be in a GT car in Asia — we will see.”

In the meantime, Rovera’s focus is on ending Ferrari’s LMGT3 victory drought that stretches back more than a year.

Rovera did finish first on the road alongside Simon Mann and Francois Heriau at Spa, but the crew was penalized five seconds for an unsafe release from a pit stop that ultimately dropped the trio to fourth.

“I think in these three years we had so many opportunities to win races but in the end we just won not what we expected and what we could win,” admitted Rovera.

“We cut the line in P1 five times but in the end we won just two times because of the penalties after the race.

“I think the potential is always there, we just have to be a bit better in managing penalties and make life a bit easier for us.

“Unluckily, we lost a lot of points in Spa because of the penalty, otherwise we could be 13 points more in the front but I think we’re ready for a strong result — we have everything to be there.”